Daring-class Destroyer (1893)
Two ''Daring''-class destroyers were the very first torpedo boat destroyers ("TBDs") to be ordered for the Royal Navy, the order being placed on 27 June 1892. Background The invention of the self-propelled torpedo by Robert Whitehead and Austrian Navy Captain Giovanni Luppis in 1866, combined with the introduction of small fast torpedo boats posed a threat to battleships: large numbers of torpedo boats could overwhelm a battleship's defences and sink it, or distract the battleship and make it vulnerable to opposing capital ships. Torpedo boats proved devastatingly effective in the 1891 Chilean Civil War. The defence against torpedo boats was clear: small warships accompanying the fleet that could screen and protect it from attack by torpedo boats. Several European navies developed vessels variously known as torpedo boat "catchers", "hunters" and "destroyers", while the Royal Navy itself operated torpedo gunboats. However, the early designs lacked the range and speed to kee ...
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HMS DARING (1893)
HMS ''Daring'' and together made up the of torpedo boat destroyers which served with the Royal Navy during the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. On trial she made headlines as the 'Fastest Boat Ever'. The introduction of steam turbines after 1897 quickly made her and her sisters obsolete and she was sold off in 1912. Construction The ship was laid down as yard number 287 at the Thornycroft yard at Chiswick in July 1892. She was launched on 25 November 1893 following the naming ceremony by Mrs Thornycroft, the wife of the company founder John Isaac Thornycroft. When Daring failed the sea trial cavitation was analyzed more deeply for the first time. Thornycroft records suggest that ''Decoy'' and ''Daring'' together cost £66,948, but a letter to the Austrian Naval Attaché stated that the vessels had cost the Admiralty of £36,840 per vessel. ''Daring'' commenced her trials off Gravesend, Kent, Gravesend on 17 January 1894 and soon moved to the measured mile at Maplin Sand ...
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