Name MGB 81

What is the vessel’s ability to demonstrate history in her physical fabric?

Although MGB 81 has undergone substantial restoration, with the decking, deckhouse and much of the internal fittings having been replaced, much of her hull is original. Only limited planking was replaced between 1988 and 2002, along with some of the longitudinal beams the lower beams of the frames in the forward half of the vessel in 2017/18. As such, the majority of her hull, the heart of the vessel, is original.

During the 1940s some 600 ‘short’ hard chine hull semi planing MTBs, MGBs and MA/SBs were constructed for Coastal Forces. At the end of 2019, only 24 of these were known to survive, all in various states of repair (including near derelict houseboats). This includes three fully restored boats (MA/SB 27, MTB 102 and MGB 81). 96 boats of the same design as MGB 81 were completed of which ten survived at the end of 2019. During their service, not one of the boats suffered from structural defects (except those caused by enemy action) and the design is considered to be one of the finest built during the war. Although the deck, deckhouse and furniture are not original, they follow the original designs and thus preserve the original appearance and layout of the boat. Only minor amendments have been made to the layout below decks.

MGB 81’s service is harder to specifically identify in her vessel fabric. A metal patch on the port side of the hull is often suggested to be part of a repair of battle damage, but this cannot be confirmed. The boat underwent substantial refits during her service where battle damage was repaired and her restorations will have similarly repaired any damage that affected the integrity of the hull. However, the hull itself is a survivor of the war and just because it no longer bears the scars of this conflict, it should not be considered to ‘show no evidence’.

What are the vessel’s associational links for which there is no physical evidence?

The British Power Boat Company built in excess of 1,000 small boats for military service during the war, in addition to many thousands of small commercial and sports boats built in the late 1920s and 1930s. The yard itself was closed in 1947 and has been totally built over by modern housing development. Now only the surviving boats, including thirteen boats that served in Coastal Forces, a number of surviving RAF and Royal Army Service Corps boats, and racing boats such as Miss England I (preserved in the Science Museum) and Miss Britain III (preserved at the National Maritime Museum) serve as a material link to a very significant boat builder. MGB 81 therefore serves as an important link to the yard and its own history.

Likewise, being one of only three Coastal Forces hard chine boats from the war that still operates (to which must also be added HDML 1387, a well preserved examples of a motor launch that also served in Coastal Forces), MGB 81 serves as an important material link to Coastal Forces. As Coastal Forces as an independent division within the Royal Navy was abolished in the 1950s, all of the bases used have long since closed and with an ever dwindling number of veterans, it is the boats that serve as the most visible and material reminder of this important arm of service during the war. MGB 81 is one of very few remaining examples (of all types) from the time.

Owing to her service in the 8th MGB Flotilla, MGB 81 has a strong link to perhaps the most famous figure in Coastal Forces, Robert Hichens. The commander of the flotilla, Hichens is the most decorated officer in the history of the RNVR and, before his death in 1943, was instrumental in establishing the tactics used by MGBs again enemy S-boats. He spent time on board MGB 81 and may even have sailed on her on occasion.

It has been possible to extract an almost complete wartime history of MGB 81 from historical sources, detailing her various deployments and engagements with the enemy (which were numerous). As such she can be presented as a true heritage vessel – complete in both form and history.

How does the vessel’s shape or form combine and contribute to her function?

Whilst British Power Boat had built a number of MTBs and MA/SBs that were later converted to MGBs in the late 1930s and 1940, MGB 81 was amongst the first batch of vessels built by the firm specifically as a Motor Gun Boat. Evidence of the specific nature of her role is visible in a number of details incorporated by Selman, including longitudinal bulkheads in the forward part of the vessel to support a 1,100kg gun and the numerous frames, stringers and webs, combined with the hog sheer of the deck to strengthen the hull in rough weather. MGB 81 therefore serves as an excellent example of a Second World War Coastal Forces boat. She embodies the lessons of early hard chine hull experimentation in the 1930s and as such her hull serves as an exceptional illustration of wartime design and construction that has benefitted from operational experience in the first year of war.

Although the berth behind Boathouse 4 was not a Coastal Forces base in the war, Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, next to an active Royal Navy base, is a very appropriate setting for a vessel of her type and MGB 81 is presented in a military environment alongside vessels of a similar size and function. Equally, although now fitted with replica weapons, MGB 81 retains the complete appearance of a motor gun boat.