Recruiting poster showing the Statue of Liberty beaming brightly over the distinctive bow of a circa 1900s torpedo boat. Issued by the City of Boston Committee on Public Safety. Boston: Smith & Porter Press, [1917]. LOC LC-USZC4-6264
Although some would bemoan the above image of an old torpedo boat running patrols in New York harbor in 1917 to be more artistic license than likely, it happened.
While the U.S. Navy commissioned 35 Torpedo Boats (TB) in 18 evolutionary classes between the 105-ton/140-foot USS Cushing (TB-1) in 1890 and the 165-ton/175-foot USS Wilkes (TB-35) in 1902, the overall poor showing of such types in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894, the 1898 Spanish-American War the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05, and the Italian-Turkish War of 1911– coupled with the entry of larger and much more capable destroyer types– led to these slim green sea dragons to be retired by the Great War.
By 1917 when the U.S. entered the Great War, many of these obsolete boats had been scrapped or disposed of as targets already but a few newer models still swaying quietly in mothballs.
Note the difference between these five boats of the Reserve Torpedo Flotilla in Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia, circa 1907. They are (l-r) BAGLEY (TB-24), BIDDLE (TB-26), BARNEY (TB-25), DUPONT (TB-7), PORTER (TB-6). Color-tinted postcard photo, published as a souvenir of the Jamestown Exposition by The American Colortype Company, New York. Courtesy of R.D. Jeska, 1984. NH 100041-KN
These unloved and forgotten vessels were dusted off and used for coastal patrol/harbor defense along the East Coast.
This included USS Bailey (TB-21) and USS Bagley (TB-24), who would head to the Big Apple.
Armed with a quartet of 6-pounder (57mm) rapid-fire guns and just two forward-firing 18-inch torpedo tubes, the 205-foot-long Bailey is a giant compared to the later WWII-era PT boats. Capable of only 30 knots with all four Seabury boilers lit and twin screws spinning at maximum revolutions, Bailey required a 59-man crew, versus the 14-man complement of a WWII mosquito boat. NHHC NH 397
Bagley, while smaller than Bailey, only mounted three 1-pounders (37mm guns) but carried a third torpedo tube to make up for it. She made 29.15 knots on her speed trials in 1901, a benchmark likely far away in 1918. NHHC NH 64056
These two boats, assigned to the Harbor Entrance Patrol of the 3d Naval District, operated from Brooklyn on a series of regular patrols and scouting ahead of the convoys leaving the harbor until they were demobilized in 1919 and subsequently discarded.
However, during this wartime service, they suffered the indignity of being stripped of their names in August 1918. Bailey was renamed simply Coast Torpedo Boat No. 8 while Bagley would become CTB10. Their historic names were needed for shiny new four-piper destroyers (DD-269 and DD-185) that would go on to make their own pages in history in the next World War.
Warship Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2019: Italian Mosquitos of the Baltic
All photos, Swedish Sjöhistoriska Museet maritime museum unless noted. This one is file no. Fo196168
Here we see HSwMS T 28, a T 21-class motortorpedbåt (motor torpedo boat) of the Svenska Marinen (Royal Swedish Navy) in 1943 as she planes on her stern, her bow completely above the waves. If she looks fast, that’s because she was– like 50 knots fast.
The Swedes in the 1930s had the misfortune of being sandwiched between a resurgent Germany and a newly ambitious Soviet Union, both having come up on the losing side of the Great War and suffered much during the generation immediately following. This fear went into overdrive as World War II began.
With a lot of valuable coast to protect, the Flottan’s plan to do so was the new Tre Kronor (Three Crowns)-class of three fast cruisers (kryssaren) who were to each serve as a flotilla flagship of a squadron of four destroyers and six motor torpedo boats while three pansarskepps(literally “armored ships”) bathtub battleships would form a strategic reserve.
For the above-mentioned MTBs, Stockholm turned south, shopping with the Baglietto Varazze shipyard in Italy– which is still around as a luxury yacht maker). Baglietto’s “velocissimo” type torpedo boat, MAS 431, had premiered in 1932 and was lighting quick but still packed a punch.
MAS 431, via Baglietto
Just 52.5-feet long overall, MAS 431 was powered by a pair of Fiat gasoline engines, packing 1,500hp in a hull that weighed but 12-tons. The 41-knot vessel carried a pair of forward-oriented 18-inch torpedoes, a couple of light machine guns, six 110-pound depth charges for submarines (she had a hydrophone aboard) and was manned by a crew of seven.
MAS 431 craft proved the basis for the very successful MAS 500 series boats, with more than two dozen completed. These boats used larger Isotta-Fraschini engines which coughed up 2,000hp while they could putter along on a pair of smaller 70hp Alpha Romero cruising motors. The Swedes directly purchased four of these (MAS 506, 508, 511, and 524) which became T 11 – 14 in 1939. These 55-foot MTBs could make 47 knots.
