![Mark 8 torpedo in Germanton Park](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Mark_8_torpedo_in_Germanton_Park.jpg)
A modern torpedo is an underwater
ranged weapon
A ranged weapon is any weapon that can engage targets beyond hand-to-hand distance, i.e. at distances greater than the physical reach of the user holding the weapon itself. The act of using such a weapon is also known as shooting. It is someti ...
launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive
warhead
A warhead is the forward section of a device that contains the explosive agent or toxic (biological, chemical, or nuclear) material that is delivered by a missile, rocket, torpedo, or bomb.
Classification
Types of warheads include:
* Explosiv ...
designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, such a device was called an automotive, automobile, locomotive, or fish torpedo; colloquially a ''fish''. The term ''torpedo'' originally applied to a variety of devices, most of which would today be called
mines. From about 1900, ''torpedo'' has been used strictly to designate a self-propelled underwater explosive device.
While the 19th-century
battleship
A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ...
had evolved primarily with a view to engagements between armored warships with
large-caliber guns, the invention and refinement of torpedoes from the 1860s onwards allowed small
torpedo boat
A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of se ...
s and other lighter
surface vessels,
submarine
A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...
s/
submersible
A submersible is a small watercraft designed to operate underwater. The term "submersible" is often used to differentiate from other underwater vessels known as submarines, in that a submarine is a fully self-sufficient craft, capable of ind ...
s, even improvised
fishing boat
A fishing vessel is a boat or ship used to catch fish in the sea, or on a lake or river. Many different kinds of vessels are used in commercial, artisanal and recreational fishing.
The total number of fishing vessels in the world in 2016 was es ...
s or
frogmen
A frogman is someone who is trained in scuba diving or swimming underwater in a tactical capacity that includes military, and in some European countries, police work. Such personnel are also known by the more formal names of combat diver, comb ...
, and later
light aircraft
A light aircraft is an aircraft that has a maximum gross takeoff weight of or less.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 308. Aviation Supplies & Academics, 1997.
Light aircraft are used as utility aircraft c ...
, to destroy large ships without the need of large guns, though sometimes at the risk of being hit by longer-range artillery fire.
One can divide modern torpedoes into lightweight and heavyweight classes; and into straight-running, autonomous homers, and wire-guided types. They can be launched from a variety of platforms.
Etymology
The word ''torpedo'' comes from the name of a genus of
electric ray
The electric rays are a group of rays, flattened cartilaginous fish with enlarged pectoral fins, composing the order Torpediniformes . They are known for being capable of producing an electric discharge, ranging from 8 to 220 volts, depending ...
s in the order ''
Torpediniformes Fernando de Buen y Lozano was a Spanish ichthyologist and oceanographer
Oceanography (), also known as oceanology and ocean science, is the scientific study of the oceans. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of topics, including e ...
'', which in turn comes from the
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
''torpere'' ("to be stiff or numb"). In naval usage, the American
Robert Fulton
Robert Fulton (November 14, 1765 – February 24, 1815) was an American engineer and inventor who is widely credited with developing the world's first commercially successful steamboat, the (also known as ''Clermont''). In 1807, that steamboat ...
introduced the name to refer to a towed
gunpowder
Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). ...
charge used by his French
submarine
A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...
(first tested in 1800) to demonstrate that it could sink
warship
A warship or combatant ship is a naval ship that is built and primarily intended for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the armed forces of a state. As well as being armed, warships are designed to withstand damage and are usually faster a ...
s.
History
Middle Ages
Torpedo-like weapons were first proposed many centuries before they were successfully developed. For example, in 1275, Arab engineer
Hasan al-Rammah
Hasan al-Rammah (, died 1295) was a Syrian Arab chemist and engineer during the Mamluk Sultanate who studied gunpowders and explosives, and sketched prototype instruments of warfare, including the first torpedo. Al-Rammah called his early torpedo " ...
– who worked as a military scientist for the
Mamluk Sultanate
The Mamluk Sultanate ( ar, سلطنة المماليك, translit=Salṭanat al-Mamālīk), also known as Mamluk Egypt or the Mamluk Empire, was a state that ruled Egypt, the Levant and the Hejaz (western Arabia) from the mid-13th to early 16th ...
of Egypt – wrote that it might be possible to create a projectile resembling "an egg", which propelled itself through water, whilst carrying "fire".
Early naval mines
![Sinking torpedoes by moonlight in Charleston Harbor - Harper's Weekly, June 13, 1863](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Sinking_torpedoes_by_moonlight_in_Charleston_Harbor_-_Harper%27s_Weekly%2C_June_13%2C_1863.jpg)
In modern language, a "torpedo" is an underwater self-propelled explosive, but historically, the term also applied to primitive naval mines. These were used on an ad hoc basis during the early modern period up to the late 19th century. Early
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 were created by the Dutchman
Cornelius Drebbel
Cornelis Jacobszoon Drebbel ( ) (1572 – 7 November 1633) was a Dutch engineer and inventor. He was the builder of the first operational submarine in 1620 and an innovator who contributed to the development of measurement and control systems, op ...
in the employ of
King James I
James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until ...
of England; he attached explosives to the end of a beam affixed to one of his submarines and they were used (to little effect) during the English
expeditions to La Rochelle in 1626.
An early submarine, , attempted to lay a bomb with a timed fuse on the hull of during the
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
, but failed in the attempt.
In the early 1800s, the American inventor Robert Fulton, while in France, "conceived the idea of destroying ships by introducing floating mines under their bottoms in submarine boats". He coined the term "torpedo" about the explosive charges with which he outfitted his submarine ''Nautilus''. However, both the French and the Dutch governments were uninterested in the submarine. Fulton then concentrated on developing the torpedo independent of a submarine deployment. On 15 October 1805, while in England, Fulton put on a public display of his "infernal machine", sinking the brig ''Dorothea'' with a submerged bomb filled with of gunpowder and a clock set to explode in 18 minutes. However, the British government refused to purchase the invention, stating they did not wish to "introduce into naval warfare a system that would give great advantage to weaker maritime nations". Fulton carried out a similar demonstration for the US government on 20 July 1807, destroying a vessel in New York's harbor. Further development languished as Fulton focused on his "steam-boat matters". During the
War of 1812
The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...
, torpedoes were employed in attempts to destroy British vessels and protect American harbors. A submarine-deployed torpedo was used in an unsuccessful attempt to destroy while in
New London's harbor. This prompted the British Captain
Hardy to warn the Americans to cease efforts with the use of any "torpedo boat" in this "cruel and unheard-of warfare", or he would "order every house near the shore to be destroyed".
Torpedoes were used by the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
during the
Crimean War
The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia.
Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...
in 1855 against British warships in the
Gulf of Finland
The Gulf of Finland ( fi, Suomenlahti; et, Soome laht; rus, Фи́нский зали́в, r=Finskiy zaliv, p=ˈfʲinskʲɪj zɐˈlʲif; sv, Finska viken) is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland to the north and E ...
. They used an early form of chemical detonator.
During 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 th ...
, the term torpedo was used for what is today called a
contact mine, floating on or below the water surface using an air-filled
demijohn
A carboy, also known as a demijohn or a lady jeanne, is a rigid container with a typical capacity of . Carboys are primarily used for transporting liquids, often water or chemicals.
They are also used for in-home fermentation of beverages, ...
or similar flotation device. These devices were very primitive and apt to prematurely explode. They would be detonated on contact with the ship or after a set time, although electrical detonators were also occasionally used. was the first warship to be sunk in 1862 by an electrically-detonated mine. Spar torpedoes were also used; an explosive device was mounted at the end of a spar up to long projecting forward underwater from the bow of the attacking vessel, which would then ram the opponent with the explosives. These were used by the
Confederate
Confederacy or confederate may refer to:
States or communities
* Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities
* Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...
submarine to sink although the weapon was apt to cause as much harm to its user as to its target.
Rear Admiral
Rear admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, equivalent to a major general and air vice marshal and above that of a commodore and captain, but below that of a vice admiral. It is regarded as a two star "admiral" rank. It is often regarde ...
David Farragut
David Glasgow Farragut (; also spelled Glascoe; July 5, 1801 – August 14, 1870) was a flag officer of the United States Navy during the American Civil War. He was the first rear admiral, vice admiral, and admiral in the United States Navy. Fa ...
's famous/apocryphal command during the
Battle of Mobile Bay
The Battle of Mobile Bay of August 5, 1864, was a naval and land engagement of the American Civil War in which a Union fleet commanded by Rear Admiral David G. Farragut, assisted by a contingent of soldiers, attacked a smaller Confederate fle ...
in 1864, "
Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!
The Battle of Mobile Bay of August 5, 1864, was a naval and land engagement of the American Civil War in which a Union fleet commanded by Rear Admiral David G. Farragut, assisted by a contingent of soldiers, attacked a smaller Confederate fle ...
" refers to a minefield laid at
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population within the city limits was 187,041 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, down from 195,111 at the 2010 United States census, 2010 cens ...
.
![Romanian spar torpedo boat Rândunica](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Romanian_spar_torpedo_boat_R%C3%A2ndunica.jpg)
On 26 May 1877, during the
Romanian War of Independence
The Romanian War of Independence is the name used in Romanian historiography to refer to the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78), following which Romania, fighting on the Russian side, gained independence from the Ottoman Empire. On , Romania and the R ...
, the Romanian spar torpedo boat attacked and sank the Ottoman
river monitor
River monitors are military craft designed to patrol rivers.
They are normally the largest of all riverine warships in river flotillas, and mount the heaviest weapons. The name originated from the US Navy's , which made her first appearance in ...
''Seyfi''. This was the first instance in history when a torpedo craft sank its targets without also sinking.
