Watercolor of Royal Navy motor launch ML148, by LHS, 1918. The motor launch was a small vessel designed for harbor defense and anti-submarine work. The Elco company built 580 between 1915 and 1918 in three series of different lengths: 1 to 50 (75 ft.), 51 to 550 (86 ft.), and 551 to 580 (80 ft.). The original armament of a 13 pound cannon was later replaced by three depth charges. Signed: L.H.S. 18
Signed: L.H.S. 18On the launch bow: ML148
"The ship reported having seen another fellow torpedoed off Shelligs', so proceed there at full speed. Sighted her at 10.30 a.m., steering all over the shop. A square hole about 20 feet by 16 lets in insufficient water to put her down by the head a bit. Sighted the crew in two lifeboats under sail and picked them up. While I was aft, 'Action' was sounded and I dived to the bridge to find a submarine panic on. I sighted the Fritz U-Boat 8,000 yards off, high up out of water. I did not see him soon enough and only got as far as 'Control', but did not get a round off. I was very sick about it, 'cos she must have been watching us. We noted her course and steamed full speed for a point over her and dropped a DC [depth charge], but without sending up the Fritz as we hoped."
Robert Goldrich was an officer commanding the British sloop Poppy on patrol on March 27, 1917, battling Germany's submarine campaign. Our editors, Palmer and Wallis, put Poppy in the North Sea, but the Skellig Islands, or Skellocks, are off the Southwest coast of County Kerry, Ireland.
Intimate Voices from the First World War by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, page 247, copyright © 2003 by Svetlana Palmer and Sarah Wallis, publisher: Harper Collins Publishers, publication date: 2003
1917-03-27, 1917, March, U-boat, submarine, depth charge, ML148
