A vessel carrying one or more torpedoes; now a small, fast war-ship from which torpedoes are discharged. Hence Torpedo-boat v. (nonce-wd.), trans. to furnish or arm with torpedo boats.
1810. Fulton, Torpedo War (N. Y.), 44. It would be difficult for a Torpedo boat to depart from any port of America, and return without being detected.
1865. in Morn. Star, 2 Feb. They took advantage of the storm and darkness to send down a fleet of eight vessels of war and three torpedo boats.
1880. Standard, 29 Dec., 6/1. The first [torpedo boat] ever known being a very primitive model, invented by Captain David Bushnell, of the Engineer Corps, United States Army, and launched in New York harbour in 1776.
1898. Harper’s Mag., XCVI. 830. She is building twelve new first-class torpedo-boats and four destroyers.
1884. Pall Mall G., 6 Dec., 5/2. To torpedo boat our coast on the German, Russian, or Austrian scale we should require not 100 torpedo boats, but 1,000.
b. attrib. and Comb., as torpedo-boat engagement, workshop; torpedo-boat catcher, torpedo-boat destroyer, two types of small, fast war-ships, originally designed to prevent torpedo boats from operating against a fleet.
(The torpedo-catcher, officially termed torpedo-gunboat, was superseded in 1893 by the torpedo boat destroyer, a larger, faster, and more powerful torpedo boat, designed for offensive purposes; the torpedo boat being appropriated to coast and harbor defence.)
1893. Daily News, 14 Feb., 8/7. They are to be termed Torpedo-boat Destroyers, and in size will be between a torpedo catcher of the sharpshooter class and a first-class torpedo boat.
1899. F. T. Bullen, Way Navy, 59. But torpedo-boat people are accustomed to put up with many things of which landsmen have little idea.
1901. F. T. Jane, in New Penny Mag., 30 Nov., 205/1. We had … a number of torpedo-boat catchers, which … were unable to catch the craft they were intended to chase.
