Herod we can agree on the probably inevitable outcome. But I disagree with a couple of your assumptions. Just like glider winching (or kites) the operation would only make sense launching into wind. Wind at sea is not disrupted by ground obstacles and the combination of boat speed and wind over the deck would be necessary to spin up the rotor. My gyro had a motor connection to prerotate to about 260 rpm if I remember correctly. Early gyros lacked such a mechanism and needed forward speed to spin up the blades. However once airborne the wind speed would be expected to increase with height and self evidently these gyros could achieve decent altitudes, enough in principal to significantly increase the chance of spotting enemy shipping, which was the whole point. However it may well be that the whole concept predated convoys and their accompanying destroyers or acoustic detection systems. Either way I doubt the airspeed under tow would be less than 30 knots. The engine failure procedure on my gyro by the way was to descend more or less vertically over the chosen landing field and then increase airspeed to gain enough energy to flare. The gyro’s permanent state of autorotation kept the blades spinning even with little forward motion, and a high rate of descent. Relatively low you could then push the nose down and gain enough energy to round out.