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 appearing as a typical pre-dreadnought battleship of the era. The real torpedo ram HMS "Polyphemus" was fast, heavily armoured for her size, and capable of operating in shallow coastal waters; her hull was low in the water with a raft-like superstructure mounting six 1-inch Nordenfelt guns, again very much unlike a pre-dreadnought battleship. In Wells' original novel the battle takes place off the mouth of the River Blackwater, Essex, where internally displaced persons from London are escaping the Martian offensive. Three Martian fighting-machines having approached the vessels from the seaward side, HMS "Thunder Child" signals to the main fleet and