HMS Gay Archer
Contents
Description
HMS Gay Archer was the first of the Gay class, a fleet of twelve vessels built in 1952 by Vosper's of Portchester for the Royal Navy to strengthen Britain's coastal defences. Designed from a World War II hull specification but modernised with 1950s technology, Gay Archer and her sister ships were constructed of double diagonal mahogany and were among the last naval boats to operate with petrol engines, powered by three Packard marine engines delivering a speed of forty knots. These Fast Patrol Boats (FPBs) were highly adaptable, designed to serve as either gunboats or torpedo boats with a complement of thirteen crew. In torpedo mode, they carried two 21-inch torpedo tubes with twin Oerlikons mounted aft and a Bofors gun forward, while in gunboat mode, a 4.5-inch gun was fitted forward with a Bofors aft. Operating out of HMS Hornet in Gosport, the vessel supported defences in the North Sea approaches and occasionally deployed to Malta to protect British interests around the Suez. Originally intended to escort HMY Britannia during the Queen's coronation celebrations, Gay Archer sustained fire damage in Aarhus Harbour in May 1953 and later narrowly avoided sinking off Southsea Pier. Decommissioned in 1957 and repurposed as a houseboat in 1958 by Frank Lunt, she underwent extensive modifications, losing much of her naval identity before being acquired by new owners in 2004. Following a meticulous restoration completed in 2006, Gay Archer remains the sole surviving Gay class boat, preserved in Watchet Harbour, Somerset, United Kingdom.
The Gay-class, HMS Gay Archer (1041) is a premium British motor torpedo boat awarded as the first vehicle reward in the Battle Pass: Season XIII, "Tropical Storm", introduced during Update "Sons of Attila". She shares many design features with the Dark Aggressor, with her primary armament being an excellent 40 mm QF Mark VII, supplemented by two torpedoes. The vessel is powered by three very powerful engines, allowing her to reach 104 km/h in AB or 74 km/h in RB—an excellent speed that enables her to choose engagements and reach favourable positions ahead of the competition. However, she suffers from limited survivability, especially when her sides are exposed.
General info
Survivability and armour
Like most coastal vessels, the Gay Archer has no practical armour. The hull and superstructure are unarmoured and will not stop any sort of gunfire.
The hull is split into four hull sections. Starting from the bow and working towards the stern, the first section starts at the bow and ends just in front of the gun; the second ends after the bridge; the third ends where the fuel tanks end, just in front of the engines; and the fourth ends at the stern. Any round with a large enough diameter and explosive mass can hull break the Gay Archer. In general, this is limited to HE rounds greater with a diameter greater than or equal to 4 inches (102 mm) and with an explosive mass greater than 1.5 kg.
Mobility
HMS Gay Archer has excellent top speed and relatively good manoeuvrability. Being able to reach 104 km/h in arcade battles makes it ideal for capturing points and performing flanking attacks on larger vessels.
| Mobility Characteristics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Game Mode | Upgrade Status | Maximum Speed (km/h) | |
| Forward | Reverse | ||
| AB | |||
| Upgraded | 104 | 38 | |
| RB/SB | |||
| Upgraded | 74 | 27 | |
Modifications and economy
2 × 80 / 130 / 50 % 2 × 136 / 136 / 136 % | Seakeeping | Unsinkability | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Armament
Primary armament
The primary armament consists of a single 40 mm QF Mk VII cannon mounted forward with a maximum ammunition load of 2,000 rounds. Stock, the mount can traverse horizontally at a rate of 34°/s and vertically at a rate of 26°/s. The gun has a magazine capacity of 4 rounds and a cycle rate of fire of 160 rounds/min. With a stock crew, it can be reloaded in 0.5 seconds; with an aced crew, this is decreased to 0.4 seconds. The reload is short enough that there is a seamless transition between magazines, although continuously firing for too long will cause the gun to overheat and jam. This happens after continuously firing for about 1.25 min, or about 200 rounds. There is no noticeable drop in accuracy as the gun overheats.
- Universal: AP-T · HEFI-T
- 40 mm HE clips: HEFI-T · HEFI-T · HEFI-T · AP-T
- 40 mm AP clips: AP-T · AP-T · AP-T · HEFI-T
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | ||||||
| 10 m | 100 m | 500 m | 1,000 m | 1,500 m | 2,000 m | ||
| HEFI-T | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | |
| AP-T | 81 | 78 | 68 | 58 | 49 | 41 | |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
Ricochet | ||||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| HEFI-T | 874 | 0.9 | 0 | 0.1 | 67.13 | 79° | 80° | 81° | ||||
| AP-T | 874 | 0.89 | - | - | - | 47° | 60° | 65° | ||||
Additional armament
The Dark Aggressor can carry two 533 mm Mk.VIII torpedoes - with the torpedo mode modification enabled (which is the default), they offer good speed over a 6 km range, allowing Gay Archer to reach destroyers and cruisers from a very safe distance—perhaps even too safe. Within her BR, Gay Archer can make better use of these torpedoes without torpedo mode - while the range decreases, it only drops to 4570 m, which is more than enough to safely launch them from outside the 2 km envelope necessary to avoid anti-air guns on destroyers. Meanwhile, the added boost to speed makes it that much more likely to hit the target, which may be even more desirable given the low number of torpedoes onboard.
Depth charges are extremely situational and can only be used to engage large vessels at point-blank range; however, they themselves pose a danger of explosion if hit by enemy gunfire.
