Fairmile C motor gun boat

The Fairmile C motor gun boat was a type of motor gunboat designed by Norman Hart of Fairmile Marine for the Royal Navy. An intermediate design, twenty-four boats were built in 1941 receiving the designations MGB 312–335.

The Fairmile C motor gunboat MGB 314
Class overview
Name: Fairmile C motor gunboat
Preceded by: Fairmile B motor launch
Succeeded by: Fairmile D motor torpedo boat
Completed: 24
General characteristics
Displacement: 72 tons
Length: 110 ft (34 m)
Beam: 17 ft 5 in (5.31 m)
Draught: 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Propulsion: Three 850 hp (630 kW) supercharged Hall-Scott petrol engines
Speed: 26.5 knots (49.1 km/h; 30.5 mph)
Range:

500 nmi (930 km; 580 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)

(Bunkerage: 1,800 gal + extra 2,600 gal)
Complement: 2 officers + 14 crew
Armament:

Design

The Fairmile type C was a reuse of the hull form of the type A but with the lessons learned from the type A incorporated in terms of steering and deck layout.

Service

Five boats of the twenty-four built were lost to enemy action.

The class was mainly involved in close escort work with east coast convoys, and some boats were engaged in clandestine operations. MGB 314 took part in Operation Chariot, the daring raid on the St Nazaire docks (the only facility on the axis-held Atlantic coast suitable to refit Bismarck-class battleships).

Only two survive to this day, one at Hayling Island and the other in Bembridge Harbour, Isle of Wight, although now sunk and due to be broken up 2018. A third survived in Shoreham until 2002.

  • MGB 061
  • MGB 328 (nearest camera) and MGB 330 off the coast near Dover
  • MGB 316 at speed
  • MGB 316 at rest
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See also

References
  • Allied Coastal Forces of World War Two, Volume I : Fairmile designs and US Submarine Chasers – by John Lambert and Al Ross – 1990, ISBN 978-0-85177-519-7
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