Invention of the modern 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 of the self-propelled torpedo was created on 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
Austro-Hungarian naval officer from
Rijeka
Rijeka ( , , ; also known as Fiume hu, Fiume, it, Fiume ; local Chakavian: ''Reka''; german: Sankt Veit am Flaum; sl, Reka) is the principal seaport and the third-largest city in Croatia (after Zagreb and Split). It is located in Primor ...
(modern-day
Croatia
, image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg
, anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capit ...
), at the time a port city of the
Austro-Hungarian Monarchy
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1 ...
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.
In 1866, Whitehead invented the first effective self-propelled torpedo, the eponymous
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 th ...
. French and German inventions followed closely, and the term ''torpedo'' came to describe self-propelled projectiles that traveled under or on water. By 1900, the term no longer included mines and booby-traps as the navies of the world added submarines,
torpedo boat
A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of se ...
s and
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 1 ...
s to their fleets.
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 21 December 1866.
The first trials were not successful as the weapon was unable to maintain a course at 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 to maintain a preset depth.
Production and spread
![Robert Whitehead with battered test torpedo Fiume c1875](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Robert_Whitehead_with_battered_test_torpedo_Fiume_c1875.jpg)
After the Austrian government decided to invest in the invention, Whitehead started the first torpedo factory in Rijeka. In 1870, he improved the devices to travel up to approximately at a speed of up to , and by 1881 the factory was exporting torpedoes to ten other countries. The torpedo was powered by compressed air and had an explosive charge of
gun-cotton
Nitrocellulose (also known as cellulose nitrate, flash paper, flash cotton, guncotton, pyroxylin and flash string, depending on form) is a highly flammable compound formed by nitrating cellulose through exposure to a mixture of nitric acid and ...
. Whitehead went on to develop more efficient devices, demonstrating torpedoes capable of in 1876, in 1886, and, finally, in 1890.
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 F ...
(RN) representatives visited Rijeka for a demonstration in late 1869, and in 1870 a batch of torpedoes was ordered. In 1871, the British Admiralty paid Whitehead
£15,000 for certain of his developments and production started at the Royal Laboratories in
Woolwich
Woolwich () is a district in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich.
The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was maintained throu ...
the following year. In 1893, RN torpedo production was transferred to the
Royal Gun Factory
The Royal Arsenal, Woolwich is an establishment on the south bank of the River Thames in Woolwich in south-east London, England, that was used for the manufacture of armaments and ammunition, proofing, and explosives research for the British ...
. The British later established a Torpedo Experimental Establishment at and a production facility at the Royal Naval Torpedo Factory,
Greenock
Greenock (; sco, Greenock; gd, Grianaig, ) is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council areas of Scotland, council area in Scotland, United Kingdom and a former burgh of barony, burgh within the Counties of Scotland, historic ...
, in 1910. These are now closed.
![Ottoman submarine Abdulhamid 1886](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Ottoman_submarine_Abdulhamid_1886.jpg)
Whitehead opened a new factory near
Portland Harbour
Portland Harbour is located beside the Isle of Portland, Dorset, on the south coast of England. Construction of the harbour began in 1849; when completed in 1872, its surface area made it the largest man-made harbour in the world, and rema ...
, England, in 1890, which continued making torpedoes until the end of
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 opposin ...
. Because orders from the RN were not as large as expected, torpedoes were mostly exported. A series of devices was produced at Rijeka, with diameters from upward. The largest Whitehead torpedo was in diameter and long, made of polished steel or
phosphor bronze
Phosphor bronze is a member of the family of copper alloys. It is composed of copper that is alloyed with 0.5–11% of tin and 0.01–0.35% phosphorus, and may contain other elements to confer specific properties (e.g. lead at 0.5–3.0% to form ...
, with a gun-cotton warhead. It was propelled by a three-cylinder
Brotherhood
Brotherhood or The Brotherhood may refer to:
Family, relationships, and organizations
* Fraternity (philosophy) or brotherhood, an ethical relationship between people, which is based on love and solidarity
* Fraternity or brotherhood, a mal ...
radial engine, using compressed air at around and driving two
contra-rotating
Contra-rotating, also referred to as coaxial contra-rotating, is a technique whereby parts of a mechanism rotate in opposite directions about a common axis, usually to minimise the effect of torque. Examples include some aircraft propellers, res ...
propellers, and was designed to self-regulate its course and depth as far as possible. By 1881, nearly 1,500 torpedoes had been produced. Whitehead also opened a factory at
St Tropez
, INSEE = 83119
, postal code = 83990
, image coat of arms = Blason ville fr Saint-Tropez-A (Var).svg
, image flag=Flag of Saint-Tropez.svg
Saint-Tropez (; oc, Sant Tropetz, ; ) is a commune in the Var department and the region of Provence-Alp ...
in 1890 that exported torpedoes to Brazil, The Netherlands, Turkey, and Greece.
Whitehead purchased rights to the
gyroscope
A gyroscope (from Ancient Greek γῦρος ''gŷros'', "round" and σκοπέω ''skopéō'', "to look") is a device used for measuring or maintaining orientation and angular velocity. It is a spinning wheel or disc in which the axis of rota ...
of
Ludwig Obry
Ludwig Obry was an Austrian engineer and naval officer of the Austrian Navy who invented a gyroscopic device for steering a torpedo in 1895.
The gyroscope was invented by Leon Foucault in 1851 but industry ignored the device for nearly 50 years ...
in 1888 but it was not sufficiently accurate, so in 1890 he purchased a better design to improve control of his designs, which came to be called the "Devil's Device". The firm of
L. Schwartzkopff in Germany also produced torpedoes and exported them to Russia, Japan, and Spain. In 1885, Britain ordered a batch of 50 as torpedo production at home and Rijeka could not meet demand.
By World War I, Whitehead's torpedo remained a worldwide success, and his company was able to maintain a monopoly on torpedo production. By that point, his torpedo had grown to a diameter of 18 inches with a maximum speed of with a warhead weighing .
Whitehead faced competition from the American
Lieutenant Commander
Lieutenant commander (also hyphenated lieutenant-commander and abbreviated Lt Cdr, LtCdr. or LCDR) is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander. The corresponding rank i ...
John A. Howell, whose
design, driven by a
flywheel
A flywheel is a mechanical device which uses the conservation of angular momentum to store rotational energy; a form of kinetic energy proportional to the product of its moment of inertia and the square of its rotational speed. In particular, ass ...
, was simpler and cheaper. It was produced from 1885 to 1895, and it ran straight, leaving no wake. A Torpedo Test Station was set up in
Rhode Island
Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...
in 1870. The Howell torpedo was the only
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
model until Whitehead torpedoes produced by
Bliss and Williams entered service in 1894. Five varieties were produced, all 18-inch diameter. The United States Navy started using the Whitehead torpedo in 1892 after an American company, E.W. Bliss, secured manufacturing rights.
The Royal Navy introduced the Brotherhood wet heater engine in 1907 with the
18 in. Mk. VII & VII* which greatly increased the speed and/or range over compressed air engines and wet heater type engines became the standard in many major navies up to and during the Second World War.
Torpedo boats and guidance systems
Ships of the line
A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactic known as the line of battle, which depended on the two colum ...
were superseded by
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 ...
, large steam-powered ships with heavy gun armament and heavy armor, in the mid 19th century. 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 ...
category of all-big-gun battleships, starting with .
Although these ships were incredibly powerful, the new weight of armor slowed them down, and the huge guns needed to penetrate that armor 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 provided a weapon that could cripple, or sink, any battleship.
The first boat 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 th ...
was , completed in 1877. The
French Navy
The French Navy (french: Marine nationale, lit=National Navy), informally , is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the five military service branches of France. It is among the largest and most powerful naval forces in t ...
followed suit in 1878 with , launched in 1878 though she had been ordered in 1875. The first torpedo boats were built at the shipyards of Sir
John Thornycroft and gained recognition for their effectiveness.
At the same time, inventors were working on building a guided torpedo. Prototypes were built by
John Ericsson
John Ericsson (born Johan Ericsson; July 31, 1803 – March 8, 1889) was a Swedish-American inventor. He was active in England and the United States.
Ericsson collaborated on the design of the railroad steam locomotive ''Novelty'', which com ...
,
John Louis Lay
John Louis Lay (January 14, 1833 – April 17, 1899) was an American inventor, and a pioneer of the torpedo.
Biography
Lay was born in Buffalo, New York. He was appointed 2nd assistant engineer in the Union Navy on July 8, 1862, and was promoted t ...
, and Victor von Scheliha, but the first practical guided missile was patented by
Louis Brennan
Louis Brennan (28 January 1852 – 17 January 1932) was an Irish-Australian mechanical engineer and inventor.
Biography
Brennan was born in Castlebar, Ireland, and moved to Melbourne, Australia in 1861 with his parents. He started his caree ...
, an emigre to Australia, in 1877.
[
]
It was designed to run at a consistent depth of , and was fitted with an indicator mast that just broke the surface of the water. At night the mast had a small light, only visible from the rear. Two steel drums were mounted one behind the other inside the torpedo, each carrying several thousand yards of high-tensile steel wire. The drums connected via a differential gear
A differential is a gear train with three drive shafts that has the property that the rotational speed of one shaft is the average of the speeds of the others, or a fixed multiple of that average.
Functional description
The following descr ...
to twin contra-rotating
Contra-rotating, also referred to as coaxial contra-rotating, is a technique whereby parts of a mechanism rotate in opposite directions about a common axis, usually to minimise the effect of torque. Examples include some aircraft propellers, res ...
propellers. If one drum was rotated faster than the other, then the rudder was activated. The other ends of the wires were connected to steam-powered winding engines, which were arranged so that speeds could be varied within fine limits, giving sensitive steering control for the torpedo.
