Ahoy mates. With the Military Small Craft-"Mosquito Fleet" campaign about to begin, I thought that I would give a short history on torpedo boats.

from Wikipedia

A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs rammed enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes, and later designs launched self-propelled Whitehead torpedoes. They were created to counter battleships and other large, slow and heavily armed ships by speed and agility.

American Civil War
The American Civil War saw a number of innovations in naval warfare, including the first torpedo boats, which carried spar torpedos. In 1861 President Lincoln instituted a naval blockade of Southern ports, which crippled the South's efforts to obtain war materials from abroad. The South also lacked the means to construct a naval fleet capable of taking on the Union Navy. One strategy to counter the blockade saw the development of torpedo boats, small fast boats designed to attack the larger capital ships of the blockading fleet.

The David class of torpedo boats were steam powered with a partially enclosed hull. They were not true submarines but were semi-submersible; when ballasted, only the smokestack and few inches of the hull were above the water line. On a dark night, and burning smokeless anthracite coal, the torpedo boats were virtually invisible. The Davids were named after the story of David and Goliath. The Midge and St. Patrick were David-class torpedo boats.

The CSS Squib and CSS Scorpion represented another class of torpedo boats that were also low built but had open decks and lacked the ballasting tanks found on the Davids.

The Confederate torpedo boats were armed with spar torpedoes. This was a charge of powder in a waterproof case, mounted to the bow of the torpedo boat below the water line on a long spar. The torpedo boat attacked by ramming her intended target, which stuck the torpedo to the target ship by means of a barb on the front of the torpedo. The torpedo boat would back away to a safe distance and detonate the torpedo, usually by means of a long cord attached to a trigger.

In general, the Confederate torpedo boats were not very successful. Their low sides made them susceptible to swamping in high seas, and even to having their boiler fires extinguished by spray from their own torpedo explosions. Torpedo misfires (too early) and duds were common.

In 1864 Union Naval Lieutenant Cushing fitted a steam launch with a spar torpedo to attack the Confederate ironclad CSS Albermarle. Also this year the Union launched the USS Spuyten Duyvil, a purpose-built craft with a number of technical innovations including variable ballast for attack operations and an extensible and reloadable torpedo placement spar.

The era of self-propelled torpedoes
Late 19th Century

During the late 1800s, the development of metal-hulled ships of large size, and the use of gyroscopes to even out the motion of waves, allowed for the rapid development of the very large gunship, which soon became known as battleships, later to evolve into the dreadnought type battleship. These were fiendishly expensive, so only the largest and richest nations could afford to continue in the race to build such ships.

But at the same time, the new weight of armour slowed them, and the huge guns needed to penetrate that armour fired at very slow rates. This allowed for the possibility of a small and fast ship that could attack the battleships, at a much lower cost. The introduction of the torpedo provided a weapon that could cripple, or sink, any battleship.

The first boat designed to fire the self-propelled Whitehead torpedo was HMS Lightning, completed in 1877. The French navy followed suit in 1878 with Torpeilleur No 1, launched in 1878 though she had been ordered in 1875. The Royal Norwegian Navy's HNoMS Rap—the name meaning 'fast'— was ordered from Thornycroft, England in 1873, but was not equipped with self-propelled torpedos until 1879.

The first recorded launch of torpedoes from a torpedo boat (which itself was launched from a tender) in an actual battle was by Russian admiral Stepan Makarov on January 16, 1877, who used self-propelled Whitehead's torpedoes against a Turkish armed ship Intibah during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78.

In the late 19th century, many navies started to build torpedo boats 30 to 50 m in length, armed with up to three torpedo launchers and small guns. They were powered by steam engines and had a maximum speed of 20 to 30 knots (37 to 56 km/h). They were relatively inexpensive and could be purchased in quantity, allowing mass attacks on fleets of larger ships. The loss of even many torpedo boats to enemy fire was more than outweighed by the sinking of a capital ship.

Torpedo boats sank the British battleship HMS Goliath in 1915, the Austrian-Hungarian Wien, the Turkish Szent Istvan in 1918, and the Russian Petropavlovsk.

Introduction of Torpedo Boat Destroyers

The introduction of the torpedo boat resulted in a flurry of activity in navies around the world, as smaller, quicker-firing guns were added to existing ships to ward off the new threat. Eventually an entirely new class of ships, the torpedo boat destroyer, was invented to counter them. These ships, today known simply as destroyers, were just enlarged torpedo boats, with speed equal to the torpedo boats, but including heavier guns that could attack them before they were able to close on the main fleet.