MAS 500 in the Mediterranean 1938, via Regina Marina
However, the Swedes weren’t in love with the wooden hulls of the Italian boats and went to design their own follow-up class of MTBs in 1941. The resulting T 15 class, built locally by Kockums with some support from Italy, went 22-tons in weight due to their welded steel hulls. However, by installing larger Isotta-Fraschini IF 183 series engines, they could still make 40+ knots.
Swedish Motortorpedbåt T 15. 5 Just four of these craft would be built by Kockums. The camo scheme and white “neutral” racing stripe were standard for Sweden’s wartime fleet. Fo101806
Nonetheless, there was still room for improvement. Upgrading to larger 21-inch torpedo tubes and stretching the hull to 65-feet, the T 21 class carried 3,450hp of supercharged 18-cylinder IF 184 engines which allowed a speed listed as high as 50 knots in Swedish journals. They certainly were a seagoing mash-up of Volvo and Ferrari.
T 28 MTB Fo200188
Motortorpedbåten T 28. 1943 Fo88597A
T30. Bild Sjöhistoriska Museet, Stockholm SMM Fo88651AB
Besides the torpedoes, the craft was given a 20mm AAA gun in a semi-enclosed mount behind the pilothouse while weight and space for two pintle-mounted 6.5mm machine guns on either side of the house and one forward was reserved. As many as six depth charges were also carried.
Torpedbåt, motortorpedbåt typ T 21
The T 21s proved more numerous than the past Swedish MTB attempts, with a total of 11 boats produced by 1943. They proved invaluable in what was termed the Neutralitetsvakten (neutrality patrol) during the rest of WWII.
Assorted Swedish splinter boats clustered at Galo Island in Stockholm, 1943. (Motortorpedbåtar vid Gålö år 1943 Fo88679A)
Hkn Prince Bertil, Duke of Halland, who in the 1970s served as heir to his nephew King Carl XVI Gustaf, clocked in on Swedish torpedo boats during the first part of WWII before he was reassigned in 1943 as a naval attaché to London.
HRH Prince Bertil of Sweden aboard a torpedo boat, holding a pair of binoculars Nordiska Museet NMA.0028790
Due to their steel hulls, the craft proved much more durable than comparable plywood American PT-boats or the Italian MAS boats and, while the latter’s days were numbered immediately after WWII, the Swedish T 21s endured until 1959, still keeping the peace on the front yard of the Cold War.
In late 1940s service and throughout the 1950s they carried a more sedate grey scheme.
1947 Janes entry
Motortorpedbåt T 25. Propagandaturen på Vättern, Juli 1947 Fo88595A
T24, note another of her class forward, with the M40 20mm cannon showing
Swedish torpedo boat Motortorpedbåten T29, 1950 Gota Canal. Note the 20mm cannon, which is now better protected, and the depth charges with two empty racks. The Swedes, then as now, were not squeamish when it came to dropping cans on suspect sonar contacts in their home waters.
The T 21s were later augmented by the similar although up-gunned (40mm Bofors) T 38 class and finally replaced by the much-improved Spica-class, which remained in use through the 1980s with the same sort of tasking as the craft that preceded them.
The T-30, seen here in an idyllic peacetime setting, remained in Swedish service during the Cold War. The follow-on Motortorpedbåtar T38 class reached a speed of 51.6 knots during a speed test outside Karlskrona in April 1956.
At 139-feet oal, the Spicas were more than twice as long as the T 21s and carried a half-dozen torpedoes in addition to a 57mm Bofors gun.
However, that welded steel hull and the mild salinity of the Baltic has meant that at least one of the old T 21s, T 26 to be clear, has been preserved as a working museum ship in her Cold War colors and is still poking around, although she probably could not make her original designed speed at this point.
The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.
With more than 50 years of scholarship, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.
PRINT still has its place. If you LOVE warships you should belong.
The German Elbing-class torpedo boat T-24 (front) and Type 1936A-class Zerstörer Z-24 (rear) under attack by British RAF Beaufighters, August 24th, 1944. Both ships were crippled in this engagement and finished off by British bombers off Le Verdon the next day.
The twin-engine Bristol Beaufighter was an unsung brawler of the RAF in the war and, packing a quartet of 20 mm Hispano Mk II cannons in the nose as well as rockets, bombs or a torpedo underneath, they were hazardous to the health of Axis shipping.
The Kriegsmarine never had very good luck when it came to escorts during the war, losing most of their modern destroyers in the Norway campaign in 1940. At least 7 of the 15 Type 136As were lost during the war as were 11 of the Elbings. Air superiority has a funny way with the lifespan of small surface combatants.
Here at LSOZI, we are going to take out every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week.
