Kelly, Martin/Griffiths, David Coastal Motor Boats

Thornycroft and the Origins of Fast Attack Craft

According to conventional naval history, the coastal motorboat was the brainchild of three enterprising young Royal Navy officers in the early stages of the First World War. This book reveals that the truth was far more complex and historically significant. Research into previously untapped family archives shows that shipbuilder John I. Thornycroft played a crucial role, building on his pre-war experience in the new sport of fast motorboat racing, without which the technologically advanced CMB could never have been built. The book further analyses the original task for which these boats were specifically designed an attack on the German High Seas Fleet in their protected anchorages and why this operation never took place. Later activities are also covered, but at the end of the war, many considered the CMB a disappointment, if not a complete failure. This changed dramatically in 1919 with the Royal Navy's intervention against the Bolsheviks, when CMBs carried out a spectacular raid on the Kronstadt naval base after CMB.4 single-handedly sank the Russian cruiser Oleg. Although these operations have been reported on several times, this book provides access for the first time to contemporary Soviet reports that shed much new light on these events and their significance. After the war, the Royal Navy lost interest in CMBs unlike the Soviets, who built a large number of copies but the Thornycroft design continued to be built and used by navies in countries as far afield as Finland and China. Some of these saw action in the Second World War, and these largely unknown operations are also covered. The story ends with a description of the current project at the Portsmouth naval base, which aims to build an exact replica of the CMB.4. The information gained from this experimental archaeology provides a fitting conclusion to a book that is full of new information and novel insights.