NAVYPEDIA

Ships

Name	No	Yard No	Builder	Laid down	Launched	Comp	Fate
Selmanpak (ex-Firefly)			Yarrow, Scotstoun, UK / Abadan, Iraq	2.1915	7.1915	11.1915 // 12.1915	captured by United Kingdom 26.2.1917 (Firefly)

Technical data

Displacement normal, t	98
Displacement full, t
Length, m	38.4
Breadth, m	6.10
Draught, m	0.61
No of shafts	1 in tunnel
Machinery	1 VTE, 1 Yarrow boiler
Power, h. p.	175
Max speed, kts	9.5
Fuel, t	coal 5 + oil 10
Endurance, nm(kts)
Armament	1 x 1 - 102/40 BL Mk VIII, 1 x 1 - 76/40 12pdr 12cwt QF Mk I/II, 1 x 1 - 57/40 6pdr Hotchkiss Mk I, 3 x 1 - 7.7/94
Complement	22

Standard scale images

Project history

In February 1915 the Admiralty ordered 12 river gunboats from Messrs Yarrow for operations on the Tigris and Euphrates, but to camouflage their destination they were known as 'China gunboats'. The design was based on Yarrow's earlier river craft, with a single screw operating in a tunnel, using the Yarrow patent flap to prevent the tunnel from being emptied by the wash of another vessel. Another four vessels were ordered in December. The first dozen were laid down in February 1915, then dismantled and re-erected at Abadan on the Persian Gulf, being sent out in July-September 1915. The last four were laid down in December 1915 and sent out in April-September 1916.

Modernizations

None.

Naval service

British river gunboat Firefly entered service in November 1915 and was captured by the Turks during the advance on Baghdad on 1 December 1915. Recaptured by British gunboat Tarantula near Aziziye on 26 February 1917, she was finally sunk on the Euphrates by insurgents 14 June 1924.