Editing Torpedo (section)

===Use in conflict===
[[File:Combate de Caldera.JPG|thumb|right|Sinking of Chilean ironclad {{ship|Chilean ironclad|Blanco Encalada||2}} by a torpedo in the [[Battle of Caldera Bay]], during the [[Chilean Civil War of 1891]].]]
The [[Royal Navy]] frigate {{HMS|Shah|1873|6}} was the first naval vessel to fire a self-propelled torpedo in anger during the [[Battle of Pacocha]] against rebel Peruvian ironclad {{ship||Huáscar|ironclad|2}} on 29 May 1877. The Peruvian ship successfully outran the device.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Ironclads At War: The Origin And Development Of The Armored Battleship |last1 = Greene |first1 = Jack |publisher = Da Capo Press |location=Pennsylvania |year = 1997|isbn = 0-78674-298-4 |pages = 290|last2 = Massignani |first2 = Alessandro }}</ref> On 16 January 1878, the Turkish steamer ''Intibah'' became the first vessel to be sunk by self-propelled torpedoes, launched from torpedo boats operating from the tender {{ship|Russian tender|Velikiy Knyaz Konstantin||2}} under the command of [[Stepan Osipovich Makarov]] during the [[Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78]].

In another early use of the torpedo, during the [[War of the Pacific]], the Peruvian [[ironclad]] [[Huáscar (ironclad)|Huáscar]] commanded by captain [[Miguel Grau Seminario|Miguel Grau]] attacked the [[Chilean corvette Abtao]] on 28 August 1879 at [[Antofagasta]] with a self-propelled [[John Louis Lay|Lay torpedo]] only to have it reverse course. The ''Huascar'' was saved when an officer jumped overboard to divert it.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.unjbg.edu.pe/libro/Basadre/la_Verdadera_epopeya/epopeya_cap2.pdf |title=El Huáscar Muralla Móvil Del Perú |first=Eduardo |last=Avaroa |work=[[Jorge Basadre Grohmann National University|Universidad Nacional Jorge Basadre Grohmann]] |year=2013 |accessdate=31 August 2013 |language=es |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304071732/http://www.unjbg.edu.pe/libro/Basadre/la_Verdadera_epopeya/epopeya_cap2.pdf |archive-date=4 March 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The Chilean [[ironclad]] {{ship|Chilean ironclad|Blanco Encalada||2}} was sunk on 23 April 1891 by a self-propelled torpedo from the ''Almirante Lynch'', during the [[Chilean Civil War of 1891]], becoming the first ironclad warship sunk by this weapon.<ref>{{cite book |last=Scheina |first=Robert L. |date=1987 |title=Latin America: A Naval History, 1810–1987  |publisher=Naval Institute Press |isbn=0-87021-295-8 |page=64 }}</ref> The Chinese [[turret ship]] {{ship|Chinese turret ship|Dingyuan||2}} was purportedly hit and disabled by a torpedo after numerous attacks by Japanese torpedo boats during the [[First Sino-Japanese War]] in 1894. At this time torpedo attacks were still very close range and very dangerous to the attackers.

[[File: Knyaz'Suvorov1904Reval.jpg|thumb|left|{{ship|Russian battleship|Knyaz Suvorov||2}} was sunk by Japanese torpedo boats during the [[Russo-Japanese War]].]]
Several western sources reported that the [[Qing dynasty]] Imperial Chinese military, under the direction of [[Li Hongzhang]], acquired ''electric torpedoes,'' which they deployed in numerous waterways, along with fortresses and numerous other modern military weapons acquired by China.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z1U4AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA425 |title=Overland monthly and Out West magazine|editor-first=Bret |editor-last=Harte|year=1886 |publisher=A. Roman & Company|location=San Francisco, California|page=425|oclc=10002180}}</ref> At the [[Tianjin|Tientsin]] Arsenal in 1876, the Chinese developed the capacity to manufacture these "electric torpedoes" on their own.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pEfWaxPhdnIC&pg=PA249 |title=The Cambridge History of China: Late Ch'ing, 1800–1911 Part 2 |editor-first=John King 
 |editor-last=Fairbank |editor-first2=Kwang-Ching |editor-last2=Liu|editor1-link=John K. Fairbank|editor2-link=Kwang-Ching Liu |year=1980 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=249|isbn=0-521-22029-7}}</ref> Although a form of Chinese art, the [[Nianhua]], depict such torpedoes being used against Russian ships during the [[Boxer Rebellion]], whether they were actually used in battle against them is undocumented and unknown.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wWvl9O4Gn1UC&pg=PA204 |title=Some Did it for Civilisation, Some did it for Their Country: A Revised View of the Boxer War |first=Jane E. |last=Elliott |year=2002 |publisher=Chinese University Press|location=Hong Kong |page=204 |isbn=962-996-066-4}}</ref>

The [[Russo-Japanese War]] (1904–1905) was the first great war of the 20th century.<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Olender|2010|p=233}}</ref>  During the war, the [[Imperial Russian]] and [[Imperial Japanese]] navies launched nearly 300 torpedoes at each other, all of them of the "self-propelled automotive" type.<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Olender|2010|p=236}}</ref>  The deployment of these new underwater weapons resulted in one battleship, two armored cruisers, and two destroyers being sunk in action, with the remainder of the roughly 80 warships being sunk by the more conventional methods of gunfire, mines, and [[scuttling]].<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Olender|2010|p=234}}</ref>

On 27 May 1905, during the [[Battle of Tsushima]], Admiral [[Zinovy Rozhestvensky|Rozhestvensky]]'s [[flagship]], the battleship {{ship|Russian battleship|Knyaz Suvorov||2}}, had been gunned to a wreck by [[Tōgō Heihachirō|Admiral Tōgō]]'s {{Convert|12|in|4=-gunned|adj=mid}} [[battleline]].  With the Russians sunk and scattering, Tōgō prepared for pursuit, and while doing so ordered his [[torpedo boat destroyer]]s (TBDs) (mostly referred to as just ''destroyers'' in most written accounts) to finish off the Russian battleship. ''Knyaz Suvorov'' was set upon by 17 torpedo-firing warships, ten of which were destroyers and four torpedo boats. Twenty-one torpedoes were launched at the [[pre-dreadnought]], and three struck home, one fired from the destroyer {{ship|Japanese destroyer|Murasame|1903|2}} and two from torpedo boats ''No. 72'' and ''No. 75''.<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Olender|2010|p=235}}</ref>  The flagship slipped under the waves shortly thereafter, taking over 900 men with her to the bottom.<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Olender|2010|p=225}}</ref>

On December 9, 1912, the Greek submarine "Dolphin" launched a torpedo against the Ottoman cruiser "Medjidieh".<ref>[https://www.hellenicnavy.gr/el/istoria/palaia-polemika-ploia/229-gr/istoria/palaia-polemika-ploia/ellinika-ypovryxia-kata-tous-valkanikoys-polemous/1728-katadyomeno-delfin.html "Submersible Dolphin", Hellenic Navy] (in Greek)</ref>