HM Armed Smack Inverlyon
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom
|
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| Name: | Inverlyon |
| In service: | 2 August 1915 |
| Homeport: | Lowestoft |
| Fate: | Sunk 1 February 1917 |
| Service record | |
| Commanders: | Gunner Ernest Martin Jehan |
| Victories: | German submarine UB-4 |
| Awards: | Admiralty submarine bounty (cash award to crew) |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Smack |
| Tons burthen: | 59 |
| Propulsion: | None |
| Sail plan: | Two masts, fore-and-aft rigged |
| Complement: | 7 |
| Armament: | 1 × 3-pounder (47 mm) or 6-pounder (57 mm) gun |
| Action of 15 August 1915 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of World War I Atlantic U-boat Campaign |
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Kaiserliche Marine
|
 Royal Navy
|
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Karl Gross | Ernest Martin Jehan | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| UB-4, 14 crewmembers | Inverlyon, unknown number of crew | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 14 KIA, UB-4 sunk | none | ||||||
His Majesty's or HM Armed Smack Inverlyon was a fishing smack that was converted to a Q-ship during the First World War. Q-ships served as decoys to lure German submarines near enough so that concealed weapons could be brought to bear and sink the submarines. On 15 August 1915, Inverlyon succeeded in luring German submarine UB-4 within range and sinking her with nine shots from her gun. The Royal Navy Gunner in command of the vessel, Ernest Martin Jehan, received the Distinguished Service Cross and members of Inverlyon's crew shared the bounty offered for German submarines. After Inverlyon's Q-ship career ended, she returned to fishing, but was sunk by U-55 on 1 February 1917.
Inverlyon was a fishing smack of 59 tons burthen that was a part of the fishing fleet at Lowestoft on the Suffolk coast. The wooden boat had a flush deck, two masts, and no engine.Inverlyon's sails were fore-and-aft rigged and may have been red ochre in colour, the traditional sail colour for British smacks.
In February 1915, Germany began its first submarine offensive of the First World War. During this campaign, enemy vessels in the German-defined war zone (German: Kriegsgebiet), which encompassed all waters around the United Kingdom, were to be sunk, and the British fishing fleet was not exempt. In mid-June, for example, the German submarine UB-2 had sunk six smacks off Lowestoft in a two-day period.
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