Comments by "Vikki McDonough" (@vikkimcdonough6153) on "Destroyers - Concept and Development (1860-1914)" video.
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18:10 - "So, well, if you had something that could destroy enemy torpedo boats, and could deliver torpedo attack itself, why would you continue building the smaller, more vulnerable torpedo boats that could only do one of those things?" Potentially because the torpedo boats, being smaller and lighter than the destroyers, are cheaper and faster to build, meaning you can have a lot more of them a lot quicker, and a boat that can destroy enemy torpedo boats can also run interference for friendly torpedo boats, so a whole bunch of torpedo boats escorted by a number of destroyers would, potentially, be able to deliver a much more devastating torpedo punch than an equal-cost all-destroyer fleet. (Especially since your enemy's destroyer screen has to be spread out over their entire fleet, so, if you concentrate your destroyers to spearhead the attack, a relatively-small number of your destroyers can punch through their screen and clear the way for your horde of torpedo boats to wreak havok on the enemy battleline.) Additionally, very small boats, like torpedo boats, are easier to design with a very high power-to-mass ratio than even destroyer-sized boats, making things like planing hulls or hydrofoils, which allow small boats to reach very high speeds, much more viable for torpedo boats than for destroyers, allowing you to build lots of superfast torpedo boats that can simply run around enemy destroyers (or simply run the gauntlet through the spaces in the destroyer screen, using their sheer speed to keep the time spent in the danger zone to a minimum, and, thereby, avoid taking excessive losses to the enemy destroyers) before inundating the enemy battlefleet with torpedoes.
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