A Motor Launch (ML) is a small military vessel in British navy service. It was designed for harbour defence and submarine chasing or for armed high speed air-sea rescue.
Although small by Naval standards, it was larger than the preceding Coastal Motor Boats of 40 and 55 ft length. The first Motor Launches entered service in the First World War. These were 550 80-foot-long (24 m) vessels built by the US Elco company for the Admiralty receiving the designations ML-1 to ML-550. They served between 1916 and the end of the war with the Royal Navy defending the British coast from German submarines.
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Famous quotes containing the words motor and/or launch:
“The motor idles.
Over the immense upland
the pulse of their blossoming
thunders through us.”
—Denise Levertov (b. 1923)
“Now launch the small ship, now as the body dies
and life departs, launch out, the fragile soul
in the fragile ship of courage, the ark of faith
with its store of food and little cooking pans
and change of clothes,”
—D.H. (David Herbert)