MOTOR TORPEDO BOATS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22371, 7 April 1938, Page 16

MOTOR TORPEDO BOATS

NINE MORE ORDERED . BY ADMIRALTY DIFFICULT TARGET FROM ' SEA OR AIR Following the - modern naval tendency to use smaller torpedo-carrying craft ,than the modern destroyer, the Admiralty has recently placed a contract for the. supply .of nine more motor torpedo boats by the British Power Boat Company, of Hythe, Southampton- . The boats will be designed by Mr Hubert Scott-Pame. Although only 60 feet in length, the boats combine effective hitting P°wer with excellent seaworthiness. They carry two 18-inch torpedoes, which are discharged by a new system, and also have armament powerful enough to withstand machine-gun attacks from the air. Their small size makes them an' almost impossible target for gunnery, either from the sea or the air. Thfeir speed is stated to be 40 knots. The Admiralty commissioned the company to build six boats at the end of 1935,. an£ these form the First Motor Torpedo-Boat Flotilla, which is part of the Mediterranean Fleet. The voyage to Malta was one of the longest undertaken by a' formation of such small craft under their own power, and it was apparent that the boats have a long cruising range and can withstand heavy seas. , Except in small size and high speed, they have little in common with the coastal motor boat of the war years and the immediate post-war period. According to 'Navy estimates, the cost is about one-thirteenth that of a modern destroyer, and the standard of comfort for officers and crew is comparable with that of a first-class yacht.