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 Royal Ulsterman March 1973 after a sabotage operation, and was subsequently scrapped. HMS Royal Ulsterman Commissioned in 1936, HMS Royal Ulsterman was a 3,250 ton passenger ship which, along with her sister-ship, , sailed the Glasgow-Belfast run for Burns and Laird Lines Ltd. During the Second World War, "Royal Ulsterman" served as a Royal Navy Reserve troop transport, taking part in nearly all of the major Allied amphibious operations of the European war, including the Dunkirk evacuation; Operation "Neptune" (the amphibious part of the D-Day landings); and the liberation of the Channel Islands. Commissioned HMS, "Royal Ulsterman" landed elements of the British