Dispatch boats were small boats, and sometimes large ships, tasked to carry military dispatches from ship to ship or from ship to shore or, in some cases from shore to shore. Dispatch boats were employed when other means of transmitting a message was not possible or safe or as quick.
Dispatch boats, which performed their dispatch-carrying duties only on a temporary basis, should not be confused withpacket ships—sometimes called packet boats orpaquetbots—which were cargo ships which also routinely carried the mail from port to port.
Generally, dispatch boats served the military, and paquetbots served commerce.
Dispatch boat was a term used by theUnited States Navy in its journal accounts to describe boats which carried messages, or mail—otherwise termed dispatches—between high-ranking military officials aboard other ships or to land-based destinations.[citation needed]
In 1776 theContinental Navy shipLynch was assigned dispatch boat duty and, after delivering her secret dispatches inFrance, set sail for theUnited States with French secret dispatches, only to be captured, but not before destroying the French dispatches.[1]
Once theBattle of Trafalgar had been decided in favor of the British in October 1805, the honor of delivering the news of the victory as well as the loss ofAdmiral Lord Nelson belonged to the dispatch boat which first brought the news to theAdmiralty inLondon.
A 1000-mile sea race from the location of the naval battle resulted between Lt. Lapenotiere inHMSPickle and Captain Sykes inNautilus with thePickle reachingEngland first to deliver the dispatches to theAdmiralty. For his outstanding effort in the race, Lt. Lapenotiere was awarded a cash prize of 500pound sterling (equivalent to £51,000 in 2023) and, in addition, was promoted to Commander.[2]
TheAmerican Civil War employed a large number ofdispatch boats, such asMassasoit,Gladiolus andGeranium among numerous others. GeneralUlysses S. Grant depended ondispatch boats during his Virginia campaign to correspond withUnion Navy ships on theJames River.[citation needed]
The US Navy did not have enough dispatch boats available during the Spanish–American War of 1898, so privateyachts andtugboats used by newspapers were frequently tasked by the Navy to carry messages.[3]USS Vega was a US dispatch boat during World War I.[citation needed]
HMS Surprise (K346) was aBay-classanti-aircraftfrigate of theBritishRoyal Navy. In commission from 1946 to 1965, she served in theMediterranean Fleet as a Despatch Vessel for the Commander-in-Chief.
Dispatch boats became largely unnecessary with the advent of underwater cable and shipboard radio technology in the early 20th century. However, there was a brief reprise during theFalklands War in 1982. CSIris, acable laying ship owned byBritish Telecom, was taken up from trade by the British Government. She ferried supplies and dispatches (including troop's mail from home) between elements of the fleet and betweenAscension Island and the Falkland Islands – she also recovered urgent supplies that were air-dropped in the South Atlantic by Royal Air Force,C-130 Hercules aircraft.[4]
This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.