Torpedo Boats - From spar torpedo launches to destroyers. Learn the history and development and where to find plans for static and working models for – RC – steam - electric.
The first form of torpedo boats were small steam launches with an explosive spar torpedo. This was nothing like the self propelled torpedoes that were to come. All in all an oversize broom handle with a metal can full of explosives at the business end, equipped with a trigger mechanism.
At the cover of darkness, the launch would seek out its target, at some distance lower the spar torpedo and ram the opponent. Pretty dangerous missions for the launch crew and with limited success rate.
Torpedo Boats in the American Civil War
The Union Navy quickly realized the importance of blockading the southern ports. Likewise, the Confederates were desperate to trade tobacco and cotton for food and arms. Realizing they never could challenge the Union Navy one-on-one, the South turned desperation into innovation.
This is largely how they brought ideas like coastal ironclads, submarines and spar torpedo boats into reality.
The CSS David was the first purpose built torpedo boat in the world. She was built like a barrel and looked a lot like a cigar with a narrow platform and chimney on top. She was 50' long by 5'6" diameter.
After the British engineer Robert Whitehead invented the first self propelled torpedo in 1868, torpedo boats were on all navies agendas, large and small. Large navies were involved in an arms race where ironclads were being built with thicker armor and growing gun calibers.
Ever-increasing armor thickness and gun weight made the battleships heavier and more difficult to maneuver. The new big guns were powerful but slow to reload. The combination set the stage for small and fast crafts with a deadly load.
With the self propelled torpedo, all of a sudden the smallest nations could upset the virtual stalemate and challenge the most powerful navies.
All said and done, the world’s navies started building fast and nimble launches to carry the new torpedoes. One thing to remember is that the flammability of gasoline was seen as too dangerous to be used for boat propulsion in warships, and the diesel engine and steam turbine were both barely a reality.
So the displacement hulled boats were all powered with compound steam engines. To make them fast, they had to be long and narrow with a high engine power to weight ratio.
In and Out of Favor
The French, Italian, Russian and American navies were quick to create torpedo boat flotillas. These boats were usually between 25 and 50m long and a displacement in the 30 to 150 ton range. Maximum speed varied between 20 to 30 knots, usually from a single propeller, but later, as the boat type grew, typically equipped with dual props.
The Royal Navy in Britain was often one of the first to develop and test new technologies, but slow to implement. Instead they had for a while adopted a policy of wait-and-see.
Once the potential opponents had shown their cards they tended to take action – usually responding with as much power and gusto that the opponents ships soon was obsolete.
The torpedo boat met a similar fate. As the cost of capital ships were extremely high compared to the cost of the new threat, different counter measures were needed.
Conclusion
Three important developments that followed:
Battleships were most vulnerable while at anchor or at low speed, so they were equipped with torpedo nets. Essentially a veil of metal netting that was hanging off booms surrounding the hull. The booms folded inward and the net would be rolled up and stowed on a shelf along the hull before moving at speed or in heavier seas. Torpedo nets were commonly seen on cruisers and battleships although WW1.
Quick firing (QF, Rapid Firing in the US) small caliber guns were developed. Ships of all sizes were equipped with QF guns of varying calibers, usually 37 to 120mm (1.5 to 4.7 inch) to ward off TBs.
The introduction of Torpedo Boat Destroyers (TBD)- soon to be known as just “Destroyers”.
Well before WW1 the boat type was all but obsolete. Destroyers with steam turbines could now easily outpace them with better sea keeping abilities and a more versatile design overall. The destroyer overtook the narrow duties of the opponent it was designed to engage and exterminate. Exterminate they did.
With the combination of high powered gasoline engines and planning hulls a revival of the idea of inexpensive, fast and deadly would once again come to life. This time in the shape of motor torpedo boats, right around the outbreak of WW1.
Building Model Torpedo Boats
These boats are interesting subjects for sure, from an era where technology was almost as rampant as it is today. Their relatively small size makes them suitable for beginners without being boring. They sport a lot less railings, ship’s boats and gun barrels to worry about than on cruisers and battleships of the same era.
If you are into RC scale models, for many TBs you only have one motor, shaft and prop to worry about, which is good. On the other hand, the hull access hatch may be difficult to conceal. Some planning upfront may be in order. Propulsion can be by electric motor or a light weight steam plant.
Plans available:
There are not a lot of plans available for this boat type. A few I’ve found are as follows:
Russian Hobby Magazine Modelist-Konstruktor:
1974 #2: Strashnyi and 1987 #9: Skoryi - a Sokol-class TB of 240 tons displacement (length: 58m and beam: 5.5m). Some of these boats were transferred to the Finnish navy after the Russian Civil War in 1918 and became the Finnish S-class TBs.
1971 #10: Vzryv – a seagoing TB built 1877 of 160 tons displacement. This ship has little resemblance to the boat type as such.
VTH Verlag, GmbH - Germany
HMS Hornet 1893 – A Havock-class torpedo boat of 240 tons displacement (length: 55m and beam: 5.6m). Drawn by Charles Sells to 1:48 scale. By the description, the proportions are wrong or there is a typo in there somewhere.
US Torpedoboot 3.Klasse – This is a small TB that was carried as a tender or launch aboard US cruisers and battleships of the late 19th century. In this particular case onboard the USS Maine that blew up in Havana harbor, Cuba, in 1898. This plan, I believe used to be available somewhere else online for free.
SMS Natter – Austro-Hungarian oceangoing TB from 1896. Drawn to 1:50 scale by K. Menke.
Argus Specialist Publications Ltd. - UK
MM1381 – Torpedo boat No.85, an early Thornycroft TB – drawing by David Metcalf.
MM1333 - CSS David, Confederate TB built in 1863 - 1:24 scale drawn by David Metcalf.
