Published Resources Details Journal Article

Title
Torpedo boat destroyers
In
The Engineer
Imprint
vol. 89, 146, p. 542
Description

Accession No.649

Abstract

The full text of this prize-winning essay by Lieutenant R. H. Jackson of the United States Navy was published in the March 1900 number of the Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute. Lieutenant Jackson classified torpedo craft according to their displacement and divided them into four classes. The first, destroyers, boats over 200 tons displacement; the second, sea-keeping torpedo boats; the third, sea-going torpedo boats; and the fourth, stationary or harbour protection boats. The distinction between the second and third was a valuable one. The sea-keeping boat was one that was capable of maintaining itself at sea as long as there was a demand for its services. The sea-going boat was one that could stay, at the most, two or three days at sea. Lieutenant Jackson was also of the opinion that the ostensible role of the destroyer was to capture torpedo boats, and that destroyers should be designed and fitted with this purpose in view.

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