Destroyers became so much more useful, having better seaworthiness and more capabilities than torpedo boats, that they eventually replaced most torpedo boats. However, the Washington Naval Treaty after World War I limited tonnage of warships, but placed no limits on ships of under 600 tons. The French, Italian, Japanese and German Navies developed torpedo boats of that displacement, 70 to 100 m long, armed with 2 or 3 guns of around 100 mm (4 in) and torpedo launchers. After the war they were eventually discontinued. An examples is the Italian Spica class torpedo boat.

The Kriegsmarine also had warships classified separately as "torpedo boats" (Torpedoboot and Flottentorpedoboot) with "T"-prefixed hull numbers. The early classes such as the Torpedo boat type 35, had few guns, relying almost entirely upon their torpedoes. This was found to be inadequate in combat, and the later classes had more guns. They were significantly larger than the E-boats, up to 2,500 tons; the later versions were more like small destroyers, with which they are sometimes grouped (for example the Royal Norwegian Navy Sleipner class destroyers captured by the Germans in 1940 were redesignated torpedoboot). This class of German boats could be highly effective, as in the action in which the British cruiser HMS Charybdis was sunk off Brittany by a torpedo salvo launched by the Elbing class torpedo boats T23 and T27.

Small Torpedo Craft
Before World War I steam torpedo boats which were larger and more heavily armed than hitherto were being used. The new internal combustion engine generated much more power for a given weight and size than steam engines, and allowed the development of a new class of small and fast boats. The powerful engines could make use of planing hull designs capable of much higher speed under appropriate sea conditions than displacement hulls.

The result was a small torpedo boat 50 to 100 feet (15 to 30 m) in length with maximum speed 30 to 50 knots (56 to 93 km/h), carrying 2 to 4 torpedoes fired from simple fixed launchers and several machine guns. Such torpedo boats remained useful through World War II. The Royal Navy (RN) Motor torpedo boats (MTBs), Kriegsmarine 'S-Boote' (Schnellboot or "fast-boat": British termed them E-boats) and U.S. PT boats (standing for Patrol Torpedo) were of this type.

A classic fast torpedo boat action was the Channel Dash in February 1942 when German E-boats and destroyers defended the flotilla of Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Prinz Eugen and several smaller ships against RN MTBs.

By World War II torpedo boats were seriously hampered by higher fleet speeds; although they still had a speed advantage, they could only catch the larger ships by running at very high speeds over very short distances, as demonstrated in the Channel Dash. An even greater threat was the widespread arrival of patrol aircraft, which could hunt down torpedo boats long before they could see their targets.

During World War II United States naval forces effectively employed fast plywood motor torpedo boats in the South Pacific to attack Japanese supply lines in support of the U.S. "island hopping" strategy of capturing some islands but bypassing others to "wither on the vine" while harrying their supply lines by air and sea.

Before World War I steam torpedo boats which were larger and more heavily armed than hitherto were being used. The new internal combustion engine generated much more power for a given weight and size than steam engines, and allowed the development of a new class of small and fast boats. The powerful engines could make use of planing hull designs capable of much higher speed under appropriate sea conditions than displacement hulls.

The result was a small torpedo boat 50 to 100 feet (15 to 30 m) in length with maximum speed 30 to 50 knots (56 to 93 km/h), carrying 2 to 4 torpedoes fired from simple fixed launchers and several machine guns. Such torpedo boats remained useful through World War II. The Royal Navy (RN) Motor torpedo boats (MTBs), Kriegsmarine 'S-Boote' (Schnellboot or "fast-boat": British termed them E-boats) and U.S. PT boats (standing for Patrol Torpedo) were of this type.

A classic fast torpedo boat action was the Channel Dash in February 1942 when German E-boats and destroyers defended the flotilla of Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Prinz Eugen and several smaller ships against RN MTBs.

By World War II torpedo boats were seriously hampered by higher fleet speeds; although they still had a speed advantage, they could only catch the larger ships by running at very high speeds over very short distances, as demonstrated in the Channel Dash. An even greater threat was the widespread arrival of patrol aircraft, which could hunt down torpedo boats long before they could see their targets.

During World War II United States naval forces effectively employed fast plywood motor torpedo boats in the South Pacific to attack Japanese supply lines in support of the U.S. "island hopping" strategy of capturing some islands but bypassing others to "wither on the vine" while harrying their supply lines by air and sea.

