HMS Lightning (1876)

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HMS Lightning - illustration from Scientific American.
History
United Kingdom
Builder	John I. Thornycroft & Company
Launched	1876
Renamed	Torpedo Boat No. 1
Fate	Scrapped, 1896
General characteristics
Class and type	Torpedo boat
Displacement	32.5 long tons (33.0 t)
Length	87 ft 6 in (26.67 m)
Beam	10 ft 9 in (3.28 m)
Draught	5 ft 2 in (1.57 m)
Propulsion	Two-cylinder compound steam engine, 460 hp (340 kW)
Speed	18.5 kn (34.3 km/h)
Armament	2 × 14 inch Whitehead torpedoes (later reduced to one)

HMS Lightning was a torpedo boat, built by John Thornycroft at in Chiswick for the Royal Navy, which entered service in 1876 and was the first seagoing vessel to be armed with self-propelled Whitehead torpedoes. She was later renamed Torpedo Boat No. 1.^{[citation needed]}

A model of HMS Lightning

As originally built, Lightning had two drop collars to launch torpedoes; these were replaced in 1879 by a single torpedo tube in the bow. She also carried two reload torpedoes amidships.^{[citation needed]}

The Lightning spent her life as a tender to the torpedo school HMS Vernon at Portsmouth and was used for some experiments. She was broken up in 1896.^{[citation needed]}

Sources[]

• Chesneau, Roger and Eugène Kolesnik, Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1860–1905. London: Conway Maritime Press, 1979, ISBN 0-85177-133-5