The author corrects a number of factual errors in the article on German torpedo boats published in 'Foreign notes' The Engineer, vol. 57, 1 February 1884, p. 95. Six not eight torpedo boats were built at Bremen from drawings supplied by the German Admiralty and these had achieved a mean speed of 16 to 17 knots. Only two boats built in Stettin for Russia were copies of English models, these achieved a mean speed of 16 knots. Ten other boats designed and built by Mr Schichau of Elbing were said to be superior to those supplied by an unnamed English firm. Some of these boats had made the voyage from Elbing to St. Petersburg, a distance of over 700 miles, in bad weather and had then achieved an average speed of 17.5 knots during a 3-hour trial in the open bay at Kronstadt. In 1883 Mr Schichau of Elbing had built six boats, Six at the Vulcan yards at Stettin and six at the Wesser yards at Bremen. In all cases the design and constructional details had been left to the builders and it was emphasised that the vessels were not copies of the four boats the German Admiralty had purchased from England.