- Yes
- No
Dark-class patrol boat, Dark Antagonist (P1103)
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/892150435648000070/1136009984774242414/1.jpg
Vehicle Design, and service history:
The Dark class boats should be well familiar to people in game, as we currently have three reprentatives of the class in the tech tree, though there is one more armament build for the class that has yet to make an apperance in game, that being the mine layer configuration. The Dark class were a class of eighteen fast patrol boatsordered for the royal navy in 1951, though they would not begin entering service until 1954. All ships in the class were named with the prefix “Dark” in line with other patrol boat classes of the time. The ships could be fitted in either a motor gun boats, motor torpedo boat, or mine layer configuration, depending on the type of armament carried. These ships would go on to be the only diesel engined fast patrol boats in the Royal Navy service, as they shared the same Napier Deltic two-stroke diesel engine as the Nasty class which would serve in the Royal Norwegian Navy. This engine was of a unique layout, possessing an opposed-piston engine with a triangular layout of three banks, wiith a total of 18 cylinders.
The boats were constructed with an alloy framing and wooden decks and skin, with The exception was Dark Scout which had all aluminium decks, skins and frames.Originally 35 units were ordered by the admiralty from seven builders, but nine would be cancelled in 1955, when Dark Horseman was partially complete and on the stocks in the builders yard. An all aluminium version was exported to Burma, Finland and Japan, from the builders builders Saunders-Roe. Interestingly, because the royal navy had no previous experiance of using diesel engines in a vessel of this size, so they did not realize how dirty the exhaust fumes. Because of this they were originally launched in a normal Royal Navy grey, though this was quickly changed to having the hulls painted completely black ot disguise the staining from exhaust emissions.
The class would have only a short life though, as an Admiralty decision in 1957 took nearly all fast patrol boats out of commission, resulting in 9 of the dark class being laid up. On 20 December 1960, the Admiralty stated that the Coastal Forces would not be completely abandoned in case it needed to be expanded in the future leading to the creation of a special boat squadron, but none of the dark class was included in this flotilla. Dark Antagonist was one of the eight vessels sold off to the Italian Customs Service in February 1966.
Vehicle Specifications:
Displacement: 50 long tons (51 t) (standard)
64 long tons (65 t) (deep)
Length: 71 ft 8 in (21.84 m)
Beam: 19 ft 5 in (5.92 m)
Draught: 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Propulsion: 2 shafts, Napier Deltic 18 cylinder two-stroke opposed-piston diesels
Speed: 40 knots (46 mph; 74 km/h)
Complement: 15
Armament: 1 × 40 mm guns
6 x ground naval mines
Sources:
https://bmpt.org.uk/other_boats_history/Dark Class/index.htm
https://www.navypedia.org/ships/uk/brit_c_f_dark.htm