The FL-boat (''Fernlenkboot'', literally "remote controlled boat") was a weapon used by the
Imperial German Navy
The Imperial German Navy or the Imperial Navy () was the navy of the German Empire, which existed between 1871 and 1919. It grew out of the small Prussian Navy (from 1867 the North German Federal Navy), which was mainly for coast defence. Wilhel ...
during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. It was a remote-controlled motorboat, 17 m long, carrying of explosives, which was intended to be steered directly at its targets - initially the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
monitors
Monitor or monitor may refer to:
Places
* Monitor, Alberta
* Monitor, Indiana, town in the United States
* Monitor, Kentucky
* Monitor, Oregon, unincorporated community in the United States
* Monitor, Washington
* Monitor, Logan County, West Vir ...
operating off the coast of
Flanders
Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, ...
.
FL-boats were constructed by
Siemens-Schuckert
Siemens-Schuckert (or Siemens-Schuckertwerke) was a German electrical engineering company headquartered in Berlin, Erlangen and Nuremberg that was incorporated into the Siemens AG in 1966.
Siemens Schuckert was founded in 1903 when Siemens & Ha ...
werke. They were driven by internal combustion engines and controlled remotely from a shore station through spooled wire unwound behind the boat. The wire was long and the spool weighed . An aircraft could be used to signal directions to the shore station by radio. The commands available to the boat operator were:
* System test
* Engine start, engine stop
* Set Rudder position
* Turn on a light, to enable the boat to be tracked at night
* Detonate the warhead, to prevent capture of the boat if it missed its target
Planned developments were to use a control station carried on a ship, in an airship or use a radio-control system. The boats could attain speeds of .
On 1 March 1917 an FL-boat hit the
Nieuwpoort mole
Mole (or Molé) may refer to:
Animals
* Mole (animal) or "true mole", mammals in the family Talpidae, found in Eurasia and North America
* Golden moles, southern African mammals in the family Chrysochloridae, similar to but unrelated to Talpida ...
and on 28 October 1917 one hit the Royal Navy monitor
HMS ''Erebus''.
See also
*
MT explosive motorboat
The explosive motorboat MT (''Motoscafo da Turismo'') also known as ''barchino'' (Italian for "little boat"), was a series of small explosive motor boats developed by the Italian Royal Navy, which was based on its predecessors, the prototype boat M ...
, similar Italian manned assault boats of World War II
References
*
*
*{{Citation , first = Gordon , last = Williamson, author-link=Gordon Williamson (writer), title = German E-Boats 1939-45 , publisher = Osprey Publishing , pages = 3 , year = 2002 , isbn = 1-84176-445-0
World War I naval ships of Germany
Unmanned surface vehicles