For the past 12 months, Mrs C and I have been walking the dog for an elderly neighbour who has been unwell, this morning we decided to walk him along the river where we came across this MTB gently bobbing against the quay at Eel Pie Island.
To be precise it's the Vosper Motor Torpedo Boat 102, an experimental craft launched in 1937 and just over a week ago it participated in the Jubilee River Pageant.
When I was a schoolboy I was an avid reader of the Victor comic and one of my favourite series was called "Under Two Flags" (not to be confused with the Foreign Legion novel by Ouida) which was about a Royal Navy squadron consisting of a MTB and a captured German E Boat which constantly surprised and outwitted old Jerry, I've always had a bit of a thing for MTB's since then.
It's always fun to discover something unexpectedly!
What really struck me was how small the torpedo tubes looked, perhaps because it was an experimental craft?
That's a lovely old bird! there used to be a dark-hulled wreck in the mud-bank somewhere round Portmoth/Southhampton (Hamble?) which I think was the remains of a rescue launch (similar hull), but it wasn't there last time I was down that way, don't know if it's been restored/dry-docked, or washed-away!
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great boot what a insperation thanx for the pic
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