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Torpedoes are weapons that may be launched from submarines, surface ships, helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, and from unmanned naval mines.
Test firing of the Mark 48 torpedo by the Australian Navy
They are also used as parts of other weapons; the Mark 46 torpedo used by the United States becomes the warhead section of the ASROC (Anti-Submarine ROCket) and the Captor mine uses a submerged sensor platform that releases a torpedo when a hostile contact is detected.
The word torpedo comes from the Torpedo genus of electric rays in the order Torpediniformes, which in turn comes from the Latin "torpere", to be stiffened or paralyzed. (Electric rays are shaped like mines, not like modern torpedoes.)
In naval usage, the term "torpedo" was first used by Robert Fulton who used for the towed gunpowder charge used by his submarine Nautilus in 1800Events March 14 Cardinal Barnaba Chiaramonti is elected pope Pius VII. March 21 Pius VII becomes Pope April 24 US Library of Congress founded. May 15 Napoleon Bonaparte crosses the Alps and invades Italy. June 14 Battle of Marengo, Napoleon defeats the Au– 1805Events January 11 Michigan Territory is created. February 15 Harmony Society officially formed March 1 Justice Samuel Chase acquitted of impeachment charges by the U. Senate April 27 United States Marines and Berbers attack the Tripolitan city of Derna (T to demonstrate that it could sink warships.
The term became generally used to refer to tethered naval mineNaval mines are anti-ship or anti-submarine weapons which, like landmines, are static weapons deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of an enemy ship (cf depth charge). They can be quite cost-effective. Since World War II, mins, developed in the American Civil WarThe American Civil War was fought in the United States from 1861 until 1865 between the northern states, popularly referred to as "the U. the Union," " the North," or "the Yankees"; and the seceding southern states, commonly referred to as "the Confederat in the 1860sEvents and trends Italian unification under King Victor Emmanuel II. Wars for expansion and national unity continue until the incorporation of the Papal States ( March 17, 1861 September 20, 1870). American Civil War fought between the remaining United St by Matthew F. Maury, a Confederate AdmiralThe word admiral comes from the Arabic term amir-al-bahr meaning "commander of the seas. Crusaders learned the term during their encounters with the Arabs, perhaps as early as the 11th century. The Sicilians and later Genoese took the first two parts of t (these are what David Farragut was referring to when he ordered his men to "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead"). This use of the word to refer to what are now called "mines" lasted until World War I. As self-propelled torpedoes were developed the tethered variety was referred to as "stationary torpedo" and later "mine".