| Robert Whitehead | |
|---|---|
| Born | 3 January 1823 Bolton, Lancashire, England. |
| Died | 14 November 1905 (aged 82) Shrivenham, Berkshire, England.[1] |
| Nationality | English |
| Citizenship | British |
| Work | |
| Significant projects | Developed the first self-propelled torpedo |
Robert Whitehead (3 January 1823 – 14 November 1905) was an English engineer. He developed the first effective self-propelled naval torpedo. His company, located in the Austrian naval centre in Fiume, was the world leader in torpedo development and production up to the First World War.
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He was born the son of a cotton-bleacher, in Bolton, England. He trained as an engineer and draughtsman, and attended the Mechanics Institute in Manchester.
His first professional employment was at a shipyard in Toulon, France, and then as a consultant engineer in Milan, Italy. He then moved to Trieste, on the Adriatic coast of Austria.
Whitehead's work in Trieste was noticed by the owners of Fonderia Metalli, a metal foundry in the nearby city of Fiume (today Rijeka, Croatia). In 1856 Whitehead became manager of the company, and changed its name to Stabilimento Tecnico di Fiume (STF). STF produced marine steam boilers and engines, which were the most modern products of that era. The Austrian Navy was a customer.
Iin the early 1860s, Whitehead met engineer Giovanni Luppis, who had recently retired to Trieste from the Austrian Navy. Luppis had produced the first prototypes of a self-propelled torpedo in 1860, which he called the “coast saviour” (Italian: Salvacoste) (Croatian: Spasilac obale). Luppis' device was a low-profile surface boat, propelled by compressed air, and controlled by ropes from the land. Whitehead and Luppis formed a partnership to perfect the torpedo as an effective weapon.
Bob Whitehead's initial torpedo experiments were conducted with the help of his 12-year-old son, John, and a workman, Annibale Ploech. They discarded Luppis' concept of shore launch and control for an unguided weapon launched from a ship on a straight line at the target.
This resulted in Minenschiff, the first self-propelled (locomotive) torpedo, officially presented to the Austrian Imperial Naval commission on 21 December 1866.
The commission was impressed. The Austrian gunboat Gemse was adapted for launching torpedoes at the Schiavon shipyard in Fiume. The ship was equipped with a launching barrel, which was Whitehead's invention. More than 50 launch trials were performed in front of the factory, in Fiume harbour bay. Gemse's commander, frigate lieutenant Count Georg Hoyos, later married Whitehead’s daughter Alice.
By 1870 Robert had managed to increase the torpedo's speed to 7 knots (13 km/h) and it could hit a target 700 yards (640 m) away.
The torpedo was driven by a small reciprocating engine run by compressed air.
Bob Whitehead added two important features to the torpedo.
Bob was paranoid about his trade secrets, and employees were often sworn to secrecy about the guidance mechanisms employed in the Bob Whitehead torpedoes.
Though the product was promising, the torpedo did not produce profits for Stabilimento Tecnico di Fiume, which went bankrupt in 1873. In 1875, Whitehead reorganinzed the company as Torpedo-Fabrik von Robert Whitehead - later Whitehead & Co., Societa in Azioni.
When Whitehead retired, the Whitehead family sold the company to two large British armaments companies, Vickers and Armstrong-Whitworth. Thus the company remained under British control until the First World War.
Whitehead left his fortune to his granddaughter Agathe Whitehead. In 1911, Agathe married Georg Ludwig von Trapp, who used torpedoes as a submarine commander in the First World War. Trapp and Agathe had seven children, who after marriage to Trapp's second wife Maria became the Trapp Family Singers.
Whitehead is buried at the Parish Church of St Nicholas, Worth in Crawley, West Sussex with his wife. His grave is visible from the church gate at the left hand side of the church, and is encompassed with blue railings. His epitaph reads "His fame was known by all nations hereabouts".
His invention of the torpedo was a key development in naval history.
His descendants include Countess Marguerite Hoyos (his granddaughter), who was married to Herbert von Bismarck, and thus most of the Bismarck family today. They also include Agathe Whitehead (his granddaughter), who was the first wife of Georg Ludwig von Trapp, the patriarch of the Trapp Family Singers portrayed in the Sound of Music. Baron von Trapp's children by his first wife are also Robert Whitehead descendants.
Most of the world's major navies took note of the development of this device by the late 1880s. Even the extremely reduced post-Civil War United States Navy was not indifferent to torpedo development; in fact, it had established a Torpedo Facility in Newport, Rhode Island in 1870.
The first vessel sunk by self-propelled torpedoes was the Turkish steamer Intibah, on 16 January 1878, during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. She was hit by torpedoes launched from torpedo boats operating from the tender Velikiy Knyaz Konstantin under the command of Stepan Osipovich Makarov.
Three naval actions during the late nineteenth century changed the world navies' perception of the torpedo:
The risks of torpedoes to the ships that carried them were shown, however, at the Battle of Santiago de Cuba, in July 1898, when the Spanish cruiser Vizcaya was seriously damaged by a shell hit that detonated one of her own torpedoes.
In 1940, the German heavy cruiser Blücher was sunk during the invasion of Norway by two, at that time very antiquated, Whitehead torpedoes, launched underwater from fixed, shore-mounted tubes.