which was invented first - the torpedo or the submarine?

Question

if possible please list a source. I'm thinking its the torpedo as planes were known to drop them.

Answer 1

It all depends on what you mean by a submarine, and what you mean by a torpedo.

When Admiral Farragut cried "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" at the battle of Mobile bay, he was referring to what we would call "mines" First sinking a ship in 1862. They evolved via the extremely dangerous "spar torpedo" (A contact fused bomb at the end of a long pole, stuck out of the front of a "torpedo boat") to the first self-propelled torpedoes, originally used for harbour defence and directed by trailing wires. The Brennan torpedo of 1881
was probably the earliest practical model.
Almost at the same time the first models of the Whitehead self propelled torpedo were being developed, leading to a 30 knot version by 1890.

Which means submarines came first, with the first (unsuccessful) submarine attack dating to 1776, and David Bushnell's "Turtle", though the first recognisably modern submarine dates from 1900, with John Holland's designs.

Answer 2

The term torpedo was changed meaning quite a bit over the years. Early on, during the age of sail, it was the word used for what we would now call a mine. So in that sense the torpedo came first.

However if you are refering to a "modern" torpedo, then the submarine came first. The first documented, successful use of a submarine was during the US civil war.

Answer 3

The torpedo. While the name predates the steel ship (the bomb on a spar that the Confederate submersible boat HL Hunley carried), the torpedo as it is now understood was used as a weapon by surface ships first. Indeed, the term 'destroyer' is short for 'motor torpedo boat destroyer'; MTBs were a threat to fighting ships before the first attempts at a practical submarine were built.

Answer 4

Your're right it was the torpedo but not for the reason you think - in fact your grasp of naval history is poor to non existent.

The name torpedo was originally applied to what today we tend to think of as being mines.

The torpedo that you are thinking of was invented much later by Whitehead

Answer 5

Beleive it or not Submarines were used in the civil war. The most well known was the C.S.S. Hunley. They didn't use torpedoes but used a spar attached to the hull. I don't think the torpedo was invented until world war two.