Motor Launch - Citizendia

For other types of "Launch" see Launch (boat)

A Motor Launch (ML) is a small military vessel in British navy service. A launch in contemporary usage refers to a large Motorboat. The name originally referred to the largest boat carried by a warship They were designed for harbour defense and submarine chasing or for armed high speed Air Sea Rescue. A submarine chaser is a small and fast naval vessel specially intended for Anti-submarine warfare. For the TV series of this title see Search and Rescue (TV series.

The first Motor Launches entered service in the First World War. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All These were 550 80-foot long vessels built by the US Elco company for the Admiralty receiving the designations ML-1 to ML-550 They served between 1916 and the end of the war with the Royal Navy defending the coast from German submarines. The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of the British armed services (and is therefore known as the Senior Service)

Type	Length	Weight	Speed	Built	Total	Lost	Designed for
Fairmile A motor launch	110 ft	57 tons	25 kts		12
Fairmile B Motor Launch	112 ft	85 tons	20 kts	1940-45	1,284		Submarine chasing. Design While the Type A had been designed entirely by Fairmile the Type B design had come from Bill Holt of the Admiralty based on the lines of a destroyer hull and the Later adapted for Air Sea Rescue
Harbour Defence Motor Launch	72 ft	54 tons	12 kts		486	47	Defending harbours
RAF Type 2 Whaleback	63 ft	21. Design and construction HDMLs had a displacement hull of long with a beam of and a loaded draught of. Known as the "Whaleback" from the distinctive curve to its deck the Type 2 HSL (High Speed Launch was used to rescue Allied aircrew 5 tons	36 kts	1940-42	70		Rescuing downed aircrew, particularly in the English Channel

Post war many motor launches were taken on as pleasure boats and a number of them are on the National Register of Historic Vessels. The National Historic Ships Committee ( NHSC) is the co-ordinating body tasked with promoting the preservation of significant ships and vessels which reflect the

References

External links

UK National Register of Historic Vessels
Naval Museum of Manitoba
Juno Beach website
A Short History of HMS St Christopher. Royal Navy Coastal Forces training base, mainly for MLs
Stoker Harold Siddall Royal Navy, his service in ML.1030 and capture in Crete 1941

Motor Gun Boat was a Royal Navy term for a small military vessel of the Second World War. Motor Torpedo Boat (MTB was the name given to fast Torpedo boats by the Royal Navy, the Royal Norwegian Navy, the Royal Canadian Navy and Coastal Forces was a division of the Royal Navy established during World War II under the command of Rear Admiral Coastal Forces Boat Classes See also Schnellboot, known to the Allies as E-Boats Motor Launch for the British Equivalents

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