Cornwall In The First World War

During this month, each weekday I'm posting an image showing Cornwall's First World War.

Here's the Royal Navy's Motor Launch ML319, Newlyn-based, seen at the Isles of Scilly anchored off Tresco. Some of her ten-man crew are on deck and the wireless mast is deployed.  Her cockpit's open to the elements, but later in her life she acquired a simple wheel-house.

Cornwall's MLs were used to hunt German U-boats within Admiralty Patrol Area XIV, a zone jutting south and west from the Duchy, and also watched over the Bristol Channel from Padstow.

The boats were wooden with twin petrol engines, armed with stern-mounted depth-charges and a quick-firing 1- or 3-pounder deck gun; they could manage almost 20 knots. Maintenance was generally carried out in Penzance, either alongside, beached at Newlyn or for bigger jobs, berthed in Holman’s dry dock.

My book, 'Cornwall In The First World War', is published by Truran. With 112 pages and 100 images, you'll find it in bookshops across the Duchy. It's also available through Amazon: http://amzn.to/19JbtZm