RN Steam Pinnace

[alfisherjr]

Am looking for information about RN steam pinnaces as carried by battleships circa WW1. Dimensions, photos, drawings are particularly welcome.

Al Fisher

afisherjr@aol.com

[joseph]

Al,

Steam-pinnace from about 1885 to 1935, cruisers and battleships carried one or more steam-boats to act as tenders when anchored off-shore: fetching and carrying mails, stores, officers, and towing unpowered boats full of liberty-men. Smaller cruisers carried steam-cutters, while the larger cruisers and battleships carried two steam-pinnaces, 50 feet long, capable of about 12-15 knots with good coal, and, since they represented their ship in the public eye when alongside a jetty in some sea-side town, usually polished and scrubbed so that they really gleamed. They were the nursery in which Midshipmen learnt ship-handling, and how to handle men. When on active service, they could also mount a 3-pdr gun on their foredeck.

Hope it helps

Regards Charles

[ionia]

You should try to get hold of a book by N.B.J. Stapleton "Steam Picket Boats and Other Small Steam Craft of the Royal Navy " ISBN 0900963638, published by Dalton in the UK in 1980.

The RN Museum at Portsmouth has a 50' Steam Pinnace from 1911 in seagoing condition. And see:

http://www.solentwaters.co.uk/Medina%20Shi...hips/page9.html .

[alfisherjr]

Thank you to all who replied. I was able to come up with a set of usable drawings and have converted them to the proper scale.

Again . . . many thanks!

Al Fisher

afisherjr@aol.com