Selmanpak 1915
| Name | No | Yard No | Builder | Laid down | Launched | Comp | Fate |
| Selmanpak (ex-Firefly) | Yarrow, Scotstoun, UK / Abadan, Iraq | 2.1915 | 7.1915 | 11.1915 // 12.1915 | captured by United Kingdom 26.2.1917 (Firefly) |
|
Displacement normal, t |
98 |
|
Displacement full, t |
|
|
Length, m |
38.4 |
|
Breadth, m |
6.10 |
|
Draught, m |
0.61 |
|
No of shafts |
1 in tunnel |
|
Machinery |
1 VTE, 1 Yarrow boiler |
|
Power, h. p. |
175 |
|
Max speed, kts |
9.5 |
|
Fuel, t |
coal 5 + oil 10 |
| Endurance, nm(kts) | |
|
Armament |
1 x 1 - 102/40 BL Mk VIII, 1 x 1 - 76/40 12pdr 12cwt QF Mk I/II, 1 x 1 - 57/40 6pdr Hotchkiss Mk I, 3 x 1 - 7.7/94 |
|
Complement |
22 |
Project history: In February 1915 the Admiralty ordered 12 river gunboats from Messrs Yarrow for operations on the Tigris and Euphrates, but to camouflage their destination they were known as 'China gunboats'. The design was based on Yarrow's earlier river craft, with a single screw operating in a tunnel, using the Yarrow patent flap to prevent the tunnel from being emptied by the wash of another vessel. Another four vessels were ordered in December. The first dozen were laid down in February 1915, then dismantled and re-erected at Abadan on the Persian Gulf, being sent out in July-September 1915. The last four were laid down in December 1915 and sent out in April-September 1916.
Modernizations: None.
Naval service: British river gunboat Firefly entered service in November 1915 and was captured by the Turks during the advance on Baghdad on 1 December 1915. Recaptured by British gunboat Tarantula near Aziziye on 26 February 1917, she was finally sunk on the Euphrates by insurgents 14 June 1924.
© Ivan Gogin, 2014