HMS Lightning (1876)
HMS Lightning was a torpedo boat, built by John Thornycroft at Church Wharf in Chiswick for the Royal Navy, which entered service in 1876 and was the first seagoing vessel to be armed with self-propelled Whitehead torpedoes. She was later renamed Torpedo Boat No. 1.
A model of HMS Lightning
 HMS Lightning - illustration from Scientific American. | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Builder: | John I. Thornycroft & Company |
| Launched: | 1876 |
| Renamed: | Torpedo Boat No. 1 |
| Fate: | Scrapped, 1896 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Torpedo boat |
| Displacement: | 32.5 long tons (33.0 t) |
| Length: | 87 ft 6 in (26.67 m) |
| Beam: | 10 ft 9 in (3.28 m) |
| Draught: | 5 ft 2 in (1.57 m) |
| Propulsion: | Two-cylinder compound steam engine, 460 hp (340 kW) |
| Speed: | 18.5 kn (34.3 km/h) |
| Armament: |
|
As originally built, Lightning had two drop collars to launch torpedoes; these were replaced in 1879 by a single torpedo tube in the bow. She also carried two reload torpedoes amidships.
The Lightning spent her life as a tender to the torpedo school HMS Vernon at Portsmouth and was used for some experiments. She was broken up in 1896.
Sources
- Chesneau, Roger and Eugène Kolesnik, Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1860–1905. London: Conway Maritime Press, 1979, ISBN 0-85177-133-5
gollark: The current system, whatever you label it, works fairly well. There are definitely problems. So many problems. Also lots of room for significant improvements without getting rid of it all. But it works decently well without requiring everyone to magically get along fine and the world is steadily increasing in prosperity.
gollark: If your thing only works for self-selected small groups, then it's hardly a good way to organize... our whole global societies comprising 7 billion people, quite a lot of whom don't like each other.
gollark: I just don't think it would actually work at current global scales or for probably most people.
gollark: Great!
gollark: I mean, I'd happily support anarchists being allowed to test how well things work for a self-selected group on some mostly unused land.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.