Usage in battles
Very similar in gameplay style to the Dark Aggressor, HMS Gay Archer features an identical primary gun and the same depth charges and torpedoes, although the number of torpedoes is reduced from 4 to 2, and it has a slightly smaller crew. Overall, she is best used in a bow-tanking position, heading straight for the enemy and using her excellent main gun to overwhelm opponents. In manoeuvring combat, she exposes her large, fragile profile, making her an easy target for most vessels within the same BR.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Features a frontal-mounted Bofors autocannons with good frontal coverage and a great damage output against surface and aerial targets
- Fast and manoeuvrable
- Armed with four torpedoes with good speed and filler
Cons:
- Mediocre survivability, especially from the sides
- Somewhat tall, unarmoured hull profile with a highly vulnerable ammo racks
- Main armament is easily knocked out
- No secondary or anti-aircraft armament, the stern is effectively a huge blind spot
- Only 2 torpedoes
History
HMS Gay Archer, the first of twelve vessels in the Gay class, was built in 1952 by Vosper's of Portchester, Hampshire, to reinforce the United Kingdom’s coastal defences amidst the Cold War tensions. Designed as multi-role Fast Patrol Boats (FPBs), the Gay class was crafted using a double diagonal mahogany hull, a construction technique that balanced durability with agility. Drawing on a World War II hull specification, these boats incorporated updated 1950s technology, making them the last British naval vessels powered by petrol engines. Each was equipped with three Packard 4M-2500 marine engines, delivering 1,500 bhp per engine, and capable of reaching forty knots. In their service configurations, the Gay class could be quickly adapted as either gunboats or torpedo boats to suit mission requirements. As a torpedo boat, Gay Archer carried two 21-inch torpedo tubes, along with twin Oerlikon cannons mounted aft and a Bofors gun forward. In her gunboat role, the layout was modified to include a 4.5-inch gun mounted forward with a Bofors positioned aft, providing flexible yet potent firepower.
The Gay class was tasked with defending the North Sea approaches, with a detachment also operating in Malta to secure British maritime interests in the Suez region. Gay Archer herself had an unfortunate service record, starting with hull damage upon delivery due to a puncture. On 18 May 1953, she sustained further damage during a NATO exercise in Scandinavia when a neighbouring MTB, P1023, exploded in Aarhus Harbour, Denmark. Lastly, she was damaged in an incident near Southsea Pier, suffering another hull puncture and significant flooding aft. Despite these setbacks, she continued in service until being placed in reserve in 1957 after only five years of active duty.
In 1958, Gay Archer was decommissioned and sold to Frank Lunt, who converted her into a houseboat, stripping her of naval markings and altering her bridge and superstructure, effectively erasing her military history. She spent nearly 25 years out of the water before her current owners acquired her in 2004, recognising her historical significance as the last surviving vessel of her class. A two-year restoration began, returning Gay Archer to her original Fast Patrol Boat configuration and preserving her unique design and naval heritage. In 2006, she made a symbolic journey down the Rivers Weaver and Mersey to Watchet, Somerset, as a living tribute to those who served on Britain’s coastal defence forces during World War II and the early Cold War years. Her preservation has taken on even greater importance since the destruction of another Gay class vessel in Spain, marking Gay Archer as the final representative of her class and a testament to mid-20th-century British maritime engineering.
Devblog History
Built in the early 1950s, Gay-class patrol boats were intended to be a transitional type from WWII torpedo MTBs to the more modern Dark class diesel boats. Depending on the configuration, these boats could serve as both torpedo and gunnery boats. A dozen of the class were built and used in roles such as coastal patrol, special forces (SBS) activities and target towing. The lead boat of the series, Gay Archer, carried out a relatively quiet post-war service in the waters around the coast. In 1958, the boat was purchased privately for civilian use as a houseboat; in 2004, it was purchased again by a group of enthusiasts and by 2006 restored to a condition as close as possible to its original historical appearance. Today, Gay Archer is the only surviving representative of the series.
Media
- Videos
See also
Links to articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:
- reference to the series of the ship;
- links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.
External links
| Vosper & Company | |
|---|---|
| Motor Torpedo Boat (MTB) | |
| 70 ft Vosper | MTB Vosper · MTB Vosper(2) · GIS 811* |
| Gay-class | HMS Gay Archer |
| Brave-class | Brave Borderer |
| Schnellboot Type 153 | Pfeil** |
| *70 ft Vosper in post-war Italian Service | |
| **Built for West Germany | |
| Britain boats | |
|---|---|
| Motor torpedo boats | Brave Borderer · Dark Aggressor · Dark Aggressor TD · Fairmile D (617) · Fairmile D (697) · Fairmile D (5001) · HMS Gay Archer |
| MTB-1(1) · MTB-1(2) · MTB Vosper · MTB Vosper(2) · MTB-422 | |
| Motor gun boats | Dark Adventurer · Fairmile A (ML100) · Fairmile B (ML345) · Fairmile C (312) · Fairmile C (332) · Fairmile D (601) · Fairmile H LCS(L)(2) |
| HMAS Arrow · HMAS Fremantle · MGB-61 · MGB-75 · ML 1383 · SGB Grey Fox · SGB Grey Goose | |
| Gunboats | HMS Spey |
| Britain premium ships | |
|---|---|
| Motor torpedo boats | MTB-1(2) · MTB-422 · Fairmile D (5001) · HMS Gay Archer |
| Motor gun boats | MGB-75 · SGB Grey Goose |
| Gunboats | HMS Spey |
| Sub-chasers | LÉ Orla |
| Frigates | HMS Whitby |
| Destroyers | HMS Montgomery · HMS Valhalla · HMS Verdun · ORP Garland · HMS Jervis · HMCS Haida · HMS Mohawk · HMS Cadiz · HMS Diamond |
| Light cruisers | HMS Belfast |
| Battleships | HMS Iron Duke |
