Launch (boat)

The wide range of usage of the name extends from utilitarian craft through to pleasure boats built to a very high standard.

Other military examples were the various motor launches used in the 20th century, employed for harbour defence, anti-submarine patrols, escorting coastal convoys, minesweeping and recovering aircrew from crashed aircraft.

For example, a 33 ft (10 m) launch of 1804 could carry 14 large "leaguers" (barrels containing 150 imperial gallons (680 L) each), making a load of just over nine and half tonnes of water.

[3]: 91–97 During the Demak Sultanate attack on Portuguese Malacca of 1513, lancaran were used as armed troop transports for landing alongside penjajap and kelulus, as the Javanese junks were too large to approach shore.

[6][page needed] In 1788 Captain William Bligh and 18 crewmen were set adrift by mutineers in HMS Bounty’s 23-foot (7 m) launch.

Bligh navigated the open boat more than 4,000 miles, losing only one man – Tonga to Timor, 3,618 nmi (6,701 km; 4,164 mi).

Motor Launch was the designation for a type of vessel used in World War I and World War II by the Royal Navy and some other navies[citation needed] for inshore work defending harbours (Harbour defence motor launch) and defending the coast from submarines.

The RAF High Speed Launches, such as the Type Two 63 ft HSL, of World War II were derivatives of motor torpedo boat designs.