A review of Nathaniel Barnaby's paper "Ships of war." read at the Seventeenth Session of the Institute of Naval Architects in 1876. Barnaby suggested that the best protection against torpedo attack would be the provision of a screen of small, fast, unarmoured vessels able to keep off attacks by torpedo vessels and unarmoured rams. See "Ships at war." Transactions of the Institution of Naval Architects, vol. 17, pp. 1-12.