Ken Wallis flew his autogiro off the back of the Isle of White ferry as a demo....
I tried to get the concept across of autogiros flying off and on fast patrol boats in littoral temperate waters ( e.g Gulf, Far East ) .The idea being that they could extend the boat's visual range and engage targets (smugglers etc.) with diversive weaponry whilst the boat caught up.
RN rep.. of course kept blindly trotting out "Winter North Atlantic" as a mantra ...............