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British Torpedo Boat

Whilst itself a modern design, bristling

the most up-to-date equipment,

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typical Critish Ciaiiiii naotor ooaii, ts ouin ov Thorneycroft of Chiswick.

Ger..ry Eagle is just the latest (and

boldest) in a long line of high speed
offshore craft produced by the Vosper-

Thornycroft concern.
Although the hyphenated (-) combo
came into being in 1966, both Herbert
Vosper and John Thornycroft were

running separate boatbuilding concerns

ll0 years ago, the former in Portsmouth,
the latter first in Chiswick and later
Woolston (Southampton)
At first it was Thornycrofts who were
concerned with speed across the water.
From over 200 steam-propelled torpedo

boats, then the first hydroplanes (Miranda

IV), by World War One, Thornycrofts
had progressed to a lethal flotilla of some
123, 40ft torpedo-carrying CMB's
(Coastal Motor Boats) each with a speed
range of up to 40 knots.
Vosper at this stage were concerned
with building tugs and harbour launches,
and with converting Isle of Wight ferries
for wartime use.

JULY

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Miss England 3 on Loch Lomond in

19?12.

During the 1920s, whilst Saunders-Roe

Ltd, the British Powerboat Company and

See of Fareham remained the major highspeed racing powerboat builders,

Thornycroft's did get a look in with their

construction of the Rolls-Royce aero-

engined Miss England III which in 1932

lifted the World Water Speed Record to
I

l9.8lmph.

Meantime Vosper had acquired a new

managing director with a flair for fast
boats called Commander Peter du Cane.
During the 1930s, using marinised engines

by Ford of Dagenham, du Cane gave

Vosper a fine reputation for naval
motorboat-building. Top of the range was
the 40ft royal barge built for the royal
yacht (then the Victoria and Albert, later
the Britannia) and fitted with three 65hp
V8 engines.
Keeping in their hand at high speed, in
1939 Sir Malcolm Campbell's second
Bluebird, a Rolls-Royce aero-engined
Ventnor three-point hydroplane left the
Portsmouth yard for Coniston where it
lifted the World Speed Record to
15

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fruition soon after with the 'Brave' Class:

altogether some sixteen, triple Proteusengined, 95ft FBPs were sold to the navies
of Germany, Denmark, Brunei, Malaysia

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and Libya.
Built on the same lines. but as an
express luxury motor yacht for millionaire
Stavros Niarchos was Mercury (l02ft),
also powered by three Bristol Siddeley
Proteus marine engines, totally over
10,000hp; on trials she achieved a top
speed

of

54 knots at sea.

The Cowes-Torquay offshore

powerboat contest also inspired
Commander du Cane to design for the
sport. In 1962 Tramontana I won the race
at 37mph; Tramontana II would have
finished third but for an error of
navigation off the Isle of Wight. In 1966,
the year Vosper merged with John I
Thornycroft Ltd of Woolston, a third
craft, Flying Fish, a 38-footer of welded

*.- H-

l4l.7mph.
During World War II, the Royal Navy's
coastal forces using large numbers of

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Vosper-designed MTB Type 102 (70-73fr

in overall length) wreaked havoc among

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German E boats and convoys. Although

some of these were powered by twin

Thornycroft l2-cylinder engines, ironically

Thornycroft themselves built very few
high-speed MTBs.

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Post-War, with Commander du Cane at

the helm, Vosper continued their quest for
speed at sea. There were pioneer
experiments with gas turbines as
propulsion units for MTB's (or Fast
Patrol Boats as they were now called)
then in 1952 came construction of
Crusader, a revolutionary world water
speed challenger, designed by du Cane

u,r,

;:'.

l. Bluebird 2

2. MTB Type l(P

3. Stavros Niarchos's Mercury
4. John Cobb's Crusader
5. Two of the gas-turbined-engined

'Brave'Class.

and colleagues for the wealthy motorracing ace John Cobb. Powered by a de
Havilland Ghost turbojet engine, this

futuristic alloy-and-ply projectile had

reached 240mph on Loch Ness when it
totally disintengrated, killing Cobb.
The gas-turbine programme came to

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aluminium construction, was leading the

field in the same event when she
inexplicably sank off Portland Bill.
During the past 20 years, VosperThornycroft Ltd have provided the navies
of Nigeria, Iran and Brazil with defence
corvettes and frigates.
With the Gentry Eagle, although the
company may have re-entered a sporting
field traceable back to the turn of the
century, one feels certain that the lessons
learned 'on the pond' for future FPB's
rvill prove invaluable.

6.
7.

8.
9.

Tramantana
Tramantana 2
Flying Fish
Gentry Eagle

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