Torpedo+Boats

= The Torpedo Boat =

= =  The torpedo boat was first built by the British Navy in 1877. The torpedo boat is a fast and small boat designed to carry torpedoes when we went into battle. At first all they did was ram into boats with spear like torpedo's. Later developed whitehead torpedo's which were used to attack heavy and SLOW battleships. That is where the submarines came in and took over.

The Fast Torpedo Boat was invented in the late 19th century. Because these were invented, the navies of other nations got real suspicious and scared, so they developed small fast boats to counter these Torpedo Boats, being very similar to the Torpedo boat except that they had light machine guns. This is stated by modern military advisers saying "The introduction of fast torpedo boats in the late 19th century was a serious concern to navies of that era." (Wikipedia Torpedo Boat) Of course this was true for navies of the time, because even the super powers who could build the big tough boats were threatened by this. These small boats eventually evolved to become the modern day [|Destroyer]. Although these torpedo boats still exist for fast attacks on places, the submarine has basically replaced it.

Torpedo Boats were used mainly by the south to counter the north's blockades. The south did not have enough materials to build a fleet capable of facing the North. So they built Torpedo Boats with torpedo's that were called spar torpedo's. Spar torpedo's had barbed heads with explosives put in waterproof cases that would have a delay to the explosion so that the torpedo boat could get away safely before it went off. They did this to sink capital ships so that the fleets would be hurt and have no leadership until another capital ship could get there. Other than a few instances, the torpedo boat used during the Civil War was very unsuccessful and they had a lot of duds or the torpedo's actually blew up before they were suppose to.

Boats like the Torpedo Boats are still used today, except they carry long range [|anti-ship missiles]. These are being replaced though with bigger vessels because of their vulnerability from the air. The bigger vessels are being equipped with anti air defenses, and because of the long range missiles the faster ships are not as needed now. Commanders would have to be very desperate to send Torpedo Boats in on a fleet with air support.

How Torpedo Boats Innovated Warfare
The Torpedo boat innovated warfare in many different ways. First of all it set up the need for submarines, so it contributed to submarines being used in warfare. Secondly it is what created small attack boats as we know them today. The torpedo boats paved the road for Fast Attack Boats which are vital in sea warfare against larger ships.