The torpedo attained a speed of using a wire in diameter but later this was changed to to increase the speed to . The torpedo was fitted with elevators controlled by a depth-keeping mechanism, and the fore and aft rudders operated by the differential between the drums.[The Brennan Torpedo by Alec Beanse ]
Brennan traveled to Britain, where the Admiralty examined the torpedo and found it unsuitable for shipboard use. However, the War Office
The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...
proved more amenable, and in early August 1881, a special Royal Engineer
The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...
committee was instructed to inspect the torpedo at Chatham and report back directly to the Secretary of State for War, Hugh Childers
Hugh Culling Eardley Childers (25 June 1827 – 29 January 1896) was a British Liberal statesman of the nineteenth century. He is perhaps best known for his reform efforts at the Admiralty and the War Office. Later in his career, as Chancellor ...
. The report strongly recommended that an improved model be built at government expense. In 1883 an agreement was reached between the Brennan Torpedo Company and the government. The newly appointed Inspector-General of Fortifications in England, Sir Andrew Clarke, appreciated the value of the torpedo and in spring 1883 an experimental station was established at Garrison Point Fort
Garrison Point Fort is a former artillery fort situated at the end of the Garrison Point peninsula at Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent. Built in the 1860s in response to concerns about a possible French invasion, it was the last in a ser ...
, Sheerness
Sheerness () is a town and civil parish beside the mouth of the River Medway on the north-west corner of the Isle of Sheppey in north Kent, England. With a population of 11,938, it is the second largest town on the island after the nearby town ...
, on the River Medway
The River Medway is a river in South East England. It rises in the High Weald AONB, High Weald, East Sussex and flows through Tonbridge, Maidstone and the Medway conurbation in Kent, before emptying into the Thames Estuary near Sheerness, a to ...
, and a workshop for Brennan was set up at the Chatham Barracks
Chatham may refer to:
Places and jurisdictions Canada
* Chatham Islands (British Columbia)
* Chatham Sound, British Columbia
* Chatham, New Brunswick, a former town, now a neighbourhood of Miramichi
* Chatham (electoral district), New Brunswic ...
, the home of the Royal Engineers. Between 1883 and 1885 the Royal Engineers held trials and in 1886 the torpedo was recommended for adoption as a harbor defense torpedo. It was used throughout the British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
for more than fifteen years.
Use in conflict
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 F ...
frigate was the first naval vessel to fire a self-propelled torpedo in anger during the Battle of Pacocha
The Battle of Pacocha was a naval battle that took place on 29 May 1877 between the rebel-held Peruvian monitor ''Huáscar'' and the British ships and . The vessels did not inflict significant damage on each other, however the battle is notab ...
against rebel Peruvian ironclad on 29 May 1877. The Peruvian ship successfully outran the device. On 16 January 1878, the Turkish steamer ''Intibah'' became the first vessel to be sunk by self-propelled torpedoes, launched from torpedo boats operating from the tender under the command of Stepan Osipovich Makarov during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78.
In another early use of the torpedo, during the Pacific War
The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...
, the Peruvian ironclad
An ironclad is a steam engine, steam-propelled warship protected by Wrought iron, iron or steel iron armor, armor plates, constructed from 1859 to the early 1890s. The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships ...
Huáscar
Huáscar Inca (; Quechua: ''Waskar Inka''; 1503–1532) also Guazcar was Sapa Inca of the Inca Empire from 1527 to 1532. He succeeded his father, Huayna Capac and his brother Ninan Cuyochi, both of whom died of smallpox while campaigning near Qui ...
commanded by captain Miguel Grau
Miguel María Grau Seminario (27 July 1834 – 8 October 1879) was the most renowned Peruvian naval officer and hero of the naval battle of Angamos during the War of the Pacific (1879–1884). He was known as ''el Caballero de los Mares'' (Span ...
attacked the Chilean corvette Abtao
The corvette ''Abtao'' was a wooden ship built in Scotland during 1864 of 1.600 tons and 800 IHP. She fought in the War of the Pacific and was in service for the Chilean Navy until 1922.
__TOC__
Two hulls in Glasgow
During the Chincha Islands ...
on 28 August 1879 at Antofagasta
Antofagasta () is a port city in northern Chile, about north of Santiago. It is the capital of Antofagasta Province and Antofagasta Region. According to the 2015 census, the city has a population of 402,669.
After the Spanish American wars ...
with a self-propelled Lay torpedo
Lay may refer to:
Places
*Lay Range, a subrange of mountains in British Columbia, Canada
*Lay, Loire, a French commune
*Lay (river), France
* Lay, Iran, a village
*Lay, Kansas, United States, an unincorporated community
People
* Lay (surname)
* ...
only to have it reverse course. The ship ''Huascar'' was saved when an officer jumped overboard to divert it.
The Chilean ironclad
An ironclad is a steam engine, steam-propelled warship protected by Wrought iron, iron or steel iron armor, armor plates, constructed from 1859 to the early 1890s. The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships ...
was sunk on 23 April 1891 by a self-propelled torpedo from the ''Almirante Lynch'', 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 ...
, becoming the first ironclad warship sunk by this weapon. The Chinese turret ship
Turret ships were a 19th-century type of warship, the earliest to have their guns mounted in a revolving gun turret, instead of a broadside arrangement.
Background
Before the development of large-calibre, long-range guns in the mid-19th century, ...
was purportedly hit and disabled by a torpedo after numerous attacks by Japanese torpedo boats during the First Sino-Japanese War
The First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 1894 – 17 April 1895) was a conflict between China and Japan primarily over influence in Korea. After more than six months of unbroken successes by Japanese land and naval forces and the loss of the po ...
in 1894. At this time torpedo attacks were still very close range and very dangerous to the attackers.
Several western sources reported that the Qing dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...
Imperial Chinese military, under the direction of Li Hongzhang
Li Hongzhang, Marquess Suyi ( zh, t=李鴻章; also Li Hung-chang; 15 February 1823 – 7 November 1901) was a Chinese politician, general and diplomat of the late Qing dynasty. He quelled several major rebellions and served in important ...
, acquired ''electric torpedoes,'' which they deployed in numerous waterways, along with fortresses and numerous other modern military weapons acquired by China. At the Tientsin
Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popul ...
Arsenal in 1876, the Chinese developed the capacity to manufacture these "electric torpedoes" on their own. Although a form of Chinese art, the Nianhua
A New Year picture () is a popular Banhua in China. It is a form of colored woodblock print, used for decoration and the performance of rituals during the Chinese New Year Holiday. In the 19th and 20th centuries some printers began to use the g ...
, depict such torpedoes being used against Russian ships during the Boxer Rebellion
The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an anti-foreign, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian uprising in China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by ...
, whether they were actually used in battle against them is undocumented and unknown.
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 ...
(1904–1905) was the first great war of the 20th century. During the war the Imperial Russian
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. The ...
and Imperial Japanese
The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent forma ...
navies launched nearly 300 torpedoes at each other, all of them of the "self-propelled automotive" type. The deployment of these new underwater weapons resulted in one battleship, two armored cruisers, and two destroyers being sunk in action, with the remainder of the roughly 80 warships being sunk by the more conventional methods of gunfire, mines, and scuttling
Scuttling is the deliberate sinking of a ship. Scuttling may be performed to dispose of an abandoned, old, or captured vessel; to prevent the vessel from becoming a navigation hazard; as an act of self destruct, self-destruction to prevent the s ...
.
On 27 May 1905, during the Battle of Tsushima
The Battle of Tsushima (Japanese:対馬沖海戦, Tsushimaoki''-Kaisen'', russian: Цусимское сражение, ''Tsusimskoye srazheniye''), also known as the Battle of Tsushima Strait and the Naval Battle of Sea of Japan (Japanese: 日 ...
, Admiral Rozhestvensky's flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...
, the battleship , had been gunned to a wreck by Admiral Tōgō's 12-inch gunned battleline
The line of battle is a tactic in naval warfare in which a fleet of ships forms a line end to end. The first example of its use as a tactic is disputed—it has been variously claimed for dates ranging from 1502 to 1652. Line-of-battle tacti ...
. With the Russians sunk and scattering, Tōgō prepared for pursuit, and while doing so ordered his 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 1 ...
s (TBDs) (mostly referred to as just ''destroyers'' in most written accounts) to finish off the Russian battleship. ''Knyaz Suvorov'' was set upon by 17 torpedo-firing warships, ten of which were destroyers and four torpedo boats. Twenty-one torpedoes were launched at the pre-dreadnought
Pre-dreadnought battleships were sea-going battleships built between the mid- to late- 1880s and 1905, before the launch of in 1906. The pre-dreadnought ships replaced the ironclad battleships of the 1870s and 1880s. Built from steel, prote ...
, and three struck home, one fired from the destroyer and two from torpedo boats ''No. 72'' and ''No. 75''. The flagship slipped under the waves shortly thereafter, taking over 900 men with her to the bottom. On December 9, 1912, the Greek submarine "Dolphin" launched a torpedo against the Ottoman cruiser "Medjidieh".
Aerial torpedo
The end of the Russo-Japanese War fuelled new theories, and the idea of dropping lightweight torpedoes from aircraft was conceived in the early 1910s by Bradley A. Fiske
Rear Admiral Bradley Allen Fiske (June 13, 1854 – April 6, 1942) was an officer in the United States Navy who was noted as a technical innovator. During his long career, Fiske invented more than a hundred and thirty electrical and mechanic ...
