Torpedo-boats of the German Navy (1871–1919)

In 1870 there had been 14 tugboats and harbour vessels and 7 rowing boats, which had been armed with spar torpedoes to protect the Elbe and Weser during the Franco-Prussian War.

The later USS Somers was built as a private speculation by Schichau in 1897.

The A-class torpedo boats were a class of single-funnelled torpedo boat or light destroyer designed for operations off the coast of occupied Flanders in the First World War.

The ocean-going torpedo boats (Hochseetorpedoboote) or large torpedo boats (Große Torpedoboote) had been in many ways the equivalent of the contemporary destroyers in other navies.

The B 97 and G 101-class destroyers were re-armed in early 1916 by replacing the 8.8 cm guns with four 10.5 cm SK L/45 naval guns, which could fire a 17.4 kg (38 lb) shell to a distance of 9,460 metres (10,350 yd).