Invention The Weeks Torpedo

Summary

Named for its designer Asa Weeks, the Weeks torpedo was a surface-running, dual-rocket-powered spar torpedo. Previously existing types of spar torpedo were not rocket-powered and this system of propulsion gave the Weeks torpedo a claimed speed of over 40 knots. The design was also set apart by the fact that, instead of being lodged in the hull of its target, the torpedo would swing down on a line under the boat to damage it below the waterline.

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Published resources

Books

  • Gray, Edwyn, Nineteenth Century Torpedoes and Their Inventors, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 2004. Details

Letters Patents

  • Weeks, A., Rocket torpedo, United States Patent Office.. Details
  • Weeks, A., Spar-torpedo, United States Patent Office, 6 March 1883. Details
  • Weeks, A., Device for launching rocket-torpedoes, United States Patent Office, 13 March 1883. Details

Sources used to compile this entry: Gray, Edwyn, Nineteenth Century Torpedoes and Their Inventors, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 2004.

Prepared by: Rebecca Rigby