torpedo ram

plural torpedo rams · alternative torpedo-ram

1. historicalgovernmentA warship designed to sink enemy vessels using a combination of torpedo (self-propelled naval weapon) fire and ramming.

   1 more example

   When his eyes were clear again, he saw the monster had passed and was rushing landward. Big iron upper-works rose out of this headlong structure, and from that twin funnels projected, and spat a smoking blast shot with fire into the air. It was the torpedo-ram, Thunder Child, steaming headlong, coming to the rescue of the threatened shipping.

   1898, H.G. Wells, “The "Thunder Child."”, in The War of the Worlds, Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, retrieved 24 Nov 2022, page 175