Ben-My-Chree

The book -Seaplanes-Felixstowe- has arrived... great read! Thanks for drawing my attention to it. There is a story on p 61 about the rescue of another Wright- G L Wright- that vividly illustrates the need to improve the structural strength and integrity of the H-series hulls. It humanises the story of Porte's technical efforts.
I'm still looking for early stories of the H-4 and 8 boats that illustrate their lack of combat capability though!

Nick,
Thanks for the refs... Snowden Gamble's and Hallam's are really good on post-1916 stuff; i.e. mainly about Large Americas and the same with Gordon Kinsey's book I have just acquired... I guess its back to Kew and FAAM for another patrol. I'll follow up on your third recommendation.

Nick, lovely pictures and an interesting story.
Your picture captioned DH9? is not a DH9. Even though it appears to have British markings on the rudder it looks like a captured german aircraft, but I can't say which without a bit of searching.
The Short 184 S229 is serial No 8087 assuming the constructors numbers are sequential with the serial numbers in a batch. Its demise is described on page 144 of the book.

I recently found that my Great-Uncle was on the Isle of Grain in 1918, though what he did as a Stoker 1st Class I don't know. He was transferred in the RAF, but he transferred back to the Navy in 1919

regards
 Steve

Thanks Steve