"There exists a vast literature on the Imperial German Navy in the era after 1897 when Tirpitz began the build up which made the German fleet the world's second largest. Relatively much less has been written about Tirpitz's earlier career, which included the creation virtually from scratch, of German torpedoes, the boats to fir them and the tactics of their use. This article examines Tirpitz's leadership in this field, how what he learned then substantially served as a model for much of his later momentous work, and hoe by 1889, the German Torpedo arm had become a world leader."