The last HDML still boasting her original specification

HDML 1387 was built by RA Newman & Sons of Poole (now Sunseeker Yachts) and commissioned in December 1943. Following initial work in Scotland in the spring of 1944 she joined 149th HDML Flotilla based in Portsmouth. Later she was fitted with a variety of special gadgets including one of the 20 prototype Decca Navigator units in advance of the Normandy Landings where, together with 1383, she marked one of the two approach channels to Omaha beach.

Post D-Day, she acted as an escort vessel for cross channel convoys, but was caught in the storm on 19 June and sustained severe damage. Using power and hand pumps she managed to limp back into Portsmouth for repairs.

With the war’s end she became involved with survey work. The last of her class to remain in service, HDML 1387 was decommissioned in November 1965 but, coincidentally, on her last day she was badly fire damaged. She was put up for sale in 1968 with the expectation that she’d be scrapped. Instead she was purchased by a group from Portland led by Mike Boyce, who was her skipper for the next 45 years, and was restored.

By the year 2000 it was clear Medusa would again need a great deal of work to stay at sea. The Medusa Trust, a registered charity, was established. Fund raising commenced and three years later a £1m grant from Heritage Lottery and matching funding raised by the Trust enabled work to start. A derelict yard at Hythe was leased and apprentices taken on under the guidance of the Maritime Workshop from Gosport. She was relaunched and rededicated on 1 March 2010.