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Class overview
Name	Fly class
Builders	Yarrow Shipbuilders
Operators	Royal Navy (1915–1918); British Army (1918–1924);
In service	1915–1924
Completed	16
Lost	3
Retired	13
General characteristics
Type	River gunboat
Displacement	98 long tons (100 t)
Length	126 ft (38 m)
Beam	20 ft (6.1 m)
Draught	2 ft (0.61 m)
Propulsion	1 shaft VTE, single yarrow type mixed firing boiler, 175 ihp (130 kW)
Speed	9.5 kn (10.9 mph; 17.6 km/h)
Complement	22
Armament	1 × 4-inch (102-mm) gun; 1 × 12-pounder (76-mm) gun; 1 × 6-pounder (57-mm) gun (some); 1 × 3-pounder (47-mm) gun; 1 × 2-pounder (40-mm) pom-pom; 4 or 5 machine-guns;

The Fly-class river gunboats (or small China gunboats), collectively often referred to as the "Tigris gunboat flotilla", were a class of small well-armed Royal Navy vessels designed to patrol the Tigris river during the Mesopotamian Campaign during the First World War (the China name was to disguise their function).^[a]

Design

They were fitted with one triple expansion steam engine driving one propeller housed in a tunnel to facilitate a very shallow [2 ft (61 cm)] draught. The boats were designed to be dismantled and re-assembled.

Deployment

The vessels were built by Yarrow Shipbuilders at Scotstoun, Glasgow in 1915 and 1916 and shipped to Abadan in sections where they were assembled. They served with the Royal Navy patrolling the Tigris River until being transferred to the Army during 1918. They were sold off beginning 1923.

The Ottomans captured Firefly in December 1915 after she grounded and a shell through her boiler disabled her; her crew was evacuated. The Ottomans took her into service as Suleiman Pak. HMS Tarantula recaptured her in a small skirmish known as the Battle of Nahr-al-Kalek on 26 February 1917, in the immediate aftermath of the Second Battle of Kut.^[2]

Vessels

Vessels with the prefix "HM Gunboat"

Blackfly
Butterfly
Caddisfly
Cranefly
Dragonfly
Firefly
Gadfly
Grayfly
Greenfly
Hoverfly
Mayfly
Sawfly
Sedgefly
Snakefly
Stonefly
Waterfly

Notes

^ The Insect-class gunboats were "large China gunboats".

Citations

^ Gardiner & Gray 1985, p. 405.
^ Perrett 2000, pp. 150–151, 155.

References

Atherton, D. (2003). "Question 25/01". Warship International. XL (2): 138–141. ISSN 0043-0374.
Atherton, D.; Caruana, J. (2002). "Question 25/01". Warship International. XXXIX (2): 133–135. ISSN 0043-0374.
Atherton, D. (2004). "Question 25/01: British Fly Class Gunboats". Warship International. XLI (2): 135–139. ISSN 0043-0374.
Gardiner, Robert; Gray, Randal, eds. (1985). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-907-3 – via Archive Foundation.
Nunn, Wilfred (2007) [1932]. Tigris Gunboats: The Forgotten War in Iraq 1914–1917. Chatham. ISBN 978-1-86176-308-2.
Perrett, Bryan (2000). Gunboats: Small Ships at War (1st ed.). London: Cassell. ISBN 978-0-304-35302-6.