Dark Class Illustration

During my time at Hornet I spent some time on Dark boats,and did some engine tests with the engineers from Napier`s, one of which was to run the engines one at a time whilst tied up alongside at full power and then full power in astern,as they wanted do a check on the engine responce. Apart from terific vibration the exercise was within Napiers expectation.

Are any of the DARK CLASS still in existance?

Up till about three years ago there were two Dark class boats still in existance on Malta.  Both were in the grounds of the former Benghisa Transmitting Station (RN).  They were in a very poor state of repair.  One of the boats was broken up and the other was said to have been earmarked for conversion to a tourist cruise boat. I'm uncertain as to whether this actually got off the ground. 

These vessels were paid of and disposed of in Malta.  Apparently they were then used in the making of a film, The Hellboats.  they then spent a large number of years languishing at Kalafrana. Kalafana was an RAF seaplane base, changing over to a Royal Naval Aircraft Repair Yard.  HSL's were stationed there during the war.  A book by a Maltese author details the exploits of these HSL's, its called Callout.  As the former seaplane base was developed into a container terminal, the Dark class boats were moved up the road to the former Transmitting station, it must have been in the early nineties.  My brother attempted to get the Malta Maritime Museum interested in saving at least one of these boats, but their reply was that they did not have the resources to do so.  It is a pity, as now one has definately gone for ever and I haven't heard of the fate of the remaining boat.  My brother salvaged some bits from the one that was broken up, nothing earth shattering, just a couple of junction box covers and the Kernichief Log repeater.  Most of their equipment had long since been removed.  I really would love to know what became of the awesome Deltics! 

'Blown' Deltics? Wow!  I was under the impression that the normally aspirated ones were powerful enough!  What an engine!  I've never had the opportunity to hear one on a boat, the only ones I've heard were on the old Deltic diesel locos.  I've only ever seen one of these engines 'in the metal' at the National Railway Museum in York.

There are still a number of ex British motor launch hulls around Malta, albeit in modified configurations.  I'm afraid I'm not up to speed on recognition though.  I have heard that they were minelayers, gunboats and rescue launches in their day. 

Hello folks It`s me Drum1

   During my time at Hornet I can only remember Dark Aggressor and Dark Avenger being resident between 1954 and 1956 as I did some enging trials in the engine room with the Napiers engineer on Dark Aggressor. And I still have my Deltic course book. These two Dark boats had standard Deltic engines fitted, thought to have been causedby the screws coming out of the water at speed, untill one blew up followed a few weeks later by one of the engines on British rail. on investigation by Napiers the faolt was found to be in the oil supply to one side of the engine. This was rectified and there has been no more trouble since.

The one big problem with this engine so I am led to believe was that in the UK the Insurance companies would not insure these engines commercialy owing to the power weight ratio, which curtailed sales.

But I think it was a beautifull engine and should have been given a fair chance.

              Ted Childs Drum1