, an officer in the United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
.[Hopkins, Albert Allis. ''The Scientific American War Book: The Mechanism and Technique of War'', Chapter XLV: Aerial Torpedoes and Torpedo Mines. Munn & Company, Incorporated, 1915] Awarded a patent in 1912,[Hart, Albert Bushnell. ''Harper's pictorial library of the world war, Volume 4''. Harper, 1920, p. 335.] Fiske worked out the mechanics of carrying and releasing the aerial torpedo
An aerial torpedo (also known as an airborne torpedo or air-dropped torpedo) is a torpedo launched from a torpedo bomber aircraft into the water, after which the weapon propels itself to the target.
First used in World War I, air-dropped torped ...
from a bomber
A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped ...
, and defined tactics that included a night-time approach so that the target ship would be less able to defend itself. Fiske determined that the notional torpedo bomber
A torpedo bomber is a military aircraft designed primarily to attack ships with aerial torpedoes. Torpedo bombers came into existence just before the First World War almost as soon as aircraft were built that were capable of carrying the weight ...
should descend rapidly in a sharp spiral to evade enemy guns, then when about above the water the aircraft would straighten its flight long enough to line up with the torpedo's intended path. The aircraft would release the torpedo at a distance of from the target.[ Fiske reported in 1915 that, using this method, enemy fleets could be attacked within their harbors if there was enough room for the torpedo track.
Meanwhile, the ]Royal Naval Air Service
The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy, under the direction of the Admiralty's Air Department, and existed formally from 1 July 1914 to 1 April 1918, when it was merged with the British Army's Royal Flying Corps t ...
began actively experimenting with this possibility. The first successful aerial torpedo drop was performed by Gordon Bell in 1914 – dropping a Whitehead torpedo from a Short S.64 seaplane
A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of takeoff, taking off and water landing, landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their tec ...
. The success of these experiments led to the construction of the first purpose-built operational torpedo aircraft, the Short Type 184
The Short Admiralty Type 184, often called the Short 225 after the power rating of the engine first fitted, was a British two-seat reconnaissance, bombing and torpedo carrying folding-wing seaplane designed by Horace Short of Short Brothers. It ...
, built-in 1915.
An order for ten aircraft was placed, and 936 aircraft were built by ten different British aircraft companies during the First World War
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 ...
. The two prototype aircraft were embarked upon , which sailed for the Aegean on 21 March 1915 to take part in the Gallipoli campaign.
On 12 August 1915 one of these, piloted by Flight Commander Charles Edmonds
Air Vice Marshal Charles Humphrey Kingsman Edmonds, (20 April 1891 – 26 September 1954) was an air officer of the Royal Air Force (RAF).
He first served in the Royal Navy and was a naval aviator during the First World War, taking part in the ...
, was the first aircraft in the world to attack an enemy ship with an air-launched torpedo.
On 17 August 1915 Flight Commander Edmonds torpedoed and sank an Ottoman transport ship a few miles north of the Dardanelles. His formation colleague, Flight Lieutenant
Flight lieutenant is a junior commissioned rank in air forces that use the Royal Air Force (RAF) system of ranks, especially in Commonwealth countries. It has a NATO rank code of OF-2. Flight lieutenant is abbreviated as Flt Lt in the India ...
G B Dacre, was forced to land on the water owing to engine trouble but, seeing an enemy tug close by, taxied up to it and released his torpedo, sinking the tug. Without the weight of the torpedo Dacre was able to take off and return to ''Ben-My-Chree''.
World War I
Torpedoes were widely used in 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 ...
, both against shipping and against submarines. Germany disrupted the supply lines to Britain largely by use of submarine torpedoes, though submarines also extensively used guns. Britain and its allies also used torpedoes throughout the war. U-boats themselves were often targeted, twenty being sunk by torpedo.[ Two Royal Italian Navy ]torpedo boats
A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of se ...
scored a success against an Austrian-Hungarian squadron
Squadron may refer to:
* Squadron (army), a military unit of cavalry, tanks, or equivalent subdivided into troops or tank companies
* Squadron (aviation), a military unit that consists of three or four flights with a total of 12 to 24 aircraft, ...
, sinking the battleship with two torpedoes.
The Royal Navy had been experimenting with ways to further increase the range of torpedoes during World War 1 using pure oxygen instead of compressed air, this work ultimately leading to the development of the oxygen-enriched air 24.5 in. Mk. I intended originally for the s and battleships of 1921, both being cancelled due to the Washington Naval Treaty
The Washington Naval Treaty, also known as the Five-Power Treaty, was a treaty signed during 1922 among the major Allies of World War I, which agreed to prevent an arms race by limiting naval construction. It was negotiated at the Washington Nav ...
.
Initially, 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 surrender ...
purchased Whitehead or Schwartzkopf torpedoes but by 1917, like the Royal Navy, they were conducting experiments with pure oxygen instead of compressed air. Because of explosions they abandoned the experiments but resumed them in 1926 and by 1933 had a working torpedo. They also used conventional wet-heater torpedoes.
World War II
In the inter-war years
In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the First World War to the beginning of the Second World War. The interwar period was relativel ...
, financial stringency caused nearly all navies to skimp on testing their torpedoes. Only the British and Japanese had fully tested torpedoes (in particular the Type 93, nicknamed ''Long Lance'' postwar by the US official historian Samuel E. Morison
Samuel Eliot Morison (July 9, 1887 – May 15, 1976) was an American historian noted for his works of maritime history and American history that were both authoritative and popular. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1912, and tau ...
) at the start of World War II. Unreliable torpedoes caused many problems for the American submarine force in the early years of the war, primarily in the Pacific Theater
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
. One possible exception to the pre-war neglect of torpedo development was the 45-cm caliber, 1931-premiered Japanese Type 91 torpedo
The Type 91 was an aerial torpedo of the Imperial Japanese Navy. It was in service from 1931 to 1945. It was used in naval battles in World War II and was specially developed for attacks on ships in shallow harbours.
The Type 91 aerial torped ...
, the sole aerial torpedo (''Koku Gyorai'') developed and brought into service by the Japanese Empire before the war. The Type 91 had an advanced PID controller
A proportional–integral–derivative controller (PID controller or three-term controller) is a control loop mechanism employing feedback that is widely used in industrial control systems and a variety of other applications requiring continuou ...
and jettisonable, wooden '' Kyoban'' aerial stabilizing surfaces which released upon entering the water, making it a formidable anti-ship weapon; Nazi Germany considered manufacturing it as the ''Luftorpedo LT 850'' after August 1942.
The Royal Navy's 24.5-inch oxygen-enriched air torpedo saw service in the two battleships although by World War II the use of enriched oxygen had been discontinued due to safety concerns. In the final phase of the action against , fired a pair of 24.5-inch torpedoes from her port-side tube and claimed one hit. According to Ludovic Kennedy
Sir Ludovic Henry Coverley Kennedy (3 November 191918 October 2009) was a Scottish journalist, broadcaster, humanist and author best known for re-examining cases such as the Lindbergh kidnapping and the murder convictions of Timothy Evans and ...
, "if true, his is
His or HIS may refer to:
Computing
* Hightech Information System, a Hong Kong graphics card company
* Honeywell Information Systems
* Hybrid intelligent system
* Microsoft Host Integration Server
Education
* Hangzhou International School, in ...
the only instance in history of one battleship torpedoing another". The Royal Navy continued the development of oxygen-enriched air torpedoes with the 21 in. Mk. VII of the 1920s designed for the s although once again these were converted to run on normal air at the start of World War II. Around this time too the Royal Navy were perfecting the Brotherhood burner cycle engine which offered a performance as good as the oxygen-enriched air engine but without the issues arising from the oxygen equipment and which was first used in the extremely successful and long-lived 21 in. Mk. VIII torpedo of 1925. This torpedo served throughout WW II (with 3,732 being fired by September 1944) and is still in limited service in the 21st Century. The improved Mark VIII** was used in two particularly notable incidents; on 6 February 1945 the only intentional wartime sinking of one submarine by another while both were submerged took place when HMS ''Venturer'' sank the German submarine ''U-864'' with four Mark VIII** torpedoes and on 2 May 1982 when the Royal Navy submarine sank the Argentine cruiser with two Mark VIII** torpedoes during the Falklands War
The Falklands War ( es, link=no, Guerra de las Malvinas) was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and its territorial de ...
. This is the only sinking of a surface ship by a nuclear-powered submarine in wartime and the second (of three) sinkings of a surface ship by any submarine since the end of World War II). The other two sinkings were of the India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
n frigate and the South Korean corvette ROKS ''Cheonan''.
Many classes of surface ships, submarines, and aircraft were armed with torpedoes. Naval strategy at the time was to use torpedoes, launched from submarines or warships, against enemy warships in a fleet action on the high seas. There were concerns torpedoes would be ineffective against warships' heavy armor; an answer to this was to detonate torpedoes underneath a ship, badly damaging its keel
The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...
and the other structural members in the hull, commonly called "breaking its back". This was demonstrated by magnetic influence mines in World War I. The torpedo would be set to run at a depth just beneath the ship, relying on a magnetic exploder to activate at the appropriate time.
Germany, Britain, and the U.S. independently devised ways to do this; German and American torpedoes, however, suffered problems with their depth-keeping mechanisms, coupled with faults in magnetic pistol
Magnetic pistol is the term for the device on a torpedo or naval mine that detects its target by its magnetic field, and triggers the fuse for detonation. A device to detonate a torpedo or mine on ''contact'' with a ship or submarine is known as a ...
s shared by all designs. Inadequate testing had failed to reveal the effect of the Earth's magnetic field on ships and exploder mechanisms, which resulted in premature detonation. The ''Kriegsmarine
The (, ) was the navy of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official branches, along with the a ...
