torpedo boat

Torpedo Boats - From crystal torpedo launches to destroyers and mountain bikes. Learn about the history and development and where to find plans and kits for - RC - Steam - Electric static and working models.

Our first torpedo boat, the Cushing.

Torpedo boats are a new idea for an old concept - attacking, usually larger opponents, using stealth or speed or both. Here are some of the categories to which this fascinating subject belongs. Click on the headings for more information.

Crystalline Torpedo Boat

The first form of the torpedo was nothing more than an oversized broom handle with a metal canister filled with black powder explosive at the business end, complete with a trigger mechanism.

The use of this weapon increased during the American Civil War. The conditions were perfect, as there was a lot of fighting on the relatively calm waters of the river. This was coupled with ironclad targets consisting of high-value targets.

self-propelled torpedo

After British engineer Robert Whitehead invented the first self-propelled torpedo in 1868, torpedo boats were on the agenda of all navies, large and small. Large navies were involved in an arms race and were building ironclads with thicker armor and growing gun calibers.

Class III Torpedo Boat Battleship Program 1897

Increasing armor thickness and gun weight made battleships heavier and more difficult to maneuver. The new cannons were powerful but slow to load. This combination set the stage for small, fast craft with lethal loads.

With self-propelled torpedoes, suddenly the smallest nations could break the virtual deadlock and challenge the most powerful navies.

In short, the world's navies began to build fast and flexible launchers to carry the new torpedoes. One thing to keep in mind is that the flammability of gasoline was considered too dangerous to be used for vessel propulsion in warships, and diesel engines and steam turbines were hardly a reality.

That's why boats with displacement hulls are powered by compound steam engines. To make them faster they had to be long and narrow and have a high engine power to weight ratio.

The French, Italian, Russian and United States navies rapidly developed fleets of torpedo boats. These boats were usually between 25 and 50 meters long and displaced between 30 and 150 tons. Maximum speed varied between 20 and 30 knots, usually from a single propeller, but later, as the boats became longer, they were usually equipped with twin propellers.

The Royal Navy is usually one of the first to develop and test new technologies, but implementation has been slow. Instead, they have had a wait-and-see policy for some time.

Once a potential adversary has shown their cards, they will act - often responding with as much force and fervor as their opponent's ship has outlived its usefulness.

Torpedo boats suffered a similar fate. The extremely high cost of the anchor ships compared to the cost of the new threat required a different response.

reach a verdict

Three important developments followed:

Battleships were most vulnerable when at anchor or at low speed, so they were equipped with torpedo nets. Essentially a layer of metal netting suspended from booms around the hull. The boom would fold inward and the net would be rolled up and stored on racks along the hull and then moved at high speeds or in heavier seas. Torpedo nets were common on cruisers and battleships during the First World War.

Rapid-fire (QF, U.S. rapid-fire) small-caliber guns were developed. Ships of all sizes were equipped with QF guns of different calibers, usually 37 to 120 mm (1.5 to 4.7 inches) to defend against TB.

The introduction of the torpedo boat destroyer (to be determined) - soon to be called the "destroyer". In fact, the growth of this type was due to its lack of sea keeping capability. In this case, it was only natural to equip the largest torpedo boats with QF guns to remedy their smaller cousins.

Spanish Torpedo Boat Destroyer Rampage 1896

Ship types were almost obsolete before the First World War. Steam turbine-equipped destroyers could now easily outperform them with better sea keeping capabilities and more versatile designs. The destroyer transcended the narrow duties of an adversary it was designed to engage and destroy. Destroy them.

With the combination of high-powered gasoline engines and planning hulls, the concept of cheap, fast and deadly would come to life again. This time in the form of motorized torpedo boats, just before and after the outbreak of the First World War.

Architectural model torpedo boat

These boats are certainly interesting subjects from a time when technology was almost as rampant as it is today. Their relatively small size makes them suitable for beginners without getting bored. They have far fewer railings, boats and gun barrels than cruisers and battleships of the same era.

If you like RC scale models, for many TBs you can only you have a motor, shaft and struts to worry about, which is fine. On the other hand, hull access hatches may be difficult to hide. Some preplanning may be in order. Propulsion could be by electric motor or light steam unit.

Available Programs:

Considering the short lifespan of the boats, there are a lot of available plans - mainly Russian or German. Some of the ones I have found are as follows:

Books: the first destroyers, david lyon

This book is the best source for anyone interested in early British torpedo boat destroyers. It contains a separate plan of the HMS Velox (1904) on drawings of the Viper class to be determined. The plan is drawn by John Roberts in 1/96 scale and is of excellent quality. The plan is printed on both sides, with a GA plan and section on one side and a full hull line and GA section on the reverse, so there is enough information to complete the model.

The rest of the book is also very useful for builders of other subjects of ship types, even from other countries. Many countries ordered TBSs from British shipbuilders as prototypes for their domestic clones. This book may not be specific to these ships, but it may shed some light on the basic layout of the equipment, etc. The paperback version of this book is readily available and fairly inexpensive.

Plans for sale by Lothar Wischmeyer:

SM Torpedoboot "Tapfer" - From the looks of it, I'm guessing it's from the 1880s. It's a great looking ship. Painted at 1:50 scale on a single sheet of paper. It may be difficult to build as an RC model at the drawn scale. I would scale it up to 1:32, or possibly 1:24 scale. The plan was drawn by Dirk Nottelmann of Wedel.

SM Torpedo Boot "S-33" - One of the most successful German TB designs was the S-1 to S-66 class built by Schichau Werft at Elbing in the mid 1880s. Several were ordered by foreign countries with minimal design changes, e.g. Austria-Hungary, Italy, Russia, Sweden, Norway, Japan and China. The plans were drawn by Dirk Nottelmann of Wedel.

Kleine Torpedoboote A1-25 - This plan is drawn in 1:50 scale and is on the small side for an RC model. These ships were built by AG Vulcan in Hamburg in 1914-1915. As the (torpedo boat) destroyer was widely accepted as a more effective ship type, most nations abandoned the idea of the torpedo boat as an effective weapon.

Russian hobby magazine model - Konstruktor:

1974 #2: Strashnyi and 1987 #9: Skoyi - Sokol class TBs with a displacement of 240 tons (length: 58m, beam: 5.5m). Some of them were transferred to the Finnish Navy after the Russian Civil War in 1918 and became Finnish S-class TBs.

1971 #10: Vzryv - Offshore TB of 160 tons displacement built in 1877. this ship bears little resemblance to this type of vessel.

VTH Verlag, GmbH - Germany

HMS Hornet 1893 - Havock class torpedo boat of 240 tons displacement (length: 55m, beam: 5.6m). Painted by Charles Sells at a scale of 1:48. According to the description, the scale is wrong or there is a typo somewhere.

US Torpedoboot 3.Klasse - This was a small TB carried as a tender or launcher on US cruisers and battleships in the late 19th century. In this particular case, on the aircraft carrier USS Maine, which exploded in Havana Harbor, Cuba in 1898.

SMS Natter - Austro-Hungarian Oceanic Tuberculosis in 1896. Drawn by K. Menke in 1:50 scale.

Argus Specialist Publishing Limited - United Kingdom

MM1381 - Torpedo Boat 85, early Thornycroft TB - drawn by David Metcalf.

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