supertorpedo

English

Etymology

From super- +‎ torpedo.

Noun

supertorpedo (plural supertorpedos or supertorpedoes)

(military) A particularly powerful torpedo.
- 1925, Gérard de Vaucouleurs, United States Naval Institute Proceedings 1925-10: Volume 51, Issue 10‎^[1], United States Naval Institute, page 1975:
  More than the battleship, the cruiser is one of the principal agents of this work, and all friends of the navy will rejoice that twenty-three of the war-built vessels, many of them but fragile supertorpedo craft, are now to be replaced by up-to-date ships, better designed and equipped for service in the outer oceans.
- 1941, Hearst Magazines, Popular Mechanics‎^[2], Hearst Magazines, page 85:
  Hydrobomb tests are made in this 500-foot tank with underwater observation windows. The electric-powered tow car is lowered to the tracks at either side of the tank, completely straddling it when in operation. Still experimental, this plane-borne supertorpedo can carry a heavier charge twice as fast as current types[.]
- 1957, Philip Wylie, The Innocent Ambassadors‎^[3], Rinehart, page 89:
  The same sort of weapon can be shot in missiles, used in mines, launched in supertorpedoes of long range, aimed at coastal cities from far at sea, etc., etc., ad nauseam.
- 1966, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica: A New Survey of Universal Knowledge: Volume 7‎^[4], Encyclopaedia Britannica, page 309:
  Because the destroyer is generally considered the most versatile of modern naval vessels, it follows that dift'erent navies and commanders have held divergent views as to its proper role. No fleet commander has ever considered that he had enough destroyers; and yet, as is shown in the paragraphs which follow, destroyers have been in great demand for specialized activities such as antisubmarine warfare in all phases. The destroyer started as a supertorpedo boat, and the torpedo has remained one of its primary weapons, but the passing of the battle line has not decreased the demand for destroyers. Destroyers may be compared with the cavalry of a former day and the tanks of a modern army.
- 1990, Everett Franklin Bleiler, Science-Fiction, the Early Years‎^[5], Kent State University Press, page 506:
  They lose time when their small control ship is damaged, and the raider battleship runs afoul of an American naval vessel that is testing a new supertorpedo.