Annual Report of the Torpedo School

The Torpedo School in Vernon issued an Annual Report of the Torpedo School of its work each year throughout the Dreadnought Era. Despite the dull title, each Report is a rich snapshot of the diverse work in all facets of its broad charter — torpedoes, electricity, torpedo and fire control instruments — and a vital resource for developing an understanding of the naval epoch.

I have partial photographic copies of editions from 1901 through 1918, excepting 1916 for which a copy has not yet been located, and you will see them cited very often on this site. To give an overview, here is a rough estimate of how many pages from each edition I have.

Approximate Pages+Plates in Hand
Year	Captain	Promulgated	in Hand	Available
1901	Robinson	8 Feb 1902	8	220
1902	Egerton	7 Apr 1903	8	120
1903		26 Apr 1904	15	120
1904	Briggs	27 Feb 1905	18	220
1905		16 Feb 1906	24	120
1906		23 Feb 1907	27	120
1907	Gamble	31 Jan 1908	22	120
1908	Hornby	9 Feb 1909	24	120
1909		27 Jan 1910	20	120
1910		31 Jan 1911	72	220
1911	Nicholson	21 Feb 1912	38	140
1912		21 Feb 1913	52	120
1913		20 Feb 1914	54	160
1914	Field	31 Dec 1914	37	110
1915	Skipwith	31 Jan 1916	100	250
1916		no copy found
1917	Wentworth	30 Aug 1918	190	280
1918	Waistell	19 Jul 1919	300	450

Each Report opens with a letter of promulgation (often from early in the succeeding year, but sometimes quite late in the succeeding year and then extensive introductory remarks, a list of plates, and then the content in sections, and then a series of appendices. The sectional structure changed slowly over time.

The 1901-1906 editions changed little, having sections with names roughly:

1. Personnel
2. Stores and equipment
3. Instruction in sea-going ships
4. Whitehead torpedoes
5. Torpedo craft
6. Electric lighting (sometimes "Electric lighting and motors")
7. Mining and other practical work
8. Gun circuits and communications
9. Wireless telegraphy (removed in 1903, never to return)
10. Foreign torpedoes ("Foreign services" from 1902, "foreign naval progress" from 1907, etc)

While the section names evolved slowly, the overall organization did not vary substantially until 1915 reduced the report to just six sections:

1. Personnel,
2. Stores and equipments
3. Whitehead torpedoes and torpedo craft
4. Electric lighting
5. Mining and other practical work
6. Gun circuits and communications

While our study is hindered by the lack of a copy of the 1916 edition, by 1917 some fundamental shift has occurred, as the six sections were now:

1. Personnel and instruction
2. Stores and equipments
3. Whitehead torpedoes and torpedo craft
4. Whitehead war running and torpedo control
5. Electric lighting
6. Fire control communications, &c.

The 1917 edition's use of the expression "Torpedo Control" was not entirely new, but the subject matter placed under it was nearly so, and it was extensive — comprising a fifth of the report's pages. In 1918, this section was about a third of the report's length.