Torpedo ram A torpedo ram is a type of torpedo boat combining a ram with torpedo tubes . Incorporating design elements from the cruiser and the monitor , it was intended to provide small and inexpensive weapon systems for coastal defence and other littoral combat . Like a monitor , torpedo rams operated with very little freeboard , sometimes with only inches of hull rising above the water , exposing only their funnels and turrets to enemy fire . In addition to the guns in their turrets , they also were equipped with torpedoes . Early designs incorporated a spar torpedo that could be extended from the bow and detonated by ramming a target . Later designs used tube - launched self - propelled torpedo es , but retained the concept of ramming , resulting in designs like HMS " Polyphemus " , which had five torpedo tubes , two each port and starboard and one mounted in the center of her reinforced ram bow . The torpedo ram concept came about at a time when the self - propelled torpedo , pioneered by Robert Whitehead , had only just been invented . The earliest self - propelled torpedoes were obviously very powerful weapons , but were very short - ranged and incapable of reaching speeds greater than 10 knots , making them useless against anything but stationary targets . Another result of this was that for a time there was much confusion in naval circles about how best to employ the torpedo . During the 1870s a large number of proposals emerged for torpedo - carrying warships . The torpedo ram , like most of the early torpedo - carrying warship designs , was intended to attack enemy warships while they were still at anchor in harbor . The torpedo ram ' s low profile and high speed were to make discovery and interception harder , as was the commonly stated intent for their attacks to take place at night . Once it reached the harbor , the torpedo ram was to smash its way through any seaward harbor defenses and make straight for the ships lying at anchor , firing its torpedoes before they could get underway . Once this was done , the torpedo ram would exit the harbor and make a high - speed escape to waiting friendly forces . It soon became clear that this proposition was not a practical one . Because of this , torpedo rams were never particularly popular , and the design was largely abandoned by the end of the 19th century as other , more practical , classes of torpedo - carrying warships emerged . Only a handful were built . The best remembered examples of the type were the aforementioned " Polyphemus " and the United States Navy ' s USS " Intrepid " . Neither saw a great deal of active service and they were mostly used for torpedo trials , although " Polyphemus " did demonstrate the potential damage she could inflict when she was used to demolish a harbor defense boom via ramming . While never popular with the naval services that created them , the torpedo ram can be said to have caught public attention in a manner which far exceeded its utility as a concept for a fighting ship . The heroic HMS " Thunder Child " in H . G . Wells ' s science - fiction classic " The War of the Worlds " was a torpedo ram , and she destroyed three Martian Tripods . It has been suggested by some that , in view of the limited military value the torpedo ram demonstrated , Wells ' s immortalization of the type in what would become a literary classic was the torpedo ram ' s greatest achievement .