Editing Torpedo boat (section)

==Use in combat==
[[File:Torpederas en Valparaiso Colocolo Janequeo.jpg|thumb|Chilean torpedo boats in Valparaíso, used during [[War of the Pacific]]]]
In the late 19th century, many navies started to build torpedo boats {{convert|30|to|50|m|ft}} in length, armed with up to three torpedo launchers and small guns. They were powered by steam engines and had a maximum speed of {{convert|20|to|30|kn|km/h}}. They were relatively inexpensive and could be purchased in quantity, allowing mass attacks on fleets of larger ships. The loss of even a squadron of torpedo boats to enemy fire would be more than outweighed by the sinking of a [[capital ship]].

The [[Russo-Japanese War]] of 1904–1905 was the first great naval war of the 20th century.<ref>Olender p. 233</ref> It was the first practical testing of the new steel battleships, cruisers, destroyers, submarines, and torpedo boats. During the war the [[Imperial Russian Navy]] in addition to their other warships, deployed 86 torpedo boats<ref>Olender pp. 249–251</ref> and launched 27 torpedoes (from all warships) in three major campaigns, scoring 5 hits.

The [[Imperial Japanese Navy]] (IJN), like the Russians, often combined their torpedo boats (the smaller of which possessed only hull numbers, although the larger [[Hayabusa-class torpedo boat|1st class boats]] were named) with their [[torpedo boat destroyer]]s (TBDs) (often simply referring to them as ''destroyers'') and launched over 270 torpedoes (counting the opening engagement at [[Port Arthur naval base]] on 8 February 1904) during the war. The IJN deployed approximately 21 TBs<ref>Olender pp. 235, 236</ref> during the conflict, and on 27 May 1905 the Japanese torpedo boat destroyers and TBs launched 16 torpedoes at the battleship {{ship|Russian battleship|Knyaz Suvorov||2}}, Admiral [[Zinovy Rozhestvensky]]'s flagship at the [[battle of Tsushima]]. Admiral [[Tōgō Heihachirō]], the IJN commander, had ordered his torpedo boats to finish off the enemy flagship, already gunned into a wreck, as he prepared to pursue the remnants of the Russian battle fleet.

Of the 16 torpedoes launched by the TBDs and TBs at the Russian battleship, only four hit their mark, two of those hits were from torpedo boats ''#72'' and ''#75''.<ref>Olender p. 235</ref> By evening, the battleship rolled over and sank to the bottom of the Tsushima Straits. By war's end, torpedoes launched from warships had sunk one battleship, two armored cruisers, and two destroyers. The remaining over 80 warships would be sunk by guns, mines, scuttling, or shipwreck.<ref>Olender p. 234</ref>