MTB 102

MTB 102

MTB 102 taking part in the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant for Queen Elizabeth II's diamond jubilee
History
United Kingdom
Laid down:	1936
Launched:	1937
Fate:	Heritage vessel
General characteristics
Type:	Motor Torpedo Boat
Length:	68 ft (21 m)
Beam:	14 ft 9 in (4.50 m)
Draught:	3 ft 9 in (1.14 m)
Propulsion:	3 Isotta-Fraschini 57-litre petrol engines: 3,300 hp (2.46 MW)
Speed:	48 knots (89 km/h) unloaded, 43 knots (80 km/h) loaded and armed
Complement:	2 officers, 10 men
Armament:	2 × 21 inch (530 mm) torpedo tubes

MTB 102 is one of few surviving motor torpedo boats that served with the Coastal Forces of the Royal Navy in the Second World War. She was built as the Vosper Private Venture Boat as a prototype, but was purchased and taken into service by the Admiralty.

She was the smallest vessel to ever serve as a flagship for the Royal Navy.

Designed by Commander Peter Du Cane CBE, the Managing Director of Vosper Ltd, in 1936. She was completed and launched in 1937, she was bought by the Admiralty and taken into service with the Royal Navy as MTB 102, the 100 prefix denoting a prototype vessel.

She had an all-wood hull, described as "double diagonal Honduras mahogany on Canadian rock elm".

Besides the torpedo tubes she was built with, depth charges, machine guns and the Swiss Oerlikon 20 mm anti-aircraft cannon were all tested on her.

MTB 102 was the fastest wartime British naval vessel in service at 48 knots.

From 1939 to 1940 she was stationed in the English Channel. During Operation Dynamo (the evacuation from Dunkirk, May–June 1940) she crossed the channel eight times and acted as flagship for Rear Admiral Wake-Walker when his flagship, destroyer HMS Keith, was disabled.

In 1943 she was part of 615 Water Transport Company RASC and was renamed Vimy.