Chugalug,
Formidable beasts indeed, these Scows !
Certainly we had inflatables, for there were all sizes of aircraft dinghies from the "K" (one-man) upward. All you'd need to do would be to put in a wooden transom (hasn't he just mugged up the correct term !) of some kind, for I'm pretty sure we had outboards in those days, too. We would have been far better off with something like that, as you rightly say.
"Avin' a larf" ? Now you come to mention it, it was a bit suspicious how the thing was offered to me right after VJ Day (when the Boat people in Redhills and Ceylon had no further use for it). Dump it on someone else, let him worry about the disposal !
I think their Lordships were chancing their arm a bit. What would they do with a war-surplus LCI stuck out in the Solomon Islands ? It'd cost far more to sail home than they'd get for it as scrap. The RNO had the right idea - get rid of the thing (they should have paid the DCO for taking it off their hands !)
Must now settle down to draft out the last chapter(s) of my weary tale.
Goodnight, Danny.