Before World War I steam torpedo boats which were larger and more heavily armed than hitherto were being used. The new internal combustion engine generated much more power for a given weight and size than steam engines, and allowed the development of a new class of small and fast boats. The powerful engines could make use of planing hull designs capable of much higher speed under appropriate sea conditions than displacement hulls.

The result was a small torpedo boat 50 to 100 feet (15 to 30 m) in length with maximum speed 30 to 50 knots (56 to 93 km/h), carrying 2 to 4 torpedoes fired from simple fixed launchers and several machine guns. Such torpedo boats remained useful through World War II. The Royal Navy (RN) Motor torpedo boats (MTBs), Kriegsmarine 'S-Boote' (Schnellboot or "fast-boat": British termed them E-boats) and U.S. PT boats (standing for Patrol Torpedo) were of this type.

A classic fast torpedo boat action was the Channel Dash in February 1942 when German E-boats and destroyers defended the flotilla of Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Prinz Eugen and several smaller ships against RN MTBs.

By World War II torpedo boats were seriously hampered by higher fleet speeds; although they still had a speed advantage, they could only catch the larger ships by running at very high speeds over very short distances, as demonstrated in the Channel Dash. An even greater threat was the widespread arrival of patrol aircraft, which could hunt down torpedo boats long before they could see their targets.

Motor Torpedo Boat (MTB) was the name given to fast torpedo boats by the United States Navy, the Royal Norwegian Navy, the Royal Canadian Navy and the Royal Navy.

During World War II the US Navy boats were usually called by their hull classification symbol of "PT" (from Patrol, Torpedo) and are covered under PT boat though the class type was still 'motor torpedo boat'. The capitalised term is generally used for the Royal Navy (RN) boats and abbreviated to MTB. German motor torpedo boats of World war II were called E-boats by the allies and S-Boote (Schnellboote ~ fast boats) by the Kriegsmarine.

MTBs were designed for high speed and manoeuvrability on the water to get close enough to launch their torpedoes at enemy vessels. With next to no armour, the boats relied upon their agility at high speed to avoid being hit by gunfire from bigger ships.

The British and Italian navies started developing such vessels in the early 20th Century. Italian MTBs were called MAS and comparantly small. MAS 15 has the distinction in the history of this new weapon of sinking the Austrian battleship Szent István in 1918.

* HMS Cricket, launched in 1906, was the first RN ship to use oil for her boilers. She was initially designated as an Insect class coastal destroyer, but was later reclassified as a torpedo boat. The class were nicknamed Oily Wads by RN seamen.

* A similar size boat with a different role was the Rescue Launch.

The last MTBs for the Royal Navy were the two Brave class fast patrol boats of the late 1950s/early 1960s which were capable of 50 knots.

Many boats were built with the MTB designation.
RCN MTB

Specification of a Royal Canadian Navy torpedo boat of the 29th MTB Flotilla. Originally designed as Motor Gun Boats (MGBs) (because they carried 6pdr {57mm, 2.24"}) they were redesignated as Motor Torpedo Boats.

* Manufacturer: British Power Boats, Hythe
* Displacement: 55 tons
* Overall length: 72 ft 6 inches
* Breadth: 20 ft 7 inches
* Draught: 5 ft 8 inches
* Maximum speed: 38 to 41 knots (new)
* Armament:
-6 pdr (57mm, 2.24") gun
-Two 21" (530 mm) torpedo tubes
-303 or .50 Vickers MG
-20mm Oerlikon or 40mm Bofors cannon
* Powerplant - three Rolls-Royce or Packard supercharged V-12 (three shafts)
* Power - 3,750 hp total
* Range - 140 miles (260 km) at 25 knots (46 km/h)
* Crew -

Vosper Private Venture Boat

Designed by Commander Peter Du Cane CBE, the Managing Director of Vosper Ltd, in 1936. She was completed and launched in 1937, she was bought by the Admiralty and taken into service with the Royal Navy as MTB 102.

* Length: 68 ft
* Beam: 14 ft 9 in
* Draft: 3 ft 9 in
* Powerplant: 3 Isotta Fraschini 57-litre petrol engines
* Power: 3300 hp.
* Speed 48 knots (light), 43 knots (loaded and armed)
* Crew: 2 officers, 10 men.
* Armament:
-Two 21-inch torpedo tubes (depth-charges, machine guns and the Swiss made Oerlikon 20 mm cannon were trialled on her)

MTB 102 was the fastest wartime British naval vessel in service. She was at Dunkirk for the evacuation and carried Winston Churchill and Dwight Eisenhower to review the fleet for the Invasion of Normandy.

