Fly-class gunboat
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2017}}
{{more footnotes needed|date=February 2013}}
| {{Infobox ship begin|sclass=2}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image=Tigris gunboat (cropped).jpg |Ship caption= }} {{Infobox ship class overview |Name=Fly class |Builders=Yarrow Shipbuilders |Operators=*{{navy|United Kingdom|naval}} (1915–1918)
|Class before= |Class after= |Subclasses= |Cost= |Built range= |In service range=1915–1924 |In commission range= |Total ships building= |Total ships planned= |Total ships completed=16 |Total ships cancelled= |Total ships active= |Total ships laid up= |Total ships lost=3 |Total ships retired=13 |Total ships preserved= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Header caption= |Ship type=River gunboat{{sfn|Gardiner|Gray|1985|p=405}} |Ship displacement={{cvt|98|LT|t|0}} |Ship length={{cvt|126|ft|m}} |Ship beam={{cvt|20|ft|m}} |Ship draught={{cvt|2|ft|m}} |Ship propulsion= 1 shaft VTE, single yarrow type mixed firing boiler, {{cvt|175|ihp}} |Ship speed={{cvt|9.5|kn|mph+km/h}} |Ship range= |Ship endurance= |Ship boats= |Ship complement=22 |Ship capacity= |Ship sensors= |Ship EW= |Ship armament=*1 × 4-inch (102-mm) gun
|Ship armour= |Ship aircraft= |Ship aircraft facilities= |Ship notes= }} |
The Fly-class river gunboats (or small China gunboats), collectively often referred to as the "Tigris gunboat flotilla", were a class of small well-armed Royal Navy vessels designed to patrol the Tigris river during the Mesopotamian Campaign during the First World War (the China name was to disguise their function).{{efn|The {{sclass2|Insect|gunboat}}s were "large China gunboats".}}
Design
They were fitted with one triple expansion steam engine driving one propeller housed in a tunnel to facilitate a very shallow [{{cvt|2|ft|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 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 in a small skirmish known as the Battle of Nahr-al-Kalek on 26 February 1917, in the immediate aftermath of the Second Battle of Kut.{{sfn|Perrett|2000|pp=150–151, 155}}
Vessels
Vessels with the prefix "HM Gunboat"
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- Blackfly
- Butterfly
- Caddisfly
- Cranefly
- Dragonfly
- Firefly
- Gadfly
- Grayfly
- Greenfly
- Hoverfly
- Mayfly
- Sawfly
- Sedgefly
- Snakefly
- Stonefly
- Waterfly
{{div col end}}
See also
Notes
{{notelist}}
Citations
{{reflist|20em}}
References
- {{cite journal |last1=Atherton |first1=D. |title=Question 25/01 |journal=Warship International |year=2003 |volume=XL |issue=2 |pages=138–141 |issn=0043-0374}}
- {{cite journal |last1=Atherton |first1=D.|last2=Caruana |first2=J. |title=Question 25/01 |journal=Warship International |year=2002 |volume=XXXIX |issue=2 |pages=133–135 |issn=0043-0374}}
- {{cite journal |last1=Atherton |first1=D. |title=Question 25/01: British Fly Class Gunboats |journal=Warship International |year=2004 |volume=XLI |issue=2 |pages=135–139 |issn=0043-0374}}
- {{cite book |editor1-last=Gardiner |editor1-first=Robert |editor2-last=Gray |editor2-first=Randal |title=Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921 |year=1985 |location=Annapolis |publisher=Naval Institute Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V2r_TBjR2TYC |via=Archive Foundation |isbn=0-87021-907-3}}
- {{cite book |first1=Wilfred |last1=Nunn |title=Tigris Gunboats: The Forgotten War in Iraq 1914–1917 |year=2007 |orig-year=1932 |publisher=Chatham |isbn=978-1-86176-308-2}}
- {{cite book |last=Perrett |first=Bryan |title=Gunboats: Small Ships at War |year=2000 |publisher=Cassell |location=London |edition=1st |isbn=978-0-304-35302-6}}
External links
{{Commons category|Fly class gunboat}}
- [http://www.cgsc.edu/CARL/nafziger/916BBMA.pdf British Forces in Mesopotamia not including Kut Al Amara 3 January 1916] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110215225803/http://www.cgsc.edu/CARL/nafziger/916BBMA.pdf |date=15 February 2011 }}
- [http://www.gwpda.org/naval/tigrisfl.htm "The Tigris Flotilla", at Great War Primary Document Archive]
{{WWI British ships}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fly class gunboat}}