'' and Royal Navy promptly identified and eliminated the problems. In the United States Navy (USN), there was an extended wrangle over the problems plaguing the Mark 14 torpedo
The Mark 14 torpedo was the United States Navy's standard submarine-launched anti-ship torpedo of World War II. This weapon was plagued with many problems which crippled its performance early in the war. It was supplemented by the Mark 18 elec ...
(and its Mark 6 exploder
The Mark 6 exploder was a United States Navy torpedo exploder developed in the 1920s. It was the standard exploder of the Navy's Mark 14 torpedo and Mark 15 torpedo.
Development
Early torpedoes used contact exploders. A typical exploder had a ...
). Cursory trials had allowed bad designs to enter service. Both the Navy Bureau of Ordnance The Bureau of Ordnance (BuOrd) was a United States Navy organization, which was responsible for the procurement, storage, and deployment of all naval weapons, between the years 1862 and 1959.
History
Congress established the Bureau in the Departmen ...
and the United States Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
were too busy protecting their interests to correct the errors, and fully functioning torpedoes only became available to the USN twenty-one months into the Pacific War.
British submarines used torpedoes to interdict the Axis supply shipping to North Africa
North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...
, while Fleet Air Arm
The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) is one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy and is responsible for the delivery of naval air power both from land and at sea. The Fleet Air Arm operates the F-35 Lightning II for maritime strike, the AW159 Wil ...
Swordfish
Swordfish (''Xiphias gladius''), also known as broadbills in some countries, are large, highly migratory predatory fish characterized by a long, flat, pointed bill. They are a popular sport fish of the billfish category, though elusive. Swordfis ...
sank three Italian battleships at Taranto by a torpedo and (after a mistaken, but abortive, attack on ) scored one crucial hit in the hunt for the German battleship . Large tonnages of merchant shipping were sunk by submarines with torpedoes in both the Battle of the Atlantic
The Battle of the Atlantic, the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, ran from 1939 to the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, covering a major part of the naval history of World War II. At its core was the Allied naval blockade ...
and the Pacific War.
Torpedo boats, such as MTBs
MTBS is an annual interschools athletics competition (the largest in South Africa) held between four high schools located in Bellville, Western Cape.
The competition is mainly an athletics meeting and includes cheerleading and flashes. These s ...
, 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 wa ...
s, or S-boats, enabled the relatively small but fast craft to carry enough firepower, in theory, to destroy a larger ship, though this rarely occurred in practice. The largest warship sunk by torpedoes from small craft in World War II was the British cruiser , sunk by Italian MAS boat
''Motoscafo armato silurante'' (torpedo-armed motorboat), commonly abbreviated as MAS, was a class of fast torpedo-armed vessels used by the (Italian Royal Navy) during World War I and World War II. Originally, "MAS" referred to (armed motorbo ...
s on the night of 12/13 August 1942 during Operation Pedestal
Operation Pedestal ( it, Battaglia di Mezzo Agosto, Battle of mid-August), known in Malta as (), was a British operation to carry supplies to the island of Malta in August 1942, during the Second World War. Malta was a base from which British ...
. Destroyers of all navies were also armed with torpedoes to attack larger ships. In the Battle off Samar
The Battle off Samar was the centermost action of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, one of the largest naval battles in history, which took place in the Philippine Sea off Samar Island, in the Philippines on October 25, 1944. It was the only major ...
, destroyer torpedoes from the escorts of the American task force "Taffy 3" showed effectiveness at defeating armor. Damage and confusion caused by torpedo attacks were instrumental in beating back a superior Japanese force of battleships and cruisers. In the Battle of the North Cape
The Battle of the North Cape was a Second World War naval battle that occurred on 26 December 1943, as part of the Arctic campaign. The , on an operation to attack Arctic Convoys of war materiel from the Western Allies to the Soviet Union, was ...
in December 1943, torpedo hits from British destroyers and slowed the German battleship enough for the British battleship to catch and sink her, and in May 1945 the British 26th Destroyer Flotilla (coincidentally led by ''Saumarez'' again) ambushed and sank Japanese heavy cruiser .
Frequency-hopping
During 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 opposin ...
, Hedy Lamarr
Hedy Lamarr (; born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler; November 9, 1914 January 19, 2000) was an Austrian-born American film actress and inventor. A film star during Hollywood's golden age, Lamarr has been described as one of the greatest movie actresse ...
and composer George Antheil
George Johann Carl Antheil (; July 8, 1900 – February 12, 1959) was an American avant-garde composer, pianist, author, and inventor whose modernist musical compositions explored the modern sounds – musical, industrial, and mechanical – of t ...
developed a radio guidance system for Allied
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
torpedoes, it intended to use frequency-hopping technology to defeat the threat of jamming by the Axis powers
The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were ...
. As radio guidance had been abandoned some years earlier, it was not pursued. Although the US Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...
never adopted the technology, it did, in the 1960s, investigate various spread-spectrum techniques. Spread-spectrum techniques are incorporated into Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limi ...
technology and are similar to methods used in legacy versions of Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wave ...
.["Hollywood star whose invention paved the way for Wi-Fi"](_blank)
''New Scientist'', December 8, 2011; retrieved February 4, 2014. This work led to their induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame
The National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) is an American not-for-profit organization, founded in 1973, which recognizes individual engineers and inventors who hold a U.S. patent of significant technology. Besides the Hall of Fame, it also opera ...
in 2014.
Post–World War II
Because of improved submarine strength and speed, torpedoes had to be given improved warheads and better motors. During the Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
torpedoes were an important asset with the advent of nuclear-powered submarine
A nuclear submarine is a submarine powered by a nuclear reactor, but not necessarily nuclear-armed. Nuclear submarines have considerable performance advantages over "conventional" (typically diesel-electric) submarines. Nuclear propulsion, ...
s, which did not have to surface often, particularly those carrying strategic nuclear missile
Nuclear weapons delivery is the technology and systems used to place a nuclear weapon at the position of detonation, on or near its target. Several methods have been developed to carry out this task.
''Strategic'' nuclear weapons are used primari ...
s.
Several navies have launched torpedo strikes since World War II, including:
* During the Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
the United States Navy successfully attacked a dam with air-launched torpedoes.
* Israeli Navy fast attack craft
A fast attack craft (FAC) is a small, fast, agile, offensive, often affordable warship armed with anti-ship missiles, gun or torpedoes. FACs are usually operated in close proximity to land as they lack both the seakeeping and all-round defensive ...
crippled the American electronic intelligence vessel USS ''Liberty'' with gunfire and torpedoes during the 1967 Six-Day War
The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states (primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, S ...
, resulting in the loss of 46 crew.
* A Pakistan Navy
ur, ہمارے لیے اللّٰہ کافی ہے اور وہ بہترین کارساز ہے۔ English language, English: Allah is Sufficient for us - and what an excellent (reliable) Trustee (of affairs) is He!(''Quran, Qur'an, Al Imran, 3:173' ...
sank the Indian frigate on 9 December 1971 during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was a military confrontation between India and Pakistan that occurred during the Bangladesh Liberation War in East Pakistan from 3 December 1971 until the
Pakistani capitulation in Dhaka on 16 Decem ...
, with the loss of over 18 officers and 176 sailors.
* The British Royal Navy nuclear attack submarine sank the Argentine Navy
The Argentine Navy (ARA; es, Armada de la República Argentina). This forms the basis for the navy's ship prefix "ARA". is the navy of Argentina. It is one of the three branches of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic, together with the ...
light cruiser
A light cruiser is a type of small or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck. Prior to thi ...
with two Mark 8
Mark 8 is the eighth chapter of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It contains two miracles of Jesus, Peter's confession that he believes Jesus is the Messiah, and Jesus' first prediction of his own death and resurr ...
torpedoes during the Falklands War
The Falklands War ( es, link=no, Guerra de las Malvinas) was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and its territorial de ...
with the loss of 323 lives.
* During the Lebanon War, an unnamed Israeli submarine torpedoed and sank the Lebanese coaster ''Transit'', which was carrying 56 Palestinian refugees to Cyprus
Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...
, in the belief that the vessel was evacuating anti-Israeli militias. The ship was hit by two torpedoes, managed to run aground but eventually sank. There were 25 dead, including her captain. The Israeli Navy
The Israeli Navy ( he, חיל הים הישראלי, ''Ḥeil HaYam HaYisraeli'' (English: The Israeli Sea Corps); ar, البحرية الإسرائيلية) is the naval warfare service arm of the Israel Defense Forces, operating primarily in ...
disclosed the incident in November 2018.
* The Croatian Navy
, image = Seal of Croatian Navy.png
, caption = Emblem of the Croatian Navy
, start_date = 1991
, country =
, allegiance =
, branch =
, type = Navy
, role =
, size = 1,36330 vessels
, command_structure = Armed Forces of Croatia
, ga ...
disabled the Yugoslav patrol boat PČ-176 ''Mukos'' with a torpedo launched by Croatian naval commandos from an improvised device during the Battle of the Dalmatian channels
A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...
on 14 November 1991, in the course of the Croatian War of Independence
The Croatian War of Independence was fought from 1991 to 1995 between Croat forces loyal to the Government of Croatia—which had declared independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY)—and the Serb-controlled Yugosl ...
. Three members of the crew were killed. The stranded boat was later recovered by Croatian trawlers, salvaged and put in service with the Croatian Navy as OB-02 ''Šolta''.
* On 26 March 2010 the South Korean Navy ship ROKS ''Cheonan'' was sunk with the loss of 46 personnel. A subsequent investigation concluded that the warship had been sunk by a North Korean torpedo fired by a midget submarine
A midget submarine (also called a mini submarine) is any submarine under 150 tons, typically operated by a crew of one or two but sometimes up to six or nine, with little or no on-board living accommodation. They normally work with mother ships, ...
