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
John McClintock (Royal Navy officer) John McClintock (Royal Navy officer) Vice-Admiral John William Leopold McClintock, CB, DSO (26 July 1874 – 23 March 1929) was a Royal Navy who became President of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. Born the son of Admiral Sir Francis Leopold McClintock, McClintock joined the Royal Navy in 1887. He held the rank of lieutenant when in June 1902 he was posted to serve as first and gunnery (G) lieutenant on the protected cruiser HMS "Andromeda", flag ship of the "Cruiser division" of the Mediterranean Fleet. He served in World War I, during which he commanded the battleship HMS "Lord Nelson"