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Torpedo
Boat
a modern
design, bristling
i
typical
Critish
Ciaiiiii
naotor ooaii,
ts ouin
ov
Thorneycroft
of
Chiswick.
the
most up-to-date equipment,
Eagle
is
just
the latest
(and
in
a
long line of
high speed
craft
produced
by
the
Vosper-
concern.
the hyphenated
(-)
combo
into being
in
1966, both
Herbert
and John
Thornycroft
were
separate boatbuilding
concerns
years
ago,
the former
in
Portsmouth,
latter
first in Chiswick and
later
(Southampton)
first
it
was Thornycrofts
who were
with speed across the
water.
over
200
steam-propelled
torpedo
the
first hydroplanes
(Miranda
by
World War
One,
Thornycrofts
progressed
to a lethal
flotilla
of
some
40ft
torpedo-carrying CMB's
Motor Boats) each
with
a speed
of
up to
40 knots.
at this stage
were concerned
tugs
and
harbour
launches,
with converting
Isle
of
Wight
ferries
wartime use.
lW
Miss England 3 on Loch
Lomond in 19?12.
During the
1920s,
whilst
Saunders-Roe
Ltd,
the
British Powerboat
Company and
See
of Fareham
remained the
major
high-
speed
racing
powerboat
builders,
Thornycroft's did
get
a
look
in with
their
construction of
the Rolls-Royce
aero-
engined Miss England
III
which
in
1932
lifted the
World Water
Speed
Record to
I l9.8lmph.
Meantime
Vosper had acquired a
new
managing director
with
a
flair
for fast
boats
called Commander
Peter du
Cane.
During the
1930s, using marinised
engines
by Ford
of
Dagenham,
du
Cane
gave
Vosper a fine
reputation
for
naval
motorboat-building.
Top of
the
range
was
the
40ft royal
barge
built
for the
royal
yacht
(then
the
Victoria and Albert,
later
the
Britannia)
and
fitted
with three 65hp
V8
engines.
Keeping
in
their
hand
at high
speed,
in
1939 Sir
Malcolm
Campbell's
second
Bluebird,
a
Rolls-Royce
aero-engined
Ventnor three-point
hydroplane
left the
Portsmouth
yard
for Coniston
where
it
lifted the
World Speed
Record
to
15
8/9/2019 1988 Vosper Thornycrofy Boats
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:
ti
fruition
soon
after
with
the
'Brave'
Class:
altogether some sixteen, triple Proteus-
engined,
95ft
FBPs were
sold
to
the
navies
of
Germany, Denmark, Brunei, Malaysia
and
Libya.
Built on the same lines. but as an
express
luxury motor
yacht
for
millionaire
Stavros
Niarchos
was
Mercury
(l02ft),
also
powered
by three Bristol Siddeley
Proteus marine
engines, totally over
10,000hp; on trials
she
achieved a top
speed
of
54
knots at
sea.
The Cowes-Torquay offshore
powerboat
contest also inspired
Commander du Cane to design
for
the
sport.
In 1962
Tramontana
I
won
the
race
at 37mph; Tramontana II
would
have
finished
third but for
an error of
navigation
off
the
Isle
of
Wight.
In
1966,
the
year
Vosper
merged
with
John I
Thornycroft
Ltd
of
Woolston, a
third
craft, Flying Fish, a
38-footer of
welded
u,r,
luN
*t\
sx:i
.t'
;:'.
:.::
,I
H-
l4l.7mph.
During
World War
II,
the
Royal Navy's
coastal
forces
using
large numbers of
Vosper-designed MTB Type
102
(70-73fr
in
overall
length) wreaked havoc
among
German
E
boats
and convoys.
Although
some of these
were
powered
by twin
Thornycroft
l2-cylinder engines,
ironically
Thornycroft themselves built
very few
high-speed
MTBs.
Post-War,
with
Commander
du Cane at
the
helm,
Vosper
continued
their
quest
for
speed at sea.
There
were
pioneer
experiments
with
gas
turbines as
propulsion
units for MTB's
(or
Fast
Patrol Boats as they
were
now
called)
then
in
1952
came
construction
of
Crusader,
a revolutionary
world
water
speed challenger, designed
by
du Cane
l.
Bluebird
2
2.
MTB
Type
l(P
3.
Stavros Niarchos's
Mercury
4.
John Cobb's
Crusader
5. Two
of
the
gas-turbined-engined
'Brave'Class.
and
colleagues
for
the wealthy
motor-
racing ace
John
Cobb. Powered by a de
Havilland
Ghost turbojet engine, this
futuristic
alloy-and-ply
projectile
had
reached 240mph on Loch
Ness when it
totally disintengrated, killing Cobb.
The
gas-turbine programme
came to
t6
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8/9/2019 1988 Vosper Thornycrofy Boats
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;,
_:,
,
-
construction,
was
leading the
in
the same
event
when she
off
Portland
Bill.
During
the
past
20
years,
Vosper-
Ltd have
provided
the
navies
Nigeria, Iran and
Brazil with defence
and
frigates.
With
the Gentry
Eagle, although
the
may have re-entered
a sporting
traceable back to
the turn
of
the
one
feels
certain that
the
lessons
'on the
pond'
for
future
FPB's
prove
invaluable.
Tramantana
Tramantana
2
Flying Fish
Gentry
Eagle
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