The Torpedo Gunboat (TGB) was an experimental type of warship that enjoyed a brief vogue at the start of the pre-dreadnought era. Although 37 were built for the Royal Navy, and imitations by other navies, the concept never was justified by the performance of these ships. Their 18-to-19-knot speed never sufficed to actually intercept atttacking torpedo boats, whose speed rose steadily through the 1890s. In part, this deficiency was due to their boilers: ungainly locomotive boilers, which were large and heavy but could not deliver the 210-to-250 psi working pressures common with advanced water-tube boilers. The TGBs' development overlapped the evolution of early destroyers, an invention of Capt. Jacky Fisher, then commanding the Royal Navy's torpedo school. These nimble, darting craft -- a sort of overgrown torpedo boat with more guns, torpedoes, and horsepower -- proved fully capable of performing the mission the torpedo gunboats had been intended to fulfill. Recognizing a good thing, the Admiralty took its cue from Fisher and devoted its resources to developing faster, more capable destroyers, dropping new TGB construction after 1894.
Taken overall, the TGB did not mark Sir William White's finest hour. About half the TGBs were scrapped under Adm. Fisher's modernisation programme from 1905; the other half found new uses as minesweepers, submarine depot ships, and (in the case of HMS Northampton) a floating school.
The fifth Royal Navy ship to bear this playful name, the Grasshopper was a two-gun, twin-screw gunboat. Launched at Sheerness in 1887, she displaced 525 tons. Her twin triple expansion engines delivered 2,700 hp for a speed of 19 knots, and her dimensions were 200' x 23' x 10'. The torpedo gunboats of the Rattlesnake / Grasshopper class were generally referred to as 'catchers' when they entered service in 1886-1887. In 1905 Grasshopper was sold for scrapping as part of Adm. Fisher's modernisation programme.
The 13-ship Sharpshooter class of torpedo gunboat marked the Royal Navy's commitment to the concept following the implementation of the Naval Defence Act of 1889 (the Spencer Programme). Designed by the newly-appointed Director of Naval Construction, Sir William White, these ships had a raised forecastle but a long, open waist amidships to facilitate aiming of the rotating torpedo tubes. As noted above, although a bit faster than the fleet norm of the time, the ships were not fast enough to intercept TBs of the day running flat out under forced draft, and so were unable to perform their mission. Their secondary mission of torpedo attack was also compromised by inadequate speed.
Two of the ships, Boomerang and Karakatta, were provided to the Australian Marine; two others, Plassey and Assaye, were built for the Bombay Marine, renamed the Royal Indian Marine shortly after their commissioning.
Many of the ships found a second utility as minesweepers in the First World War and the five years before. Those vessels converted to minesweepers in 1909 retained their guns and had a kite winch and gallows fitted on the quarterdeck. Fates of the ships were as follows: The lead ship was hulked in 1904 and converted to a school ship; renamed HMS Northampton, she suvived in that capacity until 1922. Of the remaining ships, seven were scrapped before World War I, and five were converted to minesweepers. Of these minesweepers, Seagull sank after a collision in 1918, and the rest of the class survived the War to join the pre-dreadnought parade to the gallows in the early 1920s.
Specifications for the Sharpshooter Class:
Dimensions: 242' x 27' x 8'6" Displacement: 735 tons. Armament: (first five) (2) 4.7" QF guns; (4) 3-pdr QF guns; (5) 14" TT (3 reloads): one fixed bow tube, (2) revolving deck tubes, (2) fixed deck tubes. Propulsion: (2) coal-fired locomotive boilers; (2) vertical inverted triple expansion engines developing 3,600 ihp, shafted to twin screw. Speed: 19 kts. Crew: 91.
Armament (Plassey & Assaye): (2) 4.7" QF guns; (3) 18" TT: one fixed bow tube, (2) revolving deck tubes, with 3 reloads.
Ships in Class: Sharpshooter · Spanker · Speedwell · Salamander· Sheldrake
Skipjack · Boomerang · Karakatta · Plassey · Assaye · Gossamer · Gleaner
Metric Specs:
Dimensions: 74m x 8.2m x 2.59m Displacement: 735 tons. Armament: (first five) (2) 12 cm QF guns; (4) 3-pdr QF guns; (5) 36 cm TT: one fixed bow tube, (2) revolving deck tubes, (2) fixed deck tubes; 3 reloads. Propulsion: (2) coal-fired locomotive boilers; (2) vertical inverted triple expansion engines developing 3,500 ihp, shafted to twin screw. Speed: 35 km/hr. Crew: 91.
Armament (Plassey & Assaye): (2) 12 cm QF guns; (3) 45 cm TT, with 3 reloads: one fixed bow tube, (2) revolving deck tubes.
