Dead Sea Flotilla

[Peter H]

German motor launches patrol the Dead sea 1917/18.

From The Library of Congress

[Peter H]

Captured by the Australians in 1918.From the AWM website.

[Peter H]

From poster capchris,Avalon Hill Board:

One of the oddest conflicts occurred on the Dead Sea, east of Jerusalem.

The Turks used boats to provide supplies to their troops in Jerusalem. The Brits also had access to the Dead Sea, but such boats they could round up weren't up to the task of stopping the Turks. Nor did the bi-plane bombers have much effect--at first.

One of the problems was that the Dead Sea was literally a dead sea. It has no outlet to the ocean, thus the water was very salty, roughly seven times as salty as seawater. This made the water denser and caused boats (designed for normal sea or fresh water) to ride considerably higher than that for which they were designed. Boat turnovers were common due to the higher center of gravity; sharp turns at speed were dangerous.

But the Brits eventually took advantage of this. They removed the wings from an obsolete Martinside bomber (2-seater, with Lewis gun on a flexible mount in the rear cockpit), and replaced the wheels and tailskid with small pontoons.

This 'sea monster' could literally skim across the water at speeds over 40 mph, and manuver around Turkish boats as the gunner shot holes in them.It proved to be very effective, causing the Turks to ship more of their supplies over the more arduous land routes. Eventually the Brits captured Jerusalem, and the Martinside was retired.

More here:

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/11/ ... m=storyrhs




The "Mimi",the Martinside bomber converted to a boat by the Australians: