![Ataquechocrane](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Ataquechocrane.png)
A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast
naval ship
A naval ship is a military ship (or sometimes boat, depending on classification) used by a navy. Naval ships are differentiated from civilian ships by construction and purpose. Generally, naval ships are Damage control, damage resilient a ...
designed to carry
torpedo
A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, s ...
es into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive
spar torpedo
A spar torpedo is a weapon consisting of a bomb placed at the end of a long pole, or spar, and attached to a boat. The weapon is used by running the end of the spar into the enemy ship. Spar torpedoes were often equipped with a barbed spear at ...
es. Later evolutions launched variants of self-propelled
Whitehead torpedo
The Whitehead torpedo was the first self-propelled or "locomotive" torpedo ever developed. It was perfected in 1866 by Robert Whitehead from a rough design conceived by Giovanni Luppis of the Austro-Hungarian Navy in Fiume. It was driven by a t ...
es.
These were
inshore craft created to counter both the threat of
battleships and other slow and heavily armed ships by using speed, agility, and powerful torpedoes, and the overwhelming expense of building a like number of
capital ships
The capital ships of a navy are its most important warships; they are generally the larger ships when compared to other warships in their respective fleet. A capital ship is generally a leading or a primary ship in a naval fleet.
Strategic ...
to counter an enemy's. A swarm of expendable torpedo boats attacking en masse could overwhelm a larger ship's ability to fight them off using its large but cumbersome guns. A fleet of torpedo boats could pose a similar threat to an adversary's capital ships, albeit only in the coastal areas to which their small size and limited fuel load restricted them.
The introduction of fast torpedo boats in the late 19th century was a serious concern to the era's naval strategists, introducing the concept of
tactical
asymmetric warfare
Asymmetric warfare (or asymmetric engagement) is the term given to describe a type of war between belligerents whose relative military power, strategy or tactics differ significantly. This is typically a war between a standing, professional ar ...
. In response, navies operating large ships introduced firstly batteries of small-calibre quick-firing guns on board large warships for 'anti-torpedo' defence, before developing small but seaworthy ships, mounting light
quick-firing gun
A quick-firing or rapid-firing gun is an artillery piece, typically a gun or howitzer, which has several characteristics which taken together mean the weapon can fire at a fast rate. Quick-firing was introduced worldwide in the 1880s and 1890s an ...
s, to accompany the fleet and counter torpedo boats. These small ships, which came to be called "
torpedo boat destroyers" (and later simply "destroyers"), initially were largely defensive, primarily meeting the torpedo boat threat with their own guns outside of the range at which battleships would be vulnerable. In time they became larger and took on more roles, including making their own torpedo attacks on valuable enemy ships as well as defending against submarines and aircraft. Later yet they were armed with
guided missiles
In military terminology, a missile is a guided airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight usually by a jet engine or rocket motor. Missiles are thus also called guided missiles or guided rockets (when a previously unguided rocket i ...
and eventually became the predominant type of surface warship in modern era.
Today, the old concept of a very small, fast, and cheap surface combatant with powerful offensive weapons is taken up by the "
fast attack craft".
Spar torpedo boats
![CSS David drawing](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/CSS_David_drawing.jpg)
The
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
saw a number of innovations in naval warfare, including an early type of torpedo boat, armed with
spar torpedo
A spar torpedo is a weapon consisting of a bomb placed at the end of a long pole, or spar, and attached to a boat. The weapon is used by running the end of the spar into the enemy ship. Spar torpedoes were often equipped with a barbed spear at ...
es. In 1861, President
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
instituted a naval
blockade of Southern ports, which crippled the South's efforts to obtain war
materiel
Materiel (; ) refers to supplies, equipment, and weapons in military supply-chain management, and typically supplies and equipment in a commercial supply chain context.
In a military context, the term ''materiel'' refers either to the specif ...
from abroad. The South also lacked the means to construct a naval fleet capable of taking on the
Union Navy
The Union Navy was the United States Navy (USN) during the American Civil War, when it fought the Confederate States Navy (CSN). The term is sometimes used carelessly to include vessels of war used on the rivers of the interior while they were un ...
on even terms. One strategy to counter the blockade saw the development of torpedo boats, small fast boats designed to attack the larger
capital ship
The capital ships of a navy are its most important warships; they are generally the larger ships when compared to other warships in their respective fleet. A capital ship is generally a leading or a primary ship in a naval fleet.
Strategic im ...
s of the blockading fleet as a form of
asymmetrical warfare.
The class of torpedo boats were steam powered with a partially enclosed hull. They were not true submarines but were ''semi-submersible''; when ballasted, only the smokestack and few inches of the hull were above the water line.
CSS ''Midge'' was a ''David''-class torpedo boat.
CSS ''Squib'' and represented another class of torpedo boats that were also low built but had open decks and lacked the ballasting tanks found on the ''David''s.
The Confederate torpedo boats were armed with
spar torpedo
A spar torpedo is a weapon consisting of a bomb placed at the end of a long pole, or spar, and attached to a boat. The weapon is used by running the end of the spar into the enemy ship. Spar torpedoes were often equipped with a barbed spear at ...
es. This was a charge of powder in a waterproof case, mounted to the bow of the torpedo boat below the water line on a long spar. The torpedo boat attacked by ramming her intended target, which stuck the torpedo to the target ship by means of a barb on the front of the torpedo. The torpedo boat would back away to a safe distance and detonate the torpedo, usually by means of a long cord attached to a trigger.
In general, the Confederate torpedo boats were not very successful. Their low sides made them susceptible to swamping in high seas, and even to having their boiler fires extinguished by spray from their own torpedo explosions. Torpedo misfires (too early) and duds were common. In 1864, Union Navy Lieutenant
William B. Cushing
William Barker Cushing (4 November 184217 December 1874) was an officer in the United States Navy, best known for sinking the during a daring nighttime raid on 27 October 1864, for which he received the Thanks of Congress. Cushing was the youn ...
fitted a steam launch with a spar torpedo to attack the Confederate
ironclad . Also the same year the Union launched , a purpose-built craft with a number of technical innovations including variable ballast for attack operations and an extensible and reloadable torpedo placement spar.
Self-propelled torpedo
![Whitehead torpedo General Profile, The Whitehead Torpedo U](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Whitehead_torpedo_General_Profile%2C_The_Whitehead_Torpedo_U.S.N.1898.jpg)
A prototype self-propelled torpedo was created by a commission placed by
Giovanni Luppis
Giovanni (Ivan) Biagio Luppis Freiherr von Rammer (27 August 1813 – 11 January 1875), sometimes also known by the Croatian name of Vukić, was an officer of the Austro-Hungarian Navy who headed a commission to develop the first prototypes o ...
, an Austrian naval officer from
Rijeka, then a port city of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire, and
Robert Whitehead
Robert Whitehead (3 January 1823 – 14 November 1905) was an English engineer who was most famous for developing the first effective self-propelled naval torpedo.
Early life
He was born in Bolton, England, the son of James Whitehead, ...
, an English engineer who was the manager of a town factory. In 1864, Luppis presented Whitehead with the plans of the ''
Salvacoste
Giovanni (Ivan) Biagio Luppis Freiherr von Rammer (27 August 1813 – 11 January 1875), sometimes also known by the Croatian name of Vukić, was an officer of the Austro-Hungarian Navy who headed a commission to develop the first prototypes o ...
'' ("coastsaver"), a floating weapon driven by ropes from the land that had been dismissed by the naval authorities due to the impractical steering and propulsion mechanisms.
Whitehead was unable to improve the machine substantially, since the clockwork motor, attached ropes, and surface attack mode all contributed to a slow and cumbersome weapon. However, he kept considering the problem after the contract had finished, and eventually developed a tubular device, designed to run underwater on its own, and powered by compressed air. The result was a submarine weapon, the ''Minenschiff'' ("mine ship"), the first modern self-propelled torpedo, officially presented to the Austrian Imperial Naval commission on December 21, 1866.
The first trials were not successful as the weapon was unable to maintain a course on a steady depth. After much work, Whitehead introduced his "secret" in 1868 which overcame this. It was a mechanism consisting of a
hydrostatic valve and pendulum that caused the torpedo's hydroplanes to be adjusted so as to maintain a preset depth.
First torpedo boats
![HMS Lightning - Torpedo Boat 1877](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/HMS_Lightning_-_Torpedo_Boat_1877.jpg)
During the mid-19th century, the
ships of the line were superseded by large steam powered ships with heavy gun armament and heavy armour, called
ironclads
An ironclad is a steam-propelled warship protected by iron or steel armor plates, constructed from 1859 to the early 1890s. The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships to explosive or incendiary shells. Th ...
. Ultimately this line of development led to the
dreadnought
The dreadnought (alternatively spelled dreadnaught) was the predominant type of battleship in the early 20th century. The first of the kind, the Royal Navy's , had such an impact when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built after her ...
class of all-big-gun battleship, starting with .
At the same time, the weight of armour slowed the battleships, and the huge guns needed to penetrate enemy armour fired at very slow rates. This allowed for the possibility of a small and fast ship that could attack the battleships, at a much lower cost. The introduction of the
torpedo
A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, s ...
provided a weapon that could cripple, or even sink, any battleship.
The first warship of any kind to carry self-propelled torpedoes was HMS ''Vesuvius'' of 1873. The first seagoing vessel ''designed'' to fire the self-propelled
Whitehead torpedo
The Whitehead torpedo was the first self-propelled or "locomotive" torpedo ever developed. It was perfected in 1866 by Robert Whitehead from a rough design conceived by Giovanni Luppis of the Austro-Hungarian Navy in Fiume. It was driven by a t ...
was . The boat was built by
John Thornycroft at Church Wharf in
Chiswick for the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
. It entered service in 1876 and was armed with self-propelled Whitehead torpedoes.
![Torpedoboat rap 1873](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/Torpedoboat_rap_1873.png)
As originally built, ''Lightning'' had two
drop collars to launch torpedoes; these were replaced in 1879 by a single torpedo tube in the bow. She carried also two reload torpedoes amidships. She was later renamed ''Torpedo Boat No. 1''. The French Navy followed suit in 1878 with ''Torpilleur No 1'', launched in 1878 though she had been ordered in 1875.
Another early such ship was the Norwegian warship , ordered from Thornycroft shipbuilding company, England, in either 1872 or 1873, and built at Thornycroft's shipyard at Church Wharf in
Chiswick on the
River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...
. Managing a speed of , she was one of the fastest boats afloat when completed. The Norwegians initially planned to arm her with a
spar torpedo
A spar torpedo is a weapon consisting of a bomb placed at the end of a long pole, or spar, and attached to a boat. The weapon is used by running the end of the spar into the enemy ship. Spar torpedoes were often equipped with a barbed spear at ...
, but this may never have been fitted. ''Rap'' was outfitted with launch racks for the new self-propelled Whitehead torpedoes in 1879.
Use in combat
![Torpederas en Valparaiso Colocolo Janequeo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Torpederas_en_Valparaiso_Colocolo_Janequeo.jpg)
In the late 19th century, many navies started to build torpedo boats in length, armed with up to three torpedo launchers and small guns. They were powered by steam engines and had a maximum speed of . They were relatively inexpensive and could be purchased in quantity, allowing mass attacks on fleets of larger ships. The loss of even a squadron of torpedo boats to enemy fire would be more than outweighed by the sinking of a
capital ship
The capital ships of a navy are its most important warships; they are generally the larger ships when compared to other warships in their respective fleet. A capital ship is generally a leading or a primary ship in a naval fleet.
Strategic im ...
.
The
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...
of 1904–1905 was the first great naval war of the 20th century. It was the first practical testing of the new steel battleships, cruisers, destroyers, submarines, and torpedo boats. During the war the
Imperial Russian Navy
The Imperial Russian Navy () operated as the navy of the Russian Tsardom and later the Russian Empire from 1696 to 1917. Formally established in 1696, it lasted until dissolved in the wake of the February Revolution of 1917. It developed from ...
in addition to their other warships, deployed 86 torpedo boats and launched 27 torpedoes (from all warships) in three major campaigns, scoring 5 hits.
The
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrend ...
(IJN), like the Russians, often combined their torpedo boats (the smaller of which possessed only hull numbers, although the larger
1st class boats were named) with their
torpedo boat destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort
larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in ...
s (TBDs) (often simply referring to them as ''destroyers'') and launched over 270 torpedoes (counting the opening engagement at
Port Arthur naval base
A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ha ...
on 8 February 1904) during the war. The IJN deployed approximately 21 TBs during the conflict, and on 27 May 1905 the Japanese torpedo boat destroyers and TBs launched 16 torpedoes at the battleship , Admiral
Zinovy Rozhestvensky
Zinovy Petrovich Rozhestvensky (russian: Зиновий Петрович Рожественский, tr. ; – January 14, 1909) was an admiral of the Imperial Russian Navy. He was in command of the Second Pacific Squadron in the Battle of Tsu ...
's flagship at the
battle of Tsushima. Admiral
Tōgō Heihachirō
Marshal-Admiral Marquis , served as a '' gensui'' or admiral of the fleet in the Imperial Japanese Navy and became one of Japan's greatest naval heroes. He claimed descent from Samurai Shijo Kingo, and he was an integral part of preserving ...
, the IJN commander, had ordered his torpedo boats to finish off the enemy flagship, already gunned into a wreck, as he prepared to pursue the remnants of the Russian battle fleet.
Of the 16 torpedoes launched by the TBDs and TBs at the Russian battleship, only four hit their mark, two of those hits were from torpedo boats ''#72'' and ''#75''. By evening, the battleship rolled over and sank to the bottom of the Tsushima Straits. By war's end, torpedoes launched from warships had sunk one battleship, two armored cruisers, and two destroyers. The remaining over 80 warships would be sunk by guns, mines, scuttling, or shipwreck.
Torpedo boat destroyers
![HMS Spider](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/HMS_Spider.png)
The introduction of the torpedo boat resulted in a flurry of activity in navies around the world, as smaller, quicker-firing guns were added to existing ships to ward off the new threat. In the mid-1880s there were developed
torpedo gunboat
In late 19th-century naval terminology, torpedo gunboats were a form of gunboat armed with torpedoes and designed for hunting and destroying smaller torpedo boats. By the end of the 1890s torpedo gunboats were superseded by their more successful c ...
s, the first vessel design for the explicit purpose of hunting and destroying torpedo boats. Essentially very small
cruisers, torpedo gunboats were equipped with torpedo tubes and an adequate gun armament, intended for hunting down smaller enemy boats.
The first example of this was , designed by
Nathaniel Barnaby
Sir Nathaniel Barnaby, (25 February 1829 – 16 June 1915) was Chief Constructor of the Royal Navy from 1872 to 1885.
Biography
Born on 25 February 1829 in Chatham, Barnaby began his career as a naval apprentice at Sheerness in 1843. He won ...
in 1885.
The gunboat was armed with torpedoes and designed for hunting and destroying smaller torpedo boats. She was armed with a single
4-inch/25-pounder breech-loading gun, six
3-pounder QF guns and four torpedo tubes, arranged with two fixed tubes at the bow and a set of torpedo dropping carriages on either side. Four torpedo reloads were carried.
A number of torpedo gunboat classes followed, including the , the , the and the – all built for the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
during the 1880s and the 1890s. In 1891, a Chilean torpedo gunboat managed to sink the ironclad with a torpedo at the
battle of Caldera Bay during the
Chilean Civil War of 1891
The Chilean Civil War of 1891 (also known as Revolution of 1891) was a civil war in Chile fought between forces supporting Congress and forces supporting the President, José Manuel Balmaceda from 16 January 1891 to 18 September 1891. The war ...
. This marked a milestone in naval history, as it was the first time an ironclad warship had been sunk by a
self-propelled torpedoes.