.
Energy sources
Compressed air
The Whitehead torpedo of 1866, the first successful self-propelled torpedo, used Pneumatics, compressed air as its energy source. The air was stored at pressures of up to and fed to a piston engine that turned a single propeller at about 100 Revolutions per minute, rpm. It could travel about at an average speed of . The speed and range of later models were improved by increasing the pressure of the stored air. In 1906 Whitehead built torpedoes that could cover nearly at an average speed of .
At higher pressures the Adiabatic process#Adiabatic heating and cooling, adiabatic cooling, experienced by the air as it expanded in the engine caused icing problems. This drawback was remedied by heating the air with seawater before it was fed to the engine, which increased engine performance further because the air expanded even more after heating. This was the principle used by the Brotherhood engine.
Heated torpedoes
Passing the air through an engine led to the idea of injecting a liquid fuel, like kerosene, into the air and igniting it. In this manner, the air is heated more and expands even further, and the burned propellant adds more gas to drive the engine. Construction of such ''heated'' torpedoes started circa 1904 by Whitehead's company.
Wet-heater
A further improvement was the use of water to cool the combustion chamber of the fuel-burning torpedo. This not only solved heating problems so more fuel could be burned but also allowed additional power to be generated by feeding the resulting steam into the engine together with the combustion products. Torpedoes with such a propulsion system became known as ''wet heaters'', while heated torpedoes without steam generation were retrospectively called ''dry heaters''. A simpler system was introduced by the British Royal Gun factory in 1908. Most torpedoes used in World War I and World War II were wet-heaters.
Compressed oxygen
The amount of fuel that can be burned by a torpedo engine (i.e. wet engine) is limited by the amount of oxygen it can carry. Since compressed air contains only about Earth's atmosphere, 21% oxygen, engineers in Japan developed the Type 93 (nicknamed "Long Lance" postwar) for destroyers and cruisers in the 1930s. It used pure compressed oxygen instead of compressed air and had performance unmatched by any contemporary torpedo in service, through the end of World War II. However, oxygen systems posed a danger to any ship that came under attack while still carrying such torpedoes; Japan lost several cruisers partly due to catastrophic secondary explosions of Type 93s. During the war, Germany experimented with hydrogen peroxide for the same purpose.
Oxygen enriched air
The British approached the problem of providing additional oxygen for the torpedo engine by the use of oxygen-enriched air, up to 57% instead of the 21% of normal atmospheric compressed air rather than pure oxygen. This significantly increased the range of the torpedo, the 24.5 inch Mk 1 having a range of at or at with a warhead. There was a general nervousness about the oxygen enrichment equipment, known for reasons of secrecy as 'No 1 Air Compressor Room' onboard ships, and development shifted to the highly efficient Brotherhood Burner Cycle engine that used un-enriched air.
Burner cycle engine
After the First World War Peter_Brotherhood, Brotherhood developed a 4 cylinder burner cycle engine which was roughly twice as powerful as the older wet heater engine. It was first used in the British Mk VIII torpedoes, which were still in service in 1982. It used a modified diesel cycle, using a small amount of paraffin to heat the incoming air, which was then compressed and further heated by the piston, and then more fuel was injected. It produced about 322 hp when introduced, but by the end of WW2 was at 465 hp, and there was a proposal to fuel it with nitric acid when it was projected to develop 750 hp.
Wire driven
The Brennan torpedo had two wires wound around internal drums. Shore-based steam winches pulled the wires, which spun the drums and drove the propellers. An operator controlled the relative speeds of the winches, providing guidance. Such systems were used for Coastal defense and fortification, coastal defense of the British homeland and colonies from 1887 to 1903 and were purchased by, and under the control of, the Army as opposed to the Navy. Speed was about for over 2,400 m.
Flywheel
The Howell torpedo used by the US Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...
in the late 19th century featured a heavy flywheel
A flywheel is a mechanical device which uses the conservation of angular momentum to store rotational energy; a form of kinetic energy proportional to the product of its moment of inertia and the square of its rotational speed. In particular, ass ...
that had to be spun up before launch. It was able to travel about at . The Howell had the advantage of not leaving a trail of bubbles behind it, unlike compressed air torpedoes. This gave the target vessel less chance to detect and evade the torpedo and avoided giving away the attacker's position. Additionally, it ran at a constant depth, unlike Whitehead models.
Electric batteries
Electric propulsion systems avoided tell-tale bubbles. John Ericsson
John Ericsson (born Johan Ericsson; July 31, 1803 – March 8, 1889) was a Swedish-American inventor. He was active in England and the United States.
Ericsson collaborated on the design of the railroad steam locomotive ''Novelty'', which com ...
invented an electrically propelled torpedo in 1873; it was powered by a cable from an external power source, because Battery (electricity), batteries of the time had insufficient capacity. The Sims-Edison torpedo was similarly powered. The Nordfelt torpedo was also electrically powered and was steered by impulses down a trailing wire.
Germany introduced its first battery-powered torpedo shortly before World War II, the G7e. It was slower and had a shorter range than the conventional G7a, but was wakeless and much cheaper. Its lead–acid battery, lead-acid rechargeable battery was sensitive to shock, required frequent maintenance before use, and required preheating for best performance. The experimental G7es, an enhancement of the G7e, used primary cells.
The United States had an electric design, the Mark 18 torpedo, Mark 18, largely copied from the German torpedo (although with improved batteries), as well as Mark 24 Mine, FIDO, an air-dropped acoustic homing torpedo for anti-submarine use.
Modern electric torpedoes such as the Mark 24 Tigerfish, the Black Shark torpedo, Black Shark or DM2 series commonly use Silver-oxide battery, silver oxide batteries that need no maintenance, so torpedoes can be stored for years without losing performance.
Rockets
Several experimental rocket-propelled torpedoes were tried soon after Whitehead's invention but were not successful. Rocket propulsion has been implemented successfully by the Soviet Union, for example in the VA-111 Shkval—and has been recently revived in Russian and German torpedoes, as it is especially suitable for supercavitating devices.
Modern energy sources
Modern torpedoes use a variety of propellants, including electric batteries (as with the French F21 (torpedo), F21 torpedo or Italian Black Shark torpedo, Black Shark), monopropellants (e.g., Otto fuel II as with the US Mark 48 torpedo), and bipropellants (e.g., hydrogen peroxide plus kerosene as with the Swedish Torped 62, sulfur hexafluoride plus lithium as with the US Mark 50 torpedo, or Otto fuel II plus hydroxyl ammonium perchlorate as with the British Spearfish torpedo).
Propulsion
The first of Whitehead's torpedoes had a single propeller and needed a large vane to stop it spinning about its longitudinal axis. Not long afterward the idea of contra-rotating, contra-rotating propellers was introduced, to avoid the need for the vane. The three-bladed propeller came in 1893 and the four-bladed one in 1897. To minimize noise, today's torpedoes often use pump-jets.
Some torpedoes—like the Russian VA-111 Shkval, Iranian Hoot (missile), Hoot, and German Superkavitierender Unterwasserlaufkörper, Unterwasserlaufkörper/ Barracuda—use supercavitation to increase speed to over . Torpedoes that don't use supercavitation, such as the American Mark 48 torpedo, Mark 48 and British Spearfish torpedo, Spearfish, are limited to under , though manufacturers and the military don't always release exact figures.
Guidance
Torpedoes may be aimed at the target and fired unguided, similarly to a traditional artillery shell, or they may be guided onto the target. They may be guided automatically towards the target by some procedure, e.g., sound (homing), or by the operator, typically via commands sent over a signal-carrying cable (wire guidance).
Unguided
The Victorian era Brennan torpedo could be steered onto its target by varying the relative speeds of its propulsion cables. However, the Brennan required a substantial infrastructure and was not suitable for shipboard use. Therefore, for the first part of its history, the torpedo was guided only in the sense that its course could be regulated to achieve an intended impact depth (because of the sine wave running path of the Whitehead, this was a hit or miss proposition, even when everything worked correctly) and, through gyroscopes, a straight course. With such torpedoes the method of attack in Torpedo boats#Small torpedo craft, small torpedo boats, torpedo bomber
A torpedo bomber is a military aircraft designed primarily to attack ships with aerial torpedoes. Torpedo bombers came into existence just before the First World War almost as soon as aircraft were built that were capable of carrying the weight ...
s and small submarines was to steer a predictable collision course abeam to the target and release the torpedo at the last minute, then veer away, all the time subject to defensive fire.
In larger ships and submarines, fire control calculators gave a wider engagement envelope. Originally, plotting tables (in large ships), combined with specialized slide rules (known in U.S. service as the "banjo" and "Is/Was"), reconciled the speed, distance, and course of a target with the firing ship's speed and course, together with the performance of its torpedoes, to provide a firing solution. By the Second World War, all sides had developed automatic electro-mechanical calculators, exemplified by the U.S. Navy's Torpedo Data Computer. Submarine commanders were still expected to be able to calculate a firing solution by hand as a backup against mechanical failure, and because many submarines existed at the start of the war were not equipped with a TDC; most could keep the "picture" in their heads and do much of the calculations (simple trigonometry) mentally, from extensive training.[
Against high-value targets and multiple targets, submarines would launch a spread of torpedoes, to increase the probability of success. Similarly, squadrons of torpedo boats and torpedo bombers would attack together, creating a "fan" of torpedoes across the target's course. Faced with such an attack, the prudent thing for a target to do was to turn to parallel the course of the incoming torpedo and steam away from the torpedoes and the firer, allowing the relatively short-range torpedoes to use up their fuel. An alternative was to "comb the tracks", turning to parallel the incoming torpedo's course, but turning towards the torpedoes. The intention of such a tactic was still to minimize the size of the target offered to the torpedoes, but at the same time be able to aggressively engage the firer. This was the tactic advocated by critics of Jellicoe's actions at Battle of Jutland#Controversy, Jutland, his caution at turning away from the torpedoes being seen as the reason the Germans escaped.
