Whitehead torpedo The Whitehead torpedo was the first self - propelled or " locomotive " torpedo ever developed . It was perfected in 1866 by Robert Whitehead from a design conceived by Giovanni Luppis of the Austro - Hungarian Navy . Many naval services procured the Whitehead torpedo during the 1870s , including the US Navy . This early torpedo proved itself in combat during the Russo - Turkish War when , on January 16 , 1878 , the Turkish ship " Intibah " was sunk by Russian torpedo boat s carrying Whiteheads . The term " torpedo " comes from the Torpedo fish , which is a type of ray that delivers an electric shock to stun its prey . History . During the 19th century , an anonymous officer of the Austrian Marine Artillery conceived the idea of using a small boat laden with explosives , propelled by a steam or an air engine and steered by cables to be used against enemy ships ; his papers came into the possession of Captain Giovanni Luppis upon his death . Luppis had a model of the device built ; it was powered by a spring - driven clockwork mechanism and steered remotely by cables from land . Dissatisfied with the device , which he called the " coast - saver " , Luppis turned to Robert Whitehead , who then worked for " Stabilimento Tecnico Fiumano " , a factory in Fiume , Austria . In about 1850 the Austrian Navy asked Whitehead to develop this design into a self - propelled underwater torpedo . Whitehead developed what he called the " Minenschiff " ( mine ship ) : an 11 - foot long , 14 - inch diameter torpedo propelled by compressed air and carrying an explosive warhead , with a speed of 7 knots ( 13 km / h ) and the ability to hit a target up to 700 yards ( 640 m ) away . In 1868 , Whitehead introduced a solution to the stability problem for his torpedo : Pendulum - and - hydrostat control . The Austrian Navy bought the manufacturing rights to the Whitehead torpedo in 1869 . By 1870 Whitehead ' s torpedoes were running at 17 knots . Still , there remained the problem of course correction : returning the torpedo to its correct course after it had deviated due to wind or wave action . The solution was in the form of the gyroscope gear , which was patented by Ludwig Obry , the rights to which was bought by Whitehead in 1896 . Design . In 1868 , Whitehead offered two types of torpedoes to the world ' s navies : one was 11 feet , seven inches in length with a diameter of 14 inches . It weighed 346 pounds and carried a 40 - pound warhead . The other was 14 feet long with a 16 - inch diameter . It weighed 650 pounds and carried a 60 - pound warhead . Both models could do 8 - 10 knots with a range of 200 yards . The United States Navy started using the Whitehead torpedo in 1892 after an American company , E . W . Bliss , secured manufacturing rights . As manufactured for the US Navy , the Whitehead torpedo was divided into four sections : the head , the air flask , the after - body and the tail . The head contained the explosive charge of guncotton ; the air flask contained compressed air at 1350 pounds per square inch , or 90 atmospheres ; the after - body contained the engine and the controlling mechanism , and the propellers and rudder were in the tail . The air flask was constructed from heavy forged steel . The other parts of the shell of the torpedo were made of thin sheet steel . The interior parts were generally constructed out of bronze . The torpedo was launched above or below the waterline from a tube , using air or gunpowder discharge . Significance . In 1871 , the Royal Navy bought manufacturing rights , and started producing the torpedo at the Royal Laboratories at Woolrich , England . The Royal Navy fitted the Whitehead torpedo on its earliest submarine s , from the HMS " Holland 1 " onwards . The French , German , Italian , Russian , and Chinese navies soon followed suit and began acquiring the Whitehead torpedo . By 1877 , the Whitehead torpedo was attaining speeds of 18 mph for ranges of 830 yards . By the 1880s , more of the world ' s navies acquired the Whitehead and began deploying torpedo boats to carry them into battle and engineers began to envision submarines armed with Whitehead torpedoes . In 1904 , British Admiral Henry John May commented , " but for Whitehead , the submarine would remain an interesting toy and little more " .