Fly-class gunboat

The Fly-class river gunboats (or small China gunboats[Note 1]), collectively often referred to as the "Tigris gunboat flotilla", were a class of small but well-armed Royal Navy vessels designed specifically to patrol the Tigris river during the World War I Mesopotamian Campaign (the China name was to disguise their function).

Class overview
Name: Fly class
Builders: Yarrow Shipbuilders
Operators:
In service: 1915-1924
Completed: 16
Lost: 3
Retired: 13
General characteristics
Type: River gunboat[1]
Displacement: 98 long tons (100 t)
Length: 126 ft (38 m)
Beam: 20 ft (6.1 m)
Draught: 2 ft (0.61 m)
Propulsion: 1 shaft VTE, single yarrow type mixed firing boiler, 175 ihp (130 kW)
Speed: 9.5 knots (10.9 mph; 17.6 km/h)
Complement: 22
Armament:

Design

They were fitted with one triple expansion steam engine driving one propeller housed in a tunnel to facilitate a very shallow (2 foot/60 cm) draught. The boats were designed to be dismantled and re-assembled

Deployment

The vessels were built by Yarrow Shipbuilders at Scotstoun, Glasgow in 1915 and 1916 and shipped out to Abadan in sections where they were assembled. They served with the Royal Navy patrolling the Tigris River until being transferred to the Army during 1918. They were sold off beginning 1923.

The Ottomans captured Firefly in December 1915 after she grounded and a shell through her boiler disabled her; her crew was evacuated. The Ottomans took her into service as Suleiman Pak. HMS Tarantula recaptured her at the Battle of Nahr-al-Kalek on 26 February 1917.[2]

The vessels

These vessels had the prefix "HM Gunboat"

  • Blackfly
  • Butterfly
  • Caddisfly
  • Cranefly
  • Dragonfly
  • Firefly
  • Gadfly
  • Grayfly
  • Greenfly
  • Hoverfly
  • Mayfly
  • Sawfly
  • Sedgefly
  • Snakefly
  • Stonefly
  • Waterfly

See also

Notes
  1. the Insect-class gunboats were "large China gunboats".

Citations
  1. Gardiner, Robert; Gray, Randal, eds. (1985). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships: 1906–1921. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. p. 405. ISBN 0-87021-907-3. OCLC 12119866.
  2. Perrett (2000), pp.150–151, & p.155.

References
  • Atherton, D. (2003). "Question 25/01". Warship International. XL (2): 138–141. ISSN 0043-0374.
  • Atherton, D.; Caruana, J. (2002). "Question 25/01". Warship International. XXXIX (2): 133–135. ISSN 0043-0374.
  • Atherton, D. (2004). "Question 25/01: British Fly Class Gunboats". Warship International. XLI (2): 135–139. ISSN 0043-0374.
  • Nunn, Wilfred (2007) [1932]. Tigris gunboats: the forgotten war in Iraq 1914-1917. Chatham. ISBN 978-1-86176-308-2.
  • Perrett, Bryan (2000) "General Townshend holds a regatta: The Mesopotamian Campaign, 1914–17", Gunboats: Small ships at war. (Cassell).
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