Name CMB4R

CMB4R is a fully operational replica of a Coastal Motorboat. The original batch of Coastal Motor Boats (CMB’s) were designed and constructed in 1916 by John I Thornycroft at Platt’s Ayot at Molesey on the River Thames. The War Department’s specification was for a fast, shallow-draught boat, capable of passing through a minefield and then delivering an 18-inch Whitehead torpedo. Boats of this type were used in raids on Zeebrugge and Oostende but, most famously, in 1919 on the White Russian fleet in the port of Kronstadt. On this daring raid, the cruiser “Oleg” was sunk for which Commander Augustus Agar and the boat involved (CMB 4) were awarded the Victoria Cross. “Coastal Motor Boat” was a “camouflage” term for the boat, so as to not give away its true purpose. The development of these boats was really a “great leap forward” in the way of thinking about fast, hydroplaning boats. The techniques and technologies used in the MTBs and MGBs (and other boats) of the 1930s and 1940s owe a great deal to the pioneering work used in the CMBs.