Welcome

Based in HM Naval Base in Portsmouth, the Coastal Forces Heritage Trust is a charity whose objectives are to record, support and celebrate the boats, technology, stories and people who have shaped Coastal Forces for over a century. That spirit of technical innovation, tactical flair, selfless bravery and the ‘call of the sea’ is still with us today and we aim to connect current generations with that rich legacy through a mix of museums, this website, regular events and live interaction with surviving craft.

Find out more about our history…

What are we doing?

Over the next few months we are collaborating with the Portsmouth Historic Quarter and the renowned British sculptor Amy Goodman to build a spectacular monument to Coastal Forces that will stand at Victory Gate, the entrance to the Historic Dockyard, where some 900,000 visitors pass by each year. It will recognise the remarkable bravery of those involved in two world wars and conflicts since. It will reflect the extraordinary youth of those men and women, many of them Royal Naval Volunteer Reserves. It will celebrate the technical innovation of the vessels in which they fought and died. It will form a fitting and inspiring tribute and an important link to our wider educational programme. The location at Victory Gate is a natural meeting point for the thousands of school children who visit the site – a perfect opportunity to connect with the Coastal Forces legacy.

Coastal Forces in brief…

The Royal Navy began experimenting with small coastal motor boats imported from the USA in 1915. Within a year, British-built craft were proliferating. They served with distinction around the shallow North Sea coastline and were used to carry torpedoes and mines with Lewis guns for self defence. By the end of the First World War, some had even been converted into unmanned drones in collaboration with the fledgling RAF and in 1919, the daring raid on Kronstadt during the Russian War brought Coastal Forces their first Victoria Cross.

The 1920s and 30s saw a period of boatbuilding innovation, notably high speed planing hulls that flew over the waves rather than through them, led by legendary designers like John Thorneycroft, Hubert Scott-Paine and Peter du Cane. When war broke out in 1939, the Admiralty soon initiated a massive building programme that produced nearly 1900 hulls in the next five years. Whilst most boats were built in Britain, our American Allies made an important contribution.

Coastal Forces made an enormous contribution to World War Two including 900 actions resulting in 400 enemy vessels sunk, more torpedoes fired than the submarine service with a greater proportion of hits, vital intelligence gathered for D-Day, landing and retrieving agents on enemy coastlines all over the world and 3000 decorations won – including 4 Victoria Crosses.

The postwar period saw a decline in numbers, but Coastal Forces made important contributions to technology, tactics and training in the 1960s and 70s, operated alongside the security forces during ‘The Troubles’ in Northern Ireland for nearly 30 years, and today the Coastal Forces Squadron operates right around the British Isles as well as participating in front line NATO maritime security activities in Northern Europe.

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