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 my brother's perception, like a water-logged ship. This was the ram "Thunder Child"." A few paragraphs later, it is said that "It was the torpedo ram, "Thunder Child", steaming headlong, coming to the rescue of the threatened shipping". In Jeff Wayne's musical adaptation, the ship is described as an ironclad but not specifically a ram or a torpedo ram; the album cover art illustration of "Thunder Child" is of a pre-dreadnought battleship such as the "Canopus"-class in combat with a Martian tripod. The ship is also depicted in art in the "Classics Illustrated" comic book adaptation of the novel, also