First real success for a locomotive type Torpedo

Driftless

Donor
What were the earliest successes for locomotive torpedos? Success = use in battle, with ships being damaged or sunk. Also, which types?

This is the earliest piece I've found so far:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwartzkopff_torpedo

During the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895), both the Chinese and Japanese navies were equipped with Schwartzkopff torpedoes.......during the Battle of Weihaiwei, the Japanese sent torpedo boats to attack the Chinese fleet. Firing eleven Schwartzkopff torpedoes, the Japanese managed to sink three Chinese warships. It was the most successful deployment of torpedoes at that point in history

Anything before this?
 

TFSmith121

Banned
1891 - Chilean ironclad Blanco Encalada was sunk

What were the earliest successes for locomotive torpedos? Success = use in battle, with ships being damaged or sunk. Also, which types?

This is the earliest piece I've found so far:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwartzkopff_torpedo



Anything before this?

1891 - Chilean ironclad Blanco Encalada was sunk (while at anchor) by the Chilean torpedo gunboat Almirante Lynch (this was during the Chilean civil war/revolution of 1891). Blanco Encalada was struck by one torpedo and sank in ten minutes, with 182 casualties.

1894 - Brazilian battleship Aquidaban was badly damaged while (possibly) underway by the Brazilian torpedo boat Gustavo Sampaio and beached; this was during (obviously) a revolution/civil war.

Of course, if one considers CSS Hunley as a manned locomotive torpedo (rather than a submarine armed with a spar torpedo) than it was USS Housatonic in 1864.

Best,
 
Last edited:

Driftless

Donor
1891 - Chilean ironclad Blanco Encalada was sunk (while at anchor) by the Chilean torpedo gunboat Almirante Lynch (this was during the Chilean civil war/revolution of 1891). Blanco Encalada was struck by one torpedo and sank in ten minutes, with 182 casualties.

1894 - Brazilian battleship Aquidaban was badly damaged while (possibly) underway by the Brazilian torpedo boat Gustavo Sampaio and beached; this was during (obviously) a revolution/civil war.

Of course, if one consider CSS Hunley as a manned locomotive torpedo (rather than a submarine armed with a spar torpedo) than it was USS Housatonic in 1864.

Best,

Spar torpedo use seems to have carried such an extreme level of risk for both the attacker as well as the target, that any practical alternatives would have to be appealing. The mentality of the crews spar torpedo boats had to be either a sense of a persons own indestructibility, or conversely a near Kamikaze level of fatalism.

During the second half of the 19th century, locomotive torpedos probably looked like wonder-weapons, in that it was one of the few ways of defeating heavily armored warships. Of course, a 400-800 yard range for the earliest models, still requires a high level of nerve by the torpedo boat crew to get within range.
 

TFSmith121

Banned
Read a biography of Cushing

Spar torpedo use seems to have carried such an extreme level of risk for both the attacker as well as the target, that any practical alternatives would have to be appealing. The mentality of the crews spar torpedo boats had to be either a sense of a persons own indestructibility, or conversely a near Kamikaze level of fatalism.

During the second half of the 19th century, locomotive torpedos probably looked like wonder-weapons, in that it was one of the few ways of defeating heavily armored warships. Of course, a 400-800 yard range for the earliest models, still requires a high level of nerve by the torpedo boat crew to get within range.

He was (IIRC) all of 19 when the war began; 22-23 when he sank Albemarle...

Best,
 
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