Gay Archer

The 'Gay Archer' is one of the Gay class patrol boats which served into the Royal Navy. Twelves ships were built in the early 50s. All were named after types of soldiers or military or related figures, prefixed with 'Gay'. The class could be fitted as either motor gun boats or motor torpedo boats, depending on the type of armament they carried. The Gay Archer was equiped as a torpedo one.
Gay Archer was the first of twelve vessels of the Gay-class fast patrol boats. Whilst on delivery from Vosper to the Royal Navy, her hull was punctured. During her time with the Royal Navy, she was nearly sunk on two occasions. Whilst in Aarhus Harbour, Denmark on 18 May 1953 she was alongside MTB P1023, which caught fire and exploded. The second occasion happened when she was returning to Southsea after a search and rescue mission. She fouled a submerged broken boom defence pylon and her casing was holed, she was saved by an admiralty tug which responded to her mayday call.
During the 1950s she operated with submarine detection equipment, and prior to being sold, she operated out of Malta. She was sold to Cottness Iron Co., Wishaw on 24 July 1963. She has been gradually restored since 2005 by Paul Childs, and was bought for the sum of just £1. HMS Gay Archer, as visible on a view on google maps in 2021, resides on the River Avon, at Shirehampton (Bristol). She's might still running and is conserved there.

Source: Wikipedia