Credit Where Credit is Due

While looking for information on motor launches I came across this web site, which contains a good deal of interesting information about the Royal Navy's Motor Launch Patrol boats of the First World War. The vessels, known as 'Movies' by their crews, were constructed by The US boat builder The Electric Launch Company (Elco) and are credited to the company's General Mananger, Henry Sutphen, in 'conjunction' with Admiralty representatives, whatever that means. However, it seems, from the information presented, that the idea was not American at all but wholly British and conceived before the outbreak of war in 1914. That relatively trivial controversy apart, there remains the question of why the entire order of more than five hundred boats was awarded to one foreign builder, especially when British boat builders were desperate for work of any kind, a question that is still relevant, given the British government's long and dishonourable tradition of putting our money and our jobs in foreign hands.