Name HMS Medusa

HMS MEDUSA was launched as Harbour Defence Motor Launch (HMDL) 1387 in 1943. In May 1944 she took part in the practise assault carried out by American forces at Slapton Sands, Devon and served at D Day as a Navigation Leader marking the approach channels through minefields at Omaha Beach.  Later in the war she patrolled off Scheveningen, Holland and then on to Ijmuiden which was still occupied by Germans who surrendered to her.

As the war ended she took a party of senior officers up the North Sea Canal to Amsterdam as part of the surrender process and was the first allied vessel to enter the city.   After the war she was refitted at William Osborne’s Yard, Littlehampton, Sussex and redesignated as Fast Despatch Boat (FDB) 76.  She became a training ship at Cardiff University Naval Division in 1946, transferred to Severn Division RNVR Unit in 1947, and moved to London Division RNVR Unit in 1949 and redesignated as Seaward Defence Motor Launch (SDML) 3516. 

In 1952 she became a hydrographic survey vessel and in 1961 was named HMS MEDUSA and given the pennant number A353.  She was paid off for disposal at Devonport in 1965 but her last day in service was marred by a fire in the forward accommodation which caused considerable damage.  Sold by the RN in 1968, she was then moved to Portland and used as a private motor yacht for 4 years making 36 crossings of the English Channel.

A major restoration started in 1972 involving extensive repairs to the hull and rebuilding the superstructure.  She made a number of trips in the late 1970s/early 1980s and, in 1985, she was handed over to Gosport Borough Council to become part of the ill fated Coastal Forces Museum and moved to Portsmouth where she was to have various moorings round the harbour.   MEDUSA was present at the D Day 50th anniversary celebrations and visited both Omaha and Juno beaches.   In 1997 she became training tender to the Southampton Unit of the Maritime Volunteer Service and in 2005 participated in the Fleet Review to mark the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar.  She became the responsibility of the Medusa Trust.

In 2005 the Trust was awarded almost £1m by the Heritage Lottery Fund to fund a major refit to extend her operational life by 60 years.  In 2008, she was part way through this refit and ashore at Hythe, Southampton Water being worked on by the Maritime Workshop as well as volunteers from the Medusa Support Group.  Source; David Newberry, Advisory Committee, December 2008.