The use of multiple torpedoes to engage single targets depletes torpedo supplies and greatly reduces a submarine's combat endurance. Endurance can be improved by ensuring a target can be effectively engaged by a single torpedo, which gave rise to the guided torpedo.
]
Pattern running
In World War II the Germans introduced programmable pattern-running torpedoes, which would run a predetermined pattern until they either ran out of fuel or hit something. The earlier version, FaT, ran out after launch in a straight line, and then weaved backward and forwards parallel to that initial course, whilst the more advanced LuT could transit to a different angle after launch, and then enter a more complex weaving pattern.
Radio and wire guidance
Though Luppis' original design had been rope-guided, torpedoes were not wire-guided until the 1960s.
During the First World War the U.S. Navy evaluated a radio controlled torpedo launched from a surface ship called the Hammond Torpedo. A later version tested in the 1930s was claimed to have an effective range of .
Modern torpedoes use an Umbilical cable, umbilical wire, which nowadays allows the computer processing power of the submarine or ship to be used. Torpedoes such as the U.S. Mark 48 torpedo, Mark 48 can operate in a variety of modes, increasing tactical flexibility.
Homing
Homing "fire and forget" torpedoes can use passive or active guidance or a combination of both. Passive acoustic torpedoes home in on emissions from a target. Active acoustic torpedoes home in on the reflection of a signal, or "ping", from the torpedo or its parent vehicle; this has the disadvantage of giving away the presence of the torpedo. In semi-active mode, a torpedo can be fired to the last known position or calculated position of a target, which is then acoustically illuminated ("pinged") once the torpedo is within attack range.
Later in the Second World War torpedoes were given acoustic (homing) guidance systems, with the American Mark 24 mine and Mark 27 torpedo and the German G7es torpedo. Pattern-following and wake homing torpedoes were also developed. Acoustic homing formed the basis for torpedo guidance after the Second World War.
The homing systems for torpedoes are generally acoustic, though there have been other target sensor types used. A ship's acoustic signature is not the only emission a torpedo can home in on; to engage U.S. supercarriers, the Soviet Union developed the 53-65 torpedo, 53–65 Wake (physics), wake-homing torpedo. As standard acoustic lures can't distract a wake homing torpedo, the US Navy has installed the Surface Ship Torpedo Defense on aircraft carriers that use a Countermeasure Anti-Torpedo to home in on and destroy the attacking torpedo.
Warhead and fuzing
The warhead
A warhead is the forward section of a device that contains the explosive agent or toxic (biological, chemical, or nuclear) material that is delivered by a missile, rocket, torpedo, or bomb.
Classification
Types of warheads include:
* Explosiv ...
is generally some form of aluminum , aluminized explosive, because the sustained explosive pulse produced by the powdered aluminum is particularly destructive against underwater targets. Torpex was popular until the 1950s, but has been superseded by polymer bonded explosive, PBX compositions. Nuclear torpedo, Nuclear torpedoes have also been developed, e.g. the Mark 45 torpedo. In lightweight antisubmarine torpedoes designed to penetrate submarine hulls, a shaped charge can be used. Detonation can be triggered by direct contact with the target or by a proximity fuze incorporating sonar and/or magnetic sensors.
Contact detonation
When a torpedo with a contact fuze strikes the side of the target hull, the resulting explosion creates a bubble of expanding gas, the walls of which move faster than the Speed of sound#Speed of sound in liquids, speed of sound in water, thus creating a shock wave. The side of the bubble which is against the hull rips away the external plating creating a large breach. The bubble then collapses in on itself, forcing a high-speed stream of water into the breach which can destroy Bulkhead (partition), bulkheads and machinery in its path.
Proximity detonation
A torpedo fitted with a proximity fuze can be detonated directly under the keel
The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...
of a target ship. The explosion creates a gas bubble which may damage the keel or underside plating of the target. However, the most destructive part of the explosion is the upthrust of the gas bubble, which will bodily lift the hull in the water. The structure of the hull is designed to resist downward rather than upward pressure, causing severe strain in this phase of the explosion. When the gas bubble collapses, the hull will tend to fall into the void in the water, creating a sagging effect. Finally, the weakened hull will be hit by the uprush of water caused by the collapsing gas bubble, causing structural failure. On vessels up to the size of a modern frigate, this can result in the ship breaking in two and sinking. This effect is likely to prove less catastrophic on a much larger hull, for instance, that of an aircraft carrier.
Damage
The damage that may be caused by a torpedo depends on the "shock factor value", a combination of the initial strength of the explosion and the distance between the target and the detonation. When taken about ship hull plating, the term "hull shock factor" (HSF) is used, while keel damage is termed "keel shock factor" (KSF). If the explosion is directly underneath the keel, then HSF is equal to KSF, but explosions that are not directly underneath the ship will have a lower value of KSF.[
]
Direct damage
Usually only created by contact detonation, direct damage is a hole blown in the ship. Among the crew, Fragmentation (weaponry), fragmentation wounds are the most common form of injury. Flooding typically occurs in one or two main watertight compartments, which can sink smaller ships or disable larger ones.
Bubble jet effect
The bubble jet effect occurs when a mine or torpedo detonates in the water a short distance away from the targeted ship. The explosion creates a bubble in the water, and due to the pressure difference, the bubble will collapse from the bottom. The bubble is buoyant, and so it rises towards the surface. If the bubble reaches the surface as it collapses, it can create a pillar of water that can go over a hundred meters into the air (a "columnar plume"). If conditions are right and the bubble collapses onto the ship's hull, the damage to the ship can be extremely serious; the collapsing bubble forms a high-energy jet that can break a meter-wide hole straight through the ship, flooding one or more compartments, and is capable of breaking smaller ships apart. The crew in the areas hit by the pillar are usually killed instantly. Other damage is usually limited.[
The Baengnyeong incident, in which broke in half and sank off the coast South Korea in 2010, was caused by the bubble jet effect, according to an international investigation.
]
Shock effect
If the torpedo detonates at a distance from the ship, and especially under the keel, the change in water pressure causes the ship to resonate. This is frequently the most deadly type of explosion if it is strong enough. The whole ship is dangerously shaken and everything onboard is tossed around. Engines rip from their beds, cables from their holders, etc. A badly shaken ship usually sinks quickly, with hundreds, or even thousands of small leaks all over the ship and no way to power the pumps. The crew fares no better, as the violent shaking tosses them around. This shaking is powerful enough to cause disabling injury to knees and other joints in the body, particularly if the affected person stands on surfaces connected directly to the hull (such as steel decks).
The resulting gas cavitation and shock-front-differential over the width of the human body is sufficient to stun or kill Frogman, divers.
Control surfaces and hydrodynamics
Control surfaces are essential for a torpedo to maintain its course and depth. A homing torpedo also needs to be able to outmaneuver a target. Good hydrodynamics are needed for it to attain high speed efficiently and also to give a long range since the torpedo has limited stored energy.
Launch platforms and launchers
Torpedoes may be launched from submarines, surface ships, helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, unmanned naval mines and naval fortresses. They are also used in conjunction with other weapons; for example, the Mark 46 torpedo used by the United States is the warhead section of the ASROC (Anti-Submarine rocket, ROCket) and the CAPTOR mine (CAPsulated TORpedo) is a submerged sensor platform which releases a torpedo when a hostile contact is detected.
Ships
Originally, Whitehead torpedoes were intended for launch underwater and the firm was upset when they found out the British were launching them above water, as they considered their torpedoes too delicate for this. However, the torpedoes survived. The launch tubes could be fitted in a ship's bow, which weakened it for ramming, or on the broadside; this introduced problems because of water flow twisting the torpedo, so guide rails and sleeves were used to prevent it. The torpedoes were originally ejected from the tubes by compressed air but later slow-burning gunpowder was used. Torpedo boats originally used a frame that dropped the torpedo into the sea. Royal Navy Coastal Motor Boats of World War I used a rear-facing trough and a cordite ram to push the torpedoes into the water tail-first; they then had to move rapidly out of the way to avoid being hit by their torpedo.
Developed in the run-up to the First World War, multiple-tube mounts (initially twin, later triple and in WW2 up to quintuple in some ships) for torpedoes in rotating turntable mounts appeared. Destroyers could be found with two or three of these mounts with between five and twelve tubes in total. The Japanese went one better, covering their tube mounts with splinter protection and adding reloading gear (both unlike any other navy in the world), making them true turrets and increasing the broadside without adding tubes and top hamper (as the quadruple and quintuple mounts did). Considering that their Type 93 torpedo, Type 93s were very effective weapons, the IJN equipped their cruisers with torpedoes. The Germans also equipped their capital ships with torpedoes.
Smaller vessels such as PT boats carried their torpedoes in fixed deck-mounted tubes using compressed air. These were either aligned to fire forward or at an offset angle from the centerline.
Later, lightweight mounts for homing torpedoes were developed for anti-submarine use consisting of triple launch tubes used on the decks of ships. These were the 1960 Mk 32 torpedo launcher in the US and part of STWS (Shipborne Torpedo Weapon System) in the UK. Later a below-decks launcher was used by the RN. This basic launch system continues to be used today with improved torpedoes and fire control systems.
Submarines
Modern submarines use either swim-out systems or a pulse of water to discharge the torpedo from the tube, both of which have the advantage of being significantly quieter than previous systems, helping avoid detection of the firing from passive sonar. Earlier designs used a pulse of compressed air or a hydraulic ram.
