Steam Gun Boat
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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|
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Steam Gun Boat (SGB) |
| In service: | Nov 1941 |
| Completed: | 7 |
| Active: | none |
| Lost: | 1 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 175 tons (standard), 255 tons (deep load) |
| Length: | 44.4 m (146 ft) |
| Beam: | 7.1 m (20 ft) |
| Draught: | 1.68 m (5.5ft) |
| Propulsion: | twin Metrovick geared steam turbines, 1 boiler delivering 5965 kW (8,000 shp) to two shafts |
| Speed: | 35 kts |
| Complement: | 27 |
| Armament: | (final arrangement) one 76.2-mm (3-in) gun, two single 6-pdr guns, and two twin 20-mm cannon |
The Steam Gun Boat (SGB) was a class of steam gun boats built during 1941-42 for the Coastal Forces of the Royal Navy.
They were developed in parallel with the Fairmile D motor torpedo boats ("Dog boats"), specifically as a response to the need to hunt down German E-boats and also as a response to the scarcity of suitable diesel engines. While sixty were planned only seven were completed.
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[edit] Design
They were 144 feet long and weighed 165 tons. Steam had the advantage of quietness but demanded a large hull. Large wooden hulls were not feasible for mass production so steel was used. This meant hulls and machinery were beyond the scope of the small yards engaged in the rapid expansion of the coastal forces, and the SGB thus competed for berths in yards hard put to produce urgently required convoy escorts. Their builders were Yarrow, Hawthorn Leslie, and Denny entering service by the middle of 1942.
Fuel consumption was heavy with the added disadvantage that, where a petrol boat could start from cold and get away immediately, the SGB had to remain in steam. Over time the addition of 18 mm (0.7 in) protective plate and extra armament and crew increased displacement and service speed was reduced to 30 kts.
Veritable battleships of the coastal forces, the Steam Gun Boats were heavily-armed and could maintain high speed in a seaway. In action E-boat commanders respected the SGBs almost as much as destroyers.
[edit] Service
The boats initially received the designation SGB 3 to 9 (numbers 1 and 2 were cancelled). In 1943 their flotilla commander, and later noted conservationist, Peter Scott renamed them after wildlife in the form "SGB Grey...." [1] SGB 7 was lost in 1942 before the renaming.
[edit] Boats
| Ship | Builder | Commissioned | Fate |
|---|---|---|---|
| SGB 3/SGB HMS Grey Seal | Yarrow | 21 February 1942 | |
| *SGB 4/SGB HMS Grey Fox | Yarrow | 15 March 1942 | |
| *SGB 5/SGB HMS Grey Owl | Hawthorn Leslie | 1 April 1942 | |
| *SGB 6/SGB HMS Grey Shark | Hawthorn Leslie | 30 April 1942 | |
| *SGB 7 | Denny | 11 March 1942 | |
| *SGB 8/SGB HMS Grey Wolf | Denny | 17 April 1942 | |
| *SGB 9/ SGB HMS Grey Goose | J. Samuel White | 4 July 1942 |
These boats formed the 1st SGB Flotilla which was based at HMS Aggressive Newhaven, Sussex on the south coast of England.
SGB 5 was damaged in the Dieppe raid after meeting a German convoy of R boats
In 1944 they were converted to "fast minesweepers" and all except SGB 9/Grey Goose sold off in the years after the war. SGB 9 remained in service then as a trials vessel until sold off in the late 1950s.
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ BBC WW2 Peoples War accessed 11th December 2007
- The Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War II by Chris Bishop, 2002 ISBN 978-1586637620
- Coastal Forces SGBs at unithistories.com accessed 11th December 2007
- George L Moore, The Steam Gunboats - in Warship 1999-2000, Conways Maritime Press, ISBN 0 85177 7244