![HMS Havock (1893)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/HMS_Havock_%281893%29.jpg)
In the late 1890s, torpedo boats had been made obsolete by their more successful contemporaries, the
torpedo boat destroyers, which were much faster. The first ships to bear the formal designation "torpedo boat destroyer" (TBD) were the of two ships and of two ships of the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
, ordered from Yarrows in 1892 by Rear Admiral
Jackie Fisher. These were basically enlarged torpedo boats, with speed equal to or surpassing the torpedo boats, but were armed with heavier guns that could attack them before they were able to close on the main fleet.
and were both built by
Thornycroft
Thornycroft was an English vehicle manufacturer which built coaches, buses, and trucks from 1896 until 1977.
History
In 1896, naval engineer John Isaac Thornycroft formed the Thornycroft Steam Carriage and Van Company which built its firs ...
. They were armed with one
12-pounder gun 12-pounder gun or 12-pdr, usually denotes a gun which fired a projectile of approximately 12 pounds.
Guns of this type include:
*12-pounder long gun, the naval muzzle-loader of the Age of Sail
*Canon de 12 de Vallière, French cannon of 1732
* Can ...
and three 6-pounder guns, with one fixed 18-in torpedo tube in the bow plus two more torpedo tubes on a revolving mount behind the two funnels. Later the bow torpedo tube was removed and two more 6-pounder guns added instead. They produced from a pair of Thornycroft water-tube boilers, giving them a top speed of 27 knots, giving the range and speed to travel effectively with a battle fleet.
After the
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...
, these ships became known simply as
destroyers. Destroyers became so much more useful, having better seaworthiness and greater capabilities than torpedo boats, that they eventually replaced most torpedo boats. However, the
London Naval Treaty after World War I limited tonnage of warships, but placed no limits on ships of under 600 tons. The French, Italian, Japanese and German Navies developed torpedo boats around that displacement, 70 to 100 m long, armed with two or three guns of around 100 mm (4 in) and torpedo launchers. For example, the
Royal Norwegian Navy
The Royal Norwegian Navy ( no, Sjøforsvaret, , Sea defence) is the branch of the Norwegian Armed Forces responsible for naval operations of Norway. , the Royal Norwegian Navy consists of approximately 3,700 personnel (9,450 in mobilized state, ...
s were in fact of a torpedo boat size, while the Italian s were closer in size to a
destroyer escort
Destroyer escort (DE) was the United States Navy mid-20th-century classification for a warship designed with the endurance necessary to escort mid-ocean convoys of merchant marine ships.
Development of the destroyer escort was promoted by th ...
. After World War II they were eventually subsumed into the revived
corvette classification.
The
Kriegsmarine torpedo boats were classified ''Torpedoboot'' with "T"-prefixed hull numbers. The classes designed in the mid-1930s, such as the
Torpedo boat type 35, had few guns, relying almost entirely upon their torpedoes. This was found to be inadequate in combat, and the result was a "fleet torpedo boat" class (
''Flottentorpedoboot''), which were significantly larger, up to 1,700 tons, comparable to small destroyers. This class of German boats could be highly effective, as in the action in which the British cruiser was sunk off Brittany by a torpedo salvo launched by the s T23 and T27.
Motor torpedo craft
![German E-Boat S 204 surrenders at Felixstowe on 13 May 1945](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/German_E-Boat_S_204_surrenders_at_Felixstowe_on_13_May_1945.jpg)
Before
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
steam torpedo boats which were larger and more heavily armed than hitherto were being used. The new
internal combustion engine
An internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal c ...
generated much more power for a given weight and size than steam engines, and allowed the development of a new class of small and fast boats. These powerful engines could make use of
planing hull designs and were capable of the much higher speed of under appropriate sea conditions than displacement hulls. The boat could carry two to four torpedoes fired from simple fixed launchers and several
machine gun
A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) ar ...
s.
During the First World War, three junior officers of the
Harwich Force
The Harwich Force originally called Harwich Striking Force was a squadron of the Royal Navy, formed during the First World War and based in Harwich. It played a significant role in the war.