Early submarines, when they carried torpedoes, were fitted with a variety of torpedo launching mechanisms in a range of locations; on the deck, in the bow or stern, amidships, with some launch mechanisms permitting the torpedo to be aimed over a wide arc. By World War II, designs favored multiple bow tubes and fewer or no stern tubes. Modern submarine bows are usually occupied by a large sonar array, necessitating midships tubes angled outward, while stern tubes have largely disappeared. The first French and Russian submarines carried their torpedoes externally in Stefan Drzewiecki, Drzewiecki drop collars. These were cheaper than tubes but less reliable. Both the United Kingdom and the United States experimented with external tubes in World War II. External tubes offered a cheap and easy way of increasing torpedo capacity without radical redesign, something neither had time or resources to do before nor early in, the war. British T-class submarines carried up to 13 torpedo tubes, up to 5 of them external. America's use was mainly limited to earlier United States Porpoise-class submarine, ''Porpoise''-, -, and -class boats. Until the appearance of the class, most American submarines only carried 4 bow and either 2 or 4 stern tubes, something many American submarine officers felt provided inadequate firepower. This problem was compounded by the notorious unreliability of the Mark 14 torpedo
The Mark 14 torpedo was the United States Navy's standard submarine-launched anti-ship torpedo of World War II. This weapon was plagued with many problems which crippled its performance early in the war. It was supplemented by the Mark 18 elec ...
.
Late in World War II, the U.S. adopted a homing torpedo (known as Mark 27 torpedo, "Cutie") for use against escorts. It was basically a modified Mark 24 Mine with wooden rails to allow firing from a torpedo tube.
Air launch
Aerial torpedoes may be carried by fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, or missiles. They are launched from the first two at prescribed speeds and altitudes, dropped from bomb-bays or underwing hardpoints.
Handling equipment
Although lightweight torpedoes are fairly easily handled, the transport and handling of heavyweight torpedoes is difficult, especially in the tight spaces in a submarine. After the Second World War, some Type XXI submarines were obtained from Germany by the United States and Britain. One of the main novel developments seen was a mechanical handling system for torpedoes. Such systems were widely adopted as a result of this discovery.
Classes and diameters
Torpedoes are launched in several ways:
*From a torpedo tube mounted either in a trainable deck mount (common in destroyers), or fixed above or below the waterline of a surface vessel (as in cruisers, battleship
A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ...
s, and Auxiliary cruiser, armed merchant cruisers) or submarine
A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...
.
*Early submarines and some torpedo boat
A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of se ...
s (such as the U.S. World War II 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 wa ...
s, which used the Mark 13 torpedo, Mark 13 aircraft torpedo) used deck-mounted "drop collars", which simply relied on gravity.
*From shackles aboard low-flying torpedo bomber, aircraft or helicopters.
*As the final stage of a compound rocket or ramjet powered munition (sometimes called an assisted torpedo).
Many navies have two weights of torpedoes:
*A light torpedo used primarily as a close attack weapon, particularly by aircraft.
*A heavy torpedo used primarily as a standoff weapon, particularly by submerged submarines.
In the case of deck or tube launched torpedoes, the diameter of the torpedo is a key factor in determining the suitability of a particular torpedo to a tube or launcher, similar to the caliber of the gun. The size is not quite as critical as for a gun, but the diameter has become the most common way of classifying torpedoes.
Length, weight, and other factors also contribute to compatibility. In the case of aircraft launched torpedoes, the key factors are weight, provision of suitable attachment points, and launch speed. Assisted torpedoes are the most recent development in torpedo design, and are normally engineered as an integrated package. Versions for aircraft and assisted launching have sometimes been based on deck or tube launched versions, and there has been at least one case of a submarine torpedo tube being designed to fire an aircraft torpedo.
As in all munition design, there is a compromise between standardization, which simplifies manufacture, and logistics, and specialization, which may make the weapon significantly more effective. Small improvements in either logistics or effectiveness can translate into enormous operational advantages.
Use by various navies
French Navy
German Navy
Modern German Navy:
* DM2A4, DM2A4 heavyweight torpedo
* DM2A3 heavyweight torpedo
*
MU90 Impact, MU 90 lightweight impact torpedo
*Mark 46 torpedo
* Barracuda (supercavitating torpedo)
The torpedoes used by the World War II Kriegsmarine
The (, ) was the navy of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official branches, along with the a ...
included:
* G7a torpedo, G7a(TI)
* G7e torpedo, G7e(TII)
* G7e torpedo, G7e(TIII)
* G7s(TIV) "Falke"
* G7es torpedo, G7s(TV) "Zaunkönig"
Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran
Islamic Republic of Iran Navy
* Type 53 torpedo
* TEST-71 torpedo
* Valfajr (torpedo), Valfajr torpeo
Islamic Revolution Guard Corps Navy:
* Hoot (torpedo), Hoot torpedo
Italian Navy
The Italian Navy uses two types of heavyweight torpedoes, both developed and produced by Leonardo S.p.A., Leonardo:
* A-184 torpedo on the Sauro-class submarine, ''Sauro''-class submarines
* Black Shark torpedo on the Type 212 submarine, ''Todaro''-class submarines
Imperial Japanese Navy
The torpedoes used by 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 surrender ...
(World War II) included:
* Type 91 torpedo
The Type 91 was an aerial torpedo of the Imperial Japanese Navy. It was in service from 1931 to 1945. It was used in naval battles in World War II and was specially developed for attacks on ships in shallow harbours.
The Type 91 aerial torped ...
* Type 92 torpedo
* Type 93 torpedo (Long Lance)
* Type 95 torpedo
* Type 97 torpedo
* Kaiten
Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force
Modern Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force:
* Type 72 torpedo
* Type 73 light weight torpedo
* Type 80 torpedo, Type 80 torpedo (G-RX1)
* Type 89 torpedo, Type 89 torpedo (G-RX2)
* Type 97 light weight torpedo (G-RX4)
* Type 12 light weight torpedo (G-RX5)
Indian Navy
* Takshak torpedo, Takshak (heavy weight torpedo)
* Varunastra (Torpedo), Varunastra (heavyweight torpedo)
* Advanced Light Torpedo Shyena
* SMART (missile), S.M.A.R.T.
Royal Canadian Navy
Torpedoes used by the Royal Canadian Navy include:
* Mark 48 Torpedo, MK-48 Mod 7 Advanced Technology (AT) Torpedo
Royal Navy
The torpedoes used by 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 F ...
include:
* Spearfish torpedo
* Stingray torpedo
* Mark 24 Tigerfish, Tigerfish
* Mark 8, designed in 1925, last used in action in 1982
Russian Navy
Torpedoes used by the Russian Navy include:
* Type 53 torpedo
* Type 65 torpedo
* APR-3E torpedo
* VA-111 Shkval torpedo
* 65-76A 100 km
In April 2015, the ''Fizik'' (Type 53 torpedo, UGST) heat-seeking torpedo entered service to replace the wake-homing USET-80 developed in the 1980s and the next-gen Futlyar entered service in 2017.
U.S. Navy
The major torpedoes in the United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
inventory are:
* the Mark 46 torpedo, Mark 46 lightweight
* the Mark 48 torpedo, Mark 48 heavyweight torpedo
* the Mark 50 torpedo, Mark 50 advanced lightweight
* the Mark 54 LHT, Mark 54 Lightweight Hybrid Torpedo
* the CAPTOR mine, Mark 60 Encapsulated Torpedo (CAPTOR), a moored anti-submarine mine that releases a torpedo as its warhead
South Korean Navy
Torpedoes used by the Republic of Korea Navy include:
* Baek Sang Eo (White Shark) heavyweight torpedo
* Chung Sang Eo (Blue Shark) lightweight torpedo
* Hong Sang Eo (Red Shark) homing torpedo
* Beom Sang Eo (Tiger Shark) heavyweight torpedo
See also
* Anti-submarine weapon
* Autonomous Underwater Vehicle
* Bangalore torpedo
* Human torpedo
* List of torpedoes
* Missile guidance
* Nuclear torpedo
* André Rebouças, who supposedly developed a torpedo in the Paraguayan War (1864–1870)
* Shock factor
* Torpedo defence
Footnotes
References
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* ''The Columbia Encyclopedia'', Sixth Edition, online.
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; Attribution
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External links
"Modern Torpedoes And Countermeasures"
by Austin Joseph, ''Bharat Rakshak Monitor'', Volume 3(4) January–February 2001.
the source of the US Navy torpedo data (via the Internet Archive)
The US Navy – Fact File: Torpedo – Mark 46
The US Navy – Fact File: Heavyweight Torpedo – Mark 48
The US Navy – Fact File: Torpedo – Mark 50
The US Navy – Fact File: Torpedo – Mark 54
"Torpedo History" Geoff Kirby (1972)
"Development of Rocket Torpedoes" Geoff Kirby (2000)
US Naval Undersea Museum
US Naval Undersea Museum
Super Cavitation Torpedo 'Barracuda'
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=WicDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA94 "Our New Torpedo Bombers to Batter the Axis"], ''Popular Science'', September 1942; illustration at bottom of page 94 shows how Whitehead's so-called "secret unit" (i.e., the Pendulum mechanism) kept a torpedo level after entering the water, which made the self-propelled torpedo possible
"Torture Test for Tin Fishes"
August 1944 ''Popular Mechanics'' article on testing US torpedoes – detailed photos
{{Authority control
Torpedoes,
Ammunition
Anti-submarine warfare, Anti-submarine warfare
Anti-submarine weapons, Anti-submarine weapons
Projectiles
Unmanned underwater vehicles