The two units are tentatively armed by a crew of 13 people: a lieutenant of commander vessel, three sailors, three torpedo boats, a machinist of 1a class car director, a machinist of 2a car accounting class and four firemen.
They are the first units of the type to enter service in the Royal Navy. The raison d'être of this type of ship comes from the use of the torpedo, a weapon then established in the major Marines and interesting development. The Royal Navy purchased in 1873 the right to use the torpedo according to the formula used by Great Britain to adopt the weapon by purchasing the building license from the inventor, but the right to use it with the constraint to observe the secret on construction details. On this basis, the Whitehead torpedo from Fiume began to operate and became the supplier of all the marinas that had joined this procedure. The two torpedo boats of the displacement of about 25 t, just under 25 m, equipped with an alternative triple-expansion tractor from 250 hp, powered by a locomotive-type coal boiler, had a speed of 18 nodes. Armed only with two fixed torpedo torpedoes so that the exit of the weapons took place by keel at the waterline, they used the Whitehead torpedo model A.22 (The A torpedo 22 in production from 1879 to 1881 had a length of 4,42 m, a diameter of 356 mm, a useful stroke of 400 m at the speed of 24 nodes and was equipped with a war - trito - head of 22 kg). They were prototypical units for the development of future national constructions.
[9 day after a period of tests and training of the crews the torpedo boats N.1 and N.2 leave Spezia and carrying out the circumnavigation of the peninsula with intermediate technical stops in numerous ports will reach the 26 June to Fume and stay until November 7 for install the Whitehead torpedo system and experience the use of the new underwater weapon. They will then continue to Venice where they will arrive the next day to be assigned to the local flotilla and the mobile defense of the lagoon]
Source: Military Navy
