FL-boat


The FL-boat was a weapon used by the Imperial German Navy during World War I. It was a remote-controlled motorboat, 17 m long, carrying of explosives, which was intended to be steered directly at its targets - initially the Royal Navy monitors operating off the coast of Flanders.
FL-boats were constructed by Siemens-Schuckertwerke. They were driven by internal combustion engines and controlled remotely from a shore station through spooled wire unwound behind the boat. The wire was long and the spool weighed. An aircraft could be used to signal directions to the shore station by radio. The commands available to the boat operator were:
Planned developments were to use a control station carried on a ship, in an airship or use a radio-control system. The boats could attain speeds of.
On 1 March 1917 an FL-boat hit the Nieuwpoort mole and on 28 October 1917 one hit the Royal Navy monitor HMS Erebus.