History
After the outbreak of the First World War, a ...
suggested that small motor boats carrying a torpedo might be capable of travelling over the protective minefields and attacking ships of the
Imperial German Navy
The Imperial German Navy or the Imperial Navy () was the navy of the German Empire, which existed between 1871 and 1919. It grew out of the small Prussian Navy (from 1867 the North German Federal Navy), which was mainly for coast defence. Kaise ...
at anchor in their bases. In 1915, the
Admiralty
Admiralty most often refers to:
*Admiralty, Hong Kong
*Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964
*The rank of admiral
*Admiralty law
Admiralty can also refer to:
Buildings
* Admiralty, Traf ...
produced a Staff Requirement requesting designs for a
Coastal Motor Boat for service in the
North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...
. These boats were expected to have a high speed, making use of the lightweight and powerful petrol engines then available. The speed of the boat when fully loaded was to be at least and sufficient fuel was to be carried to give a considerable radius of action.
They were to be armed in a variety of ways, with torpedoes,
depth charges or for laying mines. Secondary armament would have been provided by light machine guns, such as the
Lewis gun. The CMBs were designed by
Thornycroft
Thornycroft was an English vehicle manufacturer which built coaches, buses, and trucks from 1896 until 1977.
History
In 1896, naval engineer John Isaac Thornycroft formed the Thornycroft Steam Carriage and Van Company which built its firs ...
, who had experience in small fast boats. Engines were not proper maritime internal combustion engines (as these were in short supply) but adapted aircraft engines from firms such as
Sunbeam and
Napier. A total of 39 such vessels were built.
In 1917 Thornycroft produced an enlarged overall version. This allowed a heavier payload, and now two torpedoes could be carried. A mixed warload of a single torpedo and four depth charges could also be carried, the depth charges released from individual cradles over the sides, rather than a stern ramp.
Speeds from were possible, depending on the various petrol engines fitted. At least two unexplained losses due to fires in port are thought to have been caused by a build-up of petrol vapour igniting.
![Operation Cerberus-fr](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/Operation_Cerberus-fr.svg)
Italian torpedo boats sank the Austrian-Hungarian in 1917, and in 1918. During the civil war in Russia, British torpedo boats made raids on
Kronstadt
Kronstadt (russian: Кроншта́дт, Kronshtadt ), also spelled Kronshtadt, Cronstadt or Kronštádt (from german: link=no, Krone for " crown" and ''Stadt'' for "city") is a Russian port city in Kronshtadtsky District of the federal city ...
harbour damaging two battleships and sinking a cruiser.
Such vessels remained useful through
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. The Royal Navy's
Motor Torpedo Boats (MTBs),
Kriegsmarine 'S-Boote' (''Schnellboot'' or "fast-boat": British termed them
E-boat
E-boat was the Western Allies' designation for the fast attack craft (German: ''Schnellboot'', or ''S-Boot'', meaning "fast boat") of the Kriegsmarine during World War II; ''E-boat'' could refer to a patrol craft from an armed motorboat to a lar ...
s), (Italian)
M.A.S. and M.S.,
Soviet Navy and
U.S.
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
PT boat
A PT boat (short for patrol torpedo boat) was a motor torpedo boat used by the United States Navy in World War II. It was small, fast, and inexpensive to build, valued for its maneuverability and speed but hampered at the beginning of the war ...
s (standing for ''Patrol Torpedo'') were all of this type.
A classic fast torpedo boat action was the
Channel Dash
The Channel Dash (german: Unternehmen Zerberus, Operation Cerberus) was a German naval operation during the Second World War. ( Cerberus), a three-headed dog of Greek mythology who guards the gate to Hades. A (German Navy) squadron comprisin ...
in February 1942 when German ''E-boats'' and destroyers defended the flotilla of , , and several smaller ships as they passed through the Channel.
By World War II torpedo boats were seriously hampered by higher fleet speeds; although they still had a speed advantage, they could only catch the larger ships by running at very high speeds over very short distances, as demonstrated in the Channel Dash. An even greater threat was the widespread arrival of
patrol aircraft
A maritime patrol aircraft (MPA), also known as a patrol aircraft, maritime reconnaissance aircraft, or by the older American term patrol bomber, is a fixed-wing aircraft designed to operate for long durations over water in maritime patrol rol ...
