HMS Polyphemus (1881) HMS Polyphemus (1881) The third HMS "Polyphemus" was a Royal Navy torpedo ram, serving from 1881 until 1903. A shallow-draft, fast, low-profile vessel, she was designed to penetrate enemy harbours at speed and sink anchored ships. Designed by Nathaniel Barnaby primarily as a protected torpedo boat, the ram was provided very much as secondary armament. It has been suggested that H. G. Wells’ fictional HMS "Thunder Child" from his novel "The War of the Worlds" may have been based on this ship, in part because he described "Thunder Child" as an ironclad torpedo ram, and "Polyphemus" was the only ship
HMS Thunder Child steams at full speed towards the Martians without firing. The Martians, whom the narrator suggests are unfamiliar with large warships, at first use only a gas attack, which fails, and thereafter using their Heat-Ray, inflicting a great amount of damage upon "Thunder Child", which rams one of the fighting-machines, fires on a second, and attacks a third before being destroyed by the Heat-Ray, whereupon she collides with the second Martian. When the black smoke and superheated steam banks dissipate, the third fighting-machine is no longer visible. The attack by "Thunder Child" occupies the Martians long enough for three Royal Navy