HMS Thunder Child around the "Thunder Child". The player is placed in control of the ironclad itself and must sail it down a river while using its cannons to destroy Martian units and settlements; the level ends in a climactic confrontation with the Tempest, a powerful Martian war machine. The only version to feature "Thunder Child" directly is the low-budget, direct-to-DVD Pendragon adaptation, released in 2005. This version uses poorly executed CGI to portray "Thunder Child" as a "Havock"-class destroyer; it reverses the order of the ship's attack, using its guns first before successfully ramming in both cases. The vessel eventually sinks from
HMS Thunder Child with a ram or torpedoes, or both, intended for use where it was possible to approach an enemy ship without being sunk; for example, at night or in poor visibility, or where the enemy ship was stationary or disabled, or lacked support by nearby ships. As late as 1896, the United States commissioned a ship whose only effective weapon was a ram: the harbour-defence ram USS "Katahdin". The Royal Navy's only example was HMS "Polyphemus", which entered service in 1882. Its primary armament was torpedoes, with four side-firing tubes and one forward-firing tube in the centre of the bow-mounted ram,