, which could hunt down torpedo boats long before they could engage their targets.
During World War II United States naval forces employed fast wooden
PT boats
A PT boat (short for patrol torpedo boat) was a motor torpedo boat used by the United States Navy in World War II. It was small, fast, and inexpensive to build, valued for its maneuverability and speed but hampered at the beginning of the wa ...
in the South Pacific in a number of roles in addition to the originally envisioned one of torpedo attack. PT boats performed reconnaissance, ferry, courier, search & rescue as well as attack and smoke screening duties. They took part in fleet actions and they worked in smaller groups and singly to harry enemy supply lines. Late in the
Pacific War when large targets became scarce, many PT boats replaced two or all four of their torpedo tubes with additional guns for engaging enemy coastal supply boats and barges, isolating enemy-held islands from supply, reinforcement or evacuation.
The most significant military ship sunk by a torpedo boat during World War II was the cruiser which was attacked by two Italian torpedo boats (M.S. 16 and M.S. 22) during
Operation Pedestal on 13 August 1942. It seems that the torpedo that mortally struck Manchester was launched by M.S. 22 (TV Franco Mezzadra) from a distance of about 600 meters.
Fast attack craft today
Boats similar to torpedo boats are still in use, but are armed with long-range
anti-ship missile
An anti-ship missile (AShM) is a guided missile that is designed for use against ships and large boats. Most anti-ship missiles are of the sea skimming variety, and many use a combination of inertial guidance and active radar homing. A goo ...
s that can be used at ranges between 30 and 70 km. This reduces the need for high-speed chases and gives them much more room to operate in while approaching their targets.
Aircraft are a major threat, making the use of boats against any fleet with air cover very risky. The low height of the radar mast makes it difficult to acquire and lock onto a target while maintaining a safe distance. As a result, fast attack craft are being replaced for use in naval combat by larger
corvettes, which are able to carry radar-guided anti-aircraft missiles for self-defense, and helicopters for over-the-horizon targeting.
Although torpedo boats have disappeared from the majority of the world's navies, they remained in use until the late 1990s and early 2000s in a few specialised areas, most notably in the Baltic. The close confines of the Baltic and ground clutter effectively negated the range benefits of early
ASMs. Operating close to shore in conjunction with land based air cover and radars, and in the case of the Norwegian navy hidden bases cut into
fjord
In physical geography, a fjord or fiord () is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Alaska, Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, Denmark, Förden and East Jutland Fjorde, Germany, ...
sides, torpedo boats remained a cheap and viable deterrent to amphibious attack. Indeed, this is still the operational model followed by the
Chinese Navy
The People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN; ), also known as the People's Navy, Chinese Navy, or PLA Navy, is the maritime service branch of the People's Liberation Army.
The PLAN traces its lineage to naval units fighting during the Chine ...
with its for the protection of its
coastal and estuarial waters.
See also
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Torpedo boat tender
The torpedo boat tender was a type of warship developed at the end of the 19th century to help bring small torpedo boats to the high seas, and launch them for attack.
During the Turko-Russian war in 1877, the Russians requisitioned 19 trade ve ...
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Torpedo ram
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Missile boat
A missile boat or missile cutter is a small, fast warship armed with anti-ship missiles. Being smaller than other warships such as destroyers and frigates, missile boats are popular with nations interested in forming a navy at lower cost. They a ...
References
Bibliography
* Campbell, Thomas, R. "Hunters of the Night: Confederate Torpedo Boats in the War Between the States" Burd Street Press, 2001.
* Jentschura, Hansgeorg. ''Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869–1945.'' United States Naval Institute, Annapolis, Maryland; 1977. .
* Lyon, David. ''The First Destroyers.'' Chatham Publishing, 1 & 2 Faulkner's Alley,
Cowcross Street, London, Great Britain, 1996. .
* Olender, Piotr. ''Russo-Japanese Naval War 1904–1905, Vol. 2, Battle of Tsushima.'' Published by Stratus s.c., 2010. Sandomierz, Poland. .
* Preston, Anthony. "Destroyer", Bison Books (London) 1977. .
External links
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Ship types