HMS Gnat at Nanking and the next gunboat generation

HMS Gnat helped protect British and other international civilians during the Nanking incident. From 1936 she also carried Judy, a liver-and-white pointer, as the ship's dog. Her relief by HMS Grasshopper introduced the Dragonfly class, showing that the Royal Navy still wanted purpose-built river gunboats late in the 1930s. The six newer boats carried four-inch guns and continued the same close-water presence mission with a more modern design. Gnat therefore links the Insect class's station work to the next generation of British river craft.