FL-boat
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Fernlenkboote |
| Builders: | Siemens-Schuckert |
| Operators: |
 Kaiserliche Marine |
| General characteristics | |
| Length: | 17 m (55 ft 9 in) |
| Speed: | 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph) |
| Crew: | None |
| Armament: | 700 kg (1,500 lb) explosives |
The FL-boat (Fernlenkboot, literally "remote controlled boat") was a weapon used by the Imperial German Navy during World War I. It was a remote-controlled motorboat, 17 m long, carrying 700 kg of explosives, which was intended to be steered directly at its targets - initially the Royal Navy monitors operating off the coast of Flanders.
FL-boats were driven by internal combustion engines, and controlled remotely from a shore station through several miles of wire wound on a spool on the boat. An aircraft was used to signal directions to the shore station. They could attain speeds of 30 knots. They were constructed by Siemens-Schuckertwerke.
On 1 March 1917 an FL-boat hit the Nieuwpoort mole and on 28 October 1917 one hit the Royal Navy monitor HMS Erebus.
See also
- MT explosive motorboat, similar Italian boats of WWII
References
- Karau, Mark D. (2003), Wielding the Dagger: The Marinekorps Flandern and the German War, Praeger/Greenwood, p. 91, ISBN 0-313-32475-1
- Lightoller, C.H. (1935), Titanic and other ships, I. Nicholson and Watson
- Williamson, Gordon (2002), German E-Boats 1939-45, Osprey Publishing, p. 3, ISBN 1-84176-445-0