– Christopher Eger
Warship Wednesday, May 29
Here we see the first US torpedo boat, USS Cushing (TB-1). Torpedo boats were a daring new concept in the late 18th century. These small Davids were thought capable of using their amazingly fast speed (23knots!) to leap out of the narrows in a littoral and pumping a locomotive powered torpedo into the hull of a Goliath battleship, sending the ship of the line to the bottom for its troubles.
She originally carried a white paint scheme and was in 1898 changed to a dark green for camouflage. Note the framework for her canvas deck awning. The awning is shown installed in the picture below.
Cushing was the first of her type in US service and one of the first in the world. She was preceded by the HMS Lightning in 1876. The Lightning, a 87-foot long steamship that could do 18-knots didn’t look like much but she carried a pair of Whitehead torpedoes. This sent tremors across the seas and the USN’s answer to this was Cushing.
Authorized in August 1886, Cushing was completed and commissioned 22 April 1890, given the name of one of the most famous of all swashbuckling bluejackets of the Civil War. She spent most of her career at the Naval Torpedo Station in Newport where she raised a young crop of the US Navy’s first destroyer-men. Only 140-feet long, she could float in just 4-feet of water. Her two dozen officers and men were used to man the 2 6-pounder guns and fire her three above water torpedo tubes. From 1890 to 1897 she carried Howell Mk1 locomotive torpedoes (one of which was just found last week off the California coast) and after 1897 she carried the more effective Whitehead type.
Cushing at speed with her dark green paint scheme. Note how low she sat to the water. In February 1898 she lost Ensign John Cable Breckenridge overboard in heavy seas. These were not boats that you wanted to be above deck on in a good sea state.
When the Spanish-American War erupted in 1898, Cushing performed picket patrol in the Florida Straits and courier duty for the North Atlantic Fleet. She captured five small Cuban ships during the war and escorted them into harbor. She was decommissioned later that year after the peace had been declared.
Truth be told, this innovative ship was already made obsolete by ever faster TBs of bigger size and with larger armament. The entire torpedo boat concept itself was largely negated by 1905 when heavy gun-armed Torpedo Boat Destroyers could make mince meat of the smaller TBs before they could close on the battleships, spoiling their shots. Indeed in the world’s largest use of steam-powered torpedo boats, the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese war, some 300 torpedoes were launched by both sides yet only 21 hit their target.
From 1898 to 1920 this is how Cushing spent most of her time.
With all this in mind, Cushing was kept around as a second-string reserve ship. A partially dismantled dockside trainer for testing and evaluation purposes for two decades. Finally in 1920 she was towed out to sea and sunk, as a target.
Specs
Type: Torpedo boat
Displacement: 116 long tons (118 t)
Length: 140 ft (43 m)
Beam: 15 ft 1 in (4.60 m)
Draft: 4 ft 10 in (1.47 m)
Installed power: 1,600 ihp (1,200 kW)
Propulsion: 2 × vertical quadruple-expansion reciprocating steam engines
2 × Thornycroft boilers
2 × screws
Speed: 23 kn (26 mph; 43 km/h)
Complement: 22 officers and enlisted
Armament: 2 × 6-pounder (57 mm (2.24 in)) guns
3 × 18 in (460 mm) torpedo tubes (3×1)
If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO) They are possibly one of the best sources of naval lore http://www.warship.org/naval.htm
The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.
Nearing their 50th Anniversary, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.
Saw pictures of this floating around out there and decided to bring it up. For as long as thier has been trawlers, Navies have pressed them into service. In both World Wars, some of the best and most effective erstaz ASW boats were fishing boats that the navy would throw some depth charges and old ‘good enough’ popguns on deck.
Norwegian fishing schooner taken up by the German Navy in 1940 for use as a patrol boat. Note the machine gun on the front of the bow. These craft have often been used during war.
However these the boats below were purpose built by the Soviet Navy to look like Naval trawlers (they are painted haze gray and have pennant numbers in most cases) but are sometimes very un-trawler like under the surface.
Between 1960-1988 the Soviet Union built some 37 project 1824/1823 NATO code name “Muna” class modified trawlers.
More than 20 were simply used as seagoing armement transports in the thousands of craggy rocky inlets along the Baltic (due to thier 10-foot draft), one was completes as a Seagoing reefer transports, a few were small signals intelligence ships, four were completed for the KGB as border patrol ships, some did survey work, and this one, coded OS-57 offically ‘supported torpedo research’. It leads to wonder why a trawler would have a set of two underwater torpedo tubes along with an active sonar. It would appear that as mant as four of these torpedo carriers were produced. With two different sized tubes, one on each side.
My grandma, what big teeth you have under your bow….
The Mechanix of Auto, Aviation, Military...pert near anything I feel relates to mechanical things, places, events or whatever I happen to like. Even non-mechanical artsy-fartsy stuff.
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