 HMC ML Q050 was the first of a series of wooden Canadian-built Fairmile B delivered to the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) on 18 November 1941
| |
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Builders | See builders |
| Operators | |
| Built | 1941–1944 |
| In service | 1941–1945 |
| Completed | 88 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Fairmile B motor launch |
| Displacement | 79 long tons (80 t) |
| Length | 112 ft (34 m) |
| Beam | 17 ft 0 in (5.18 m) |
| Draught | 4 ft 10 in (1.47 m) |
| Propulsion | Two 650 bhp (480 kW) Hall-Scott Defender petrol engines |
| Speed | 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph) |
| Range | 1,500 mi (1,300 nmi; 2,400 km) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) |
| Complement | 2 officers and 14 non-commissioned |
| Time to activate | 48 hours to reconfigure weapons |
| Sensors and processing systems | ASDIC |
| Armour | Wheelhouse plated |
The Canadian Fairmile B was a motor launch built during the Second World War for the Royal Canadian Navy. They were adaptations of the British Fairmile B motor launch design incorporating slight modifications for Canadian climatic and operational conditions. Eighty-eight were built in Canada for service with the Coastal Forces of the Royal Canadian Navy in home waters, of which eight were supplied to the United States Navy.
They were known by their crews as "The Little Ships", "Little Fighting Ships", "Q-Boats", "MLs" or "Holy Rollers" (due to their violent pitching and tossing),[1]
- ^ Heenan, RCNR (Ret), Captain Joseph A. (February 1962). "The Little Ships: Part One" (PDF). The Crowsnest. Vol. 14, no. 4. Royal Canadian Navy. pp. 11–16. Retrieved 6 January 2020.