The M.L. in Fiction

Finally, the Motor Launch appears in at least one work of fiction. An early one, The Thick of The Fray at Zeebrugge by Percy Westerman, is a romanticized account of a fictional ML crew aimed at young boys. The book does provide two nice images of the ML - one on the cover of the book and one plate inside (depicting a sinking ML unfortunately). These illustrations were provided by the wonderfully named W. Edward Wigfull who must have had at least some familiarity with the ML in order to illustrate it - even if it was just knowledge drawn from photographs.

There's not much to say for the content of this boy's book published shortly after the war - it tells a fairly standard story of the heroics of the sailors of the Royal Navy. But it does have one or two interesting illustrations including the cover of the book itself.

 
The Thick of The Fray
W. Edward Wigfull
  
"She's going, lads!"
shouted Branscombe.
W. Edward Wigfull