Pemberton Billing MTB - info wanted

[robinbird]

For an article on Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment for Helensburgh Heritage Trust. Secret trials were held on Loch Lomond of an experimental mtb made by Pemberton Billing. Unable to find info other than the attached. Pemberton Billing had links with Hubert Scott Paine, Supermarine Aviation Works but suspect the hull was made by Morris Furniture, Glasgow, as it worked on projects with MAEE. Has anyone more info on this MTB, tested for the RAF?

 

[ptdockyard]

What was the time period?

Dave G

 

[robinbird]

1944/45 trials on Loch Lomond of this one off experimental mtb

 

[Schneiderman]

All links between P-B and Scott-Paine were severed in 1916, so I would discount any connection with this project.

See patent GB498214

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P-B commenced experiments with a motor launch, called Multichine, based on his patent and built in Glasgow at a cost of £62000, in 1938 and attempted to interest the military. The RAF did test it at Felixstowe as a potential rescue craft but took the matter no further.
P-B bought it back from the Admiralty in 1946 and named it Commodore.
Like all of P-B's projects it was not half as good as he believed it to be

 

[robinbird]

Maybe this P-B was tested again in 1944/45 with new engines when MAEE was in Scotland. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Schneiderman]

Actually I miss-read the article. Commodore was a completely different boat.
I think Multichine was long gone by 1946, and even if not there does not seem to be any reason why it would still have been worth testing.

From Twentieth Century Maverick - Barbara Stoney

 

[robinbird]

Source of my information was Eic Haynes and his post war notes about his time with the marine section MAEE. He was cox' of RAF tender ST384. Secret trials conducted by MAEE on Loch Lomond included the aforesaid MTB, skip bombs and models of the SR1 jet seaplane. Eric remained alert and helpful into old age. He died last December aged 101. I have written about Eric and these trials in a Remembrance article for Helensburgh Heritage web site.

 

[Schneiderman]

Do doubt, but memory of relatively trivial episodes many years ago can be fragmentary, distorted or misunderstood. That you have asked for details of what the vessel was is an indication that his memory was hazy. The information I gave comes from Stoney's book, for which the main source for this period was the Pemberton-Billing family. Their memory, too, will probably be uncertain on some points but in the two pieces that refer to the Multichine, one pre-war the other post-war, no mention is made of any tests of the boat after the war. Indeed the only mention is of P-B continuing to hold a grudge that the Admiralty had not made appropriate payment for it. I see no reason why serious testing would have taken place on a seven year-old boat that had been deemed of little interest in initial tests. Perhaps it was just in use as a hack.

 

[robinbird]

If we are talking about Haynes, he had an excellent memory, wrote down his memories just after the war and published a book. The mention of the experimental PB was included in passing among duties he carried out. Haynes even listed crew names in his section, names of test pilots etc. A previous article carried on Helensburgh Heritage's website indicates his knowledge of the marine section of the MAEE at RAF Helensburgh. The experimental PB was not something a 90 year old remembered but a trial he did not expand upon because it was a one off that was aborted. I wondered if anyone in the forum knew of it hence my post. At least Haynes recorded that such a vessel was made. Thank you for your feedback.

 

[iverson]

Actually I miss-read the article. Commodore was a completely different boat.
I think Multichine was long gone by 1946, and even if not there does not seem to be any reason why it would still have been worth testing.

From Twentieth Century Maverick - Barbara Stoney
View attachment 667045

It looks rather similar to the WW1 Austro-Hungarian Versuchsglietboot air-cushion MTB.

 

[robinbird]

Thanks again for the feedback my PMMTB was obviously a one off secret naval project. My research into the Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment has led to several experiments with vessels, aircraft and airborne warfare during WW2. MAEE worked closely with MAEE on Blackburn Botha ditching trials. Blackburn, Dumbarton, had no airfield, so in 1938 built a one off barge, the Dumbrough, to transport Botha aircraft to locations. This was a'secret naval project' and no photographs exist that I know of. | id manage to find a sketch of Dumbrough

 

[ptdockyard]

Actually I miss-read the article. Commodore was a completely different boat.
I think Multichine was long gone by 1946, and even if not there does not seem to be any reason why it would still have been worth testing.

From Twentieth Century Maverick - Barbara Stoney
View attachment 667045

So which one is pictured here? Multichine?

Dave G

 

[robinbird]

Dumbrough, the Blackburn Aircraft barge, which was an add to my original post and nothing to do with PB. Sorry for any confusion

 

[Schneiderman]

Actually I miss-read the article. Commodore was a completely different boat.
I think Multichine was long gone by 1946, and even if not there does not seem to be any reason why it would still have been worth testing.

From Twentieth Century Maverick - Barbara Stoney
View attachment 667045

So which one is pictured here? Multichine?

Dave G

Multichine