Vosper Types 1 & 2

Between 1943 and 1945 two Vosper designs appeared

Vosper Type I

* Length: 73 ft (22 m)
* Engine: 3 Packard engines for a total of 4200 hp
* Speed: 40 kt
* Range: 470 nm at 20 kt
* Displacement: 47 t
* Armament:
-Four 18-inch Torpedo
-20 mm Oerlikon,
-Two 0.303 Vickers MG, (optionally two 0.5 Vickers MG)
* Crew: 13

Vosper Type II This design remained in use after the war.

* Length 73 ft (22 m)
* Engine 4200 hp
* Speed 40 kt
* Range 480 nm at 20 kt
* Displacement 49 t
* Armament
-Two 18-inch Torpedo
-QF 6 pdr Mark IIA (57 mm)[1],
-20 mm Oerlikon,
-Two 0.303 Vickers MG
* Crew 13


Fast Attack Craft Today

Boats similar to torpedo boats are still in use, but are armed with long-range anti-shipping missiles that can be used at ranges between 30 and 70 km. This reduces the need for high speed chases and gives them much more room to operate in while approaching their targets.

Aircraft are a major threat, making the use of boats against any fleet with air cover very risky. The low height of the radar mast makes it difficult to acquire and lock onto a target while maintaining a safe distance. As a result fast attack craft are being replaced for use in naval combat by larger corvettes, which are able to carry radar-guided anti-aircraft missiles for self-defense, and helicopters for over-the-horizon targeting

They are still used by many navies and coast guards to police their territorial waters against smugglers, particularly those smuggling narcotics and weapons to insurgents. Heavily armed fast boats, often with the assistance of maritime patrol aircraft, are needed for the interdiction and boarding of potentially armed hostile fast boats, often indistinguishable at a distance from legitimate coastal craft.

Excellent report, Gator!
Thanks for the efforts, mate...BTW, watch yer mail for a little yellow envelope, a couple of goodies for your dock project...
~G

Yep, thanks for this Kenny, great reminder!
-only think bizare is that Petropavlovsk (with Makarov and painter Vereshchagin) was sank by a mine in Port Artur, but then maybe the mine was put by a PT boat.
thanks for sharing!

Well, now that everything is starting to get back to normal around the house, I'm going to be posting in the chartroom more often.

Posting histories like this for the campaigns is one of my objectives.

~Kenny

Thanks Kenny, Interesting reading.

Thanks Kenny.

A real top effort.

I personally appreciate your time and effort.

I am already primed and ready for this campaign. Your little historical summary has made the wait to start worse now LOL

Great to see you back to contributing to the Chartroom is probably over industrious posters like me in the forum that are keeping you to busy from doing your own posting LOL

Take care.

Regards

Sean

Very interesting read, Kenny. I do have one minor correction:

Both SMS Wien and SMS Szent István were ships of the Austro-Hungarian empire:
http://www.geocities.com/tegetthoff66/szent.html

Your quote "Torpedo boats sank the British battleship HMS Goliath in 1915, the Austrian-Hungarian Wien, the Turkish Szent Istvan in 1918, and the Russian Petropavlovsk."

I thought I'd mention that Warship 2008 has a nice article: "Italian Fast Coastal Forces: Development, Doctrine, and Campaigns, 1914-1986, Part One: from the Beginning to 1934"

Hello there, sorry to bother you with this, I have just brought my first 1-72 Vosper by Airfix which I'll be building in the near future, however being the sort of person I am, I hate simply following the rules laid down by paint guides, my question if you don't mind giving this a go is, apart from the paint guide from the Airfix instructions, is there other camo's that you can show me or describe, look forward to your reply.

the above photo is basically the only colour shot I've found, apart from box art.

I don't know if this has been posted before. I found it interesting. Hope it helps some. There is a list of illustrations at the bottom of the page.
http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/CloseQuarters/index.html

British Coastal Forces camouflage is covered in a chapter of "Allied Coastal Forces or World War II, Vol.1". The illustrations are of Fairmile boats (as that is the main focus of volume 1) but Vospers would have followed the same convention. Vosper and Elco boats are covered in volume 2. British Power Boats and Higgins boats were to be covered in a third volume but (sadly) that never came out.

John Lambert told me Vol. III will come out.

Super news! I just finished reading Vol 2 the other day. Great books. Great references for model builders.