HM Motor Gun Boat 501
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| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | MGB 501 |
| Builder | Camper & Nicholson (Gosport) |
| Completed | 1942 |
| Fate | Sank after an internal explosion, off Lands End, on 27 July 1942 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Motor gunboat |
| Displacement | 95 long tons (97 t) deep load |
| Length | 117 ft (36 m) |
| Beam | 19 ft 6 in (5.94 m) |
| Draught | 4 ft 6 in (1.37 m) fully laden |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | |
| Range | 2,000 nautical miles (3,700 km) at 11 kn (20 km/h) |
| Complement | 21 |
| Armament |
|
| Notes | Cocker, Maurice (2006). Coastal Forces Vessels of the Royal Navy from 1865. Stroud: Tempus Publ. p. 121. ISBN 9780752438627. |
HM Motor Gun Boat 501 was a motor gunboat operated by Royal Navy Coastal Forces during the Second World War. The design, prepared by Bill Holt of the DNC's Boat Section, was unusual for a British light coastal forces' boat at the time in that it was of composite construction, whereas most MTBs and Motor Launches were entirely wooden-hulled. MGB 501's frames and various internal members were steel, with layers of diagonal wooden planking forming the exterior skin of the hull and wood for the remaining decks & bulkheads.
She was initially designed as a combined anti-submarine boat and motor torpedo boat, but was completed as a Motor Gun Boat.[1] Based on the lessons of combat experience with the early MA/SBs following their conversion to MGBs, MGB 501's initial designed gun armament, which would have included a 2-pdr Rolls gun, was replaced with a suite that would have provided greater reliability and volume of fire in battle (a Vickers pom-pom and an Oerlikon cannon).[2] Retaining her 21-inch torpedo tubes, she therefore completed for service as a combined motor gun & torpedo boat (much like the 'E' boats or schnellboote) whilst being designated purely as an MGB.
