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Name: HMS Medusa

Certificate number: 522

Status:

Core Collection

Function:

Fighting Vessel

Sub Functional Area:

harbour defence

Type:

HD Motor Launch

Location:

Southampton, Hampshire, England

Current use:

Private: operating

  • Length Overall:

    21.95 metres (72.00 feet)

  • Gross Tonnage:

    56.19

  • Net Tonnage:

    23.91

  • Depth Hold:

    2.56 metres (8.39 feet)

  • Maximum Breadth:

    4.72 metres (15.48 feet)
HMS Medusa - MEDUSA - under way. Port side.

Web address

http://www.hmsmedusa.org.uk/

Builder

History

The Harbour Defence Motor Launch 1387 was built by R A Newman & Sons, Poole, in 1943. She served at 'D'-Day as a Navigational Leader, marking the approach channel to Omaha Beach. Later in the war she took the surrender of the Dutch coastal port of Ijmuiden from the Germans, and was the first Allied vessel to negotiate the North Sea Canal to Amsterdam as the war ended.

She became a training ship at Cardiff University in 1946, and was transferred to the Royal Naval Reserve on the Thames in 1949. In 1952 she became an hydrographic survey vessel, and her last re-designation took place in 1961when she was named HMS MEDUSA and given the pennant number A353. She was paid off in 1965 having been commanded for her last two years in naval service by Lieutenant Commander R.O. Morris, RN. He eventually rose in rank to Rear Admiral and became Hydrographer of the Navy.

MEDUSA was sold out of naval service in 1968. Following a fire, she was rescued by a partnership from Weymouth. She was moved to Portland Harbour and used as a motor yacht for her first four years in private ownership, subsequently making thirty-six crossings of the English Channel. In 1972, her owners commenced a fourteen year full restoration. She was moved to the Solent area in 1986 to become a museum ship and is now the last wartime HDML to be in original and operational condition.

These brief histories are compiled from details supplied by vessel owners and enthusiasts and from various reference works. National Historic Ships would be grateful for any corrections of facts or additional information for inclusion. Please contact ron.ellis@nationalhistoricships.org.uk

Subsequent developments

None notified, please let us know if you have any additional information.

Previous names

Bibliography