Thunderhead Torpedo Boat

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*"And any man who may be asked in this century what he did to make his life worthwhile, I think can respond with a good deal of pride and satisfaction: 'I served in the United States Navy.”*

- Adm. John F. Kennedy
## Tactical Analysis

* **I'm running circles around you!:** The Torpedo Boat is a small boat armed with a 76mm deck gun. Its greatest asset is its speed; it is literally capable of running rings around slower ships while pounding them with attacks.

* **Torpedoes away:** True to its name, the Torpedo Boat is also equipped with a limited store of long ranged, hard hitting torpedoes that can devastate the largest of capital ships. However, it must use the limited amount of torpedoes it has sparingly, and the torpedoes themselves lack guidance systems.

* **Small fish**: The Torpedo Boat suffers from several weaknesses, among them a lack of armor and an agonisingly long reload time for its torpedoes. It is best suited to hit and run attacks, quickly launching off its torpedoes and then using its speed to pull back and reload.

* **Smart fish**: A number of torpedoes with magnetic guidance systems were recently liberated from an Allied shipyard. Due to their limited numbers, only the best boat captains are allowed to carry them.

## Operational History

One of the few ships in the Continental navy that isn't a salvaged or captured vessel from the Second World War, the ***Thunderhead*-class Torpedo Boat** is an updated version of the older *Thunderchild*-class of patrol boat that saw extensive service with the Allied fleets as a specialised submarine hunter with limited brown-water capabilities. The two classes are nearly identical, with the only significant difference being the removal of the 20mm cannon present on the older version, so as to streamline production. Even considering the advances in propulsion and munitions on the side, the *Thunderhead* performs much like its predecessor as a fast, inexpensive naval support vessel especially well suited for littoral operations and even capable of traveling up large rivers when called upon.

Officially, Huntspoint Drydocks deplores the Continental insurgency and refuses to do business with the rebels. Unofficially, there is a great deal of resentment within the company for the massive standardisation program the Allies have imposed on much of the world's militaries, demanding that any nation that wishes to enjoy the benefits of joining the Allied Nations use Allied approved technology and designs. Whether intentional or not, this has had the side effect of effectively granting certain defence-contractors near-complete monopolies and making it extremely difficult for small companies like Huntspoint to break into a market dominated by giants like Gerhardt-Giraud Shipworks, United Armour, and other military-industrial juggernauts. Huntspoint's own offer of the *Thunderhead*-class to the Allies as a supplement to or even replacement for the significantly more expensive - both to construct and operate - Subhunter Frigate, was dismissed out of hand even after Huntspoint cited the superior in-shore and brown-water capabilities of the *Thunderhead*-class. Although Huntspoint's accusations that Gerhardt-Giraud was the organization mainly responsible for denying the *Thunderhead*, not the Allied Navy, were found by an Allied investigation to be baseless, many of the smaller companies that had previously done military contracts with the Allied Nations--*not* the monolithic Allied Nations--found it a similar story to their own experiences, and doubt the integrity of the Allied investigation to put it mildly. To Huntspoint, the most damning evidence is that the Allied commanders simply deemed G-G Shipworks' design *the **"Subhunter"***, rather than using its class-name *"Payne"*.

Accordingly, a number of suspicious Northern Californian fishermen that no responsible company would trust or sell military-grade hardware to have not only become valued customers, but have been offered a marked discount on the ships and munitions for them, even as Huntspoint Drydocks indignantly refutes claims by Gerhardt-Giraud Shipworks that the smaller California-based company is supplying the Continentals with weapon platforms. It is hardly Huntspoint's fault that the Continentals have taken a liking to the *Thunderhead* and tend to steal them out from under their legitimate owners' noses, isn't it? Or should Gerhardt-Giraud be accusing the companies whose ships *were* mothballed at Corpus Christi of supplying the Continentals as well?

The truth continues to wrestle back and forth in legal limbo, and doesn't particularly matter in any event. The *Thunderhead* is a common sight in Continental raiding squadrons, and the question of why that should be so is something for historians to debate.