HMS Thunder Child HMS Thunder Child HMS "Thunder Child" is a fictional ironclad torpedo ram of the Royal Navy, destroyed by Martian fighting-machines in H. G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds" whilst protecting a refugee rescue fleet of civilian vessels. Torpedo rams were constructed in the 1870s and 1880s after the ramming and sinking of the "Re d'Italia" at the Battle of Lissa in 1866 by the Austrian flagship, "Ferdinand Max". Despite the Italian warship being stationary at the time, the successful attack influenced naval thinking for the next few decades. The result was specially designed low profile, fast, armoured vessels equipped
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