Not content with the 13 Sharpshooters, the Royal Navy built a further dozen improved models two years later. These were the only TGBs to have three funnels. Extra funnels, honest commitment, and wishful thinking together could not improve the ships' performance by more than a few tenths of a knot. Most of class were converted to minesweepers in 1909; Onyx and Hebe became sub tenders. Alarm, Jaseur and Renard were broken up under Fisher's modernisation programme between 1905 and 1907. Three of the minesweepers were sunk in WWI. Speedy was despatched by a mine off the Humber on Sept. 3, 1914; Niger was torpedoed by U-12 off Deal, Nov. 11, 1914; and Jason was sunk by a mine off Scotland on April 7, 1917.
Built by Thornycroft, completing 1894, HMS Speedy is seen here on the right in a watercolor by Charles Dixon. As she departs from Portsmouth, also visible are HMS Victory and a panoply of period shipping.
Specifications for the Alarm Class:
Dimensions: 242' x 27' x 12'6" Displacement: 810 tons. Armament: (first five) (2) 4.7" QF guns; (4) 3-pdr QF guns; (1) Gardner MG; (5) 14" TT: one fixed bow tube, (2) revolving deck tubes, (2) fixed deck tubes. Propulsion: (2) coal-fired locomotive boilers; (2) inverted vertical triple expansion engines developing 3,500 ihp, shafted to twin screw. Speed: 18.7 kts. Crew: 91.
Armament (last six): (2) 4.7" QF guns; (4) 3-pdr QF guns; (1) Gardner MG; (3) 18" TT: one fixed bow tube, (2) revolving deck tubes.
Ships in Class: Speedy · Jason · Hebe · Circe · Onyx · Ledar
Alarm · Jaseur · Niger · Reynard · Speedy · Antelope
Metric Specs:
Dimensions: 74m x 8.2m x 3.81m Displacement: 810 tons. Armament: (first five) (2) 12 cm QF guns; (4) 3-pdr QF guns; (1) Gardner MG; (5) 36 cm TT: one fixed bow tube, (2) revolving deck tubes, (2) fixed deck tubes. Propulsion: (2) coal-fired locomotive boilers; (2) vertical inverted triple expansion engines developing 3,500 ihp, shafted to twin screw. Speed: 34.6 km/hr. Crew: 91.
Armament (last six): (2) 12 cm QF guns; (4) 3-pdr QF guns; (1) Gardner MG; (3) 45 cm TT: one fixed bow tube, (2) revolving deck tubes.
The Dryad Class returned to the layout of the first TGBs with a long, open waist amidships to allow aiming of the maneuverable torpedo tubes. They had two pencil-thin, widely separated funnels, for the same reason. The five Dryads were the last gasp for their type, commissioning at the same time as the first successful Torpedo Boat Destroyers (TBDs) in 1893-4. The smaller, nimbler destroyers proved more economical to operate and easier to propel at blazing speed. Destroyer speeds were touching 30 knots by 1900, nearly 11 knots faster than the most advanced TGBs. All of this class were converted to minesweepers except the Hazard, which had become a depot ship for submarines in 1901. This ship sank in a collision with SS Western Australia in the Channel on Jan. 28, 1918. On conversion to minesweepers (1914) two torpedo tubes were removed from the remaining ships in the class. All were condemned to the wrecker's torch in the early 1920s.
Specifications for the Dryad Class:
Dimensions: 262'6" x 30'6" x 13' Displacement: 1,070 tons. Armament: (2) 4.7" QF guns; (4) 6-pdr QF guns; (1) 5-barrel Nordenfelt MG; (5) 18" TT. Fuel capacity: 100 tons normal, 160 tons maximum. Propulsion: (2) coal-fired locomotive boilers; (2) inverted vertical triple expansion engines developing 3,500 ihp (Halcyon 6,000 ihp), shafted to twin screw. Speed: 18.2 kts. Crew: 120.
Armament (Hussar only): (1) 4.7" QF gun; (2) 12-pdr 3" QF guns; (1) 6-pdr QF gun; (3) 18" TT: one fixed bow tube, (2) revolving deck tubes.
Ships in Class: Dryad · Hazard · Harrier · Halcyon · Hussar
Metric Specs:
Dimensions: 80m x 9.32m x 4m Displacement: 1,070 tons. Armament: (2) 12 cm QF guns; (4) 3-pdr QF guns; (1) 5-barrel Nordenfelt MG; (5) 45 cm TT: one fixed bow tube, (2) revolving deck tubes, (2) fixed deck tubes. Fuel capacity: 100 tons normal, 160 tons maximum. Propulsion: (2) coal-fired locomotive boilers; (2) inverted vertical triple expansion engines developing 2,600 kW, shafted to twin screw. Speed: 33.7 km/hr. Crew: 120.
Armament (Hussar): (1) 12 cm QF guns; (2) 12-pdr 76 mm QF guns; (1) 6-pdr QF gun; (3) 45 cm TT.
This page contains minimally edited material from Wikipedia, together with photos from various sources. -- Ed.
