HMS Thunderchild vs. 3 Martian war machines, War of the Worlds
The HMS Thunder-child was described as a 'torpedo-ram', in which case it would be similar to the HMS Polyphemus. However, the Thunder-child is larger and more heavily armed. The ship has two funnels and multiple cannons, making its firepower similar to that of a second-class cruiser. It also had stronger armor than the Polyphemus, making the ship more durable, but with a resulting increase in weight. The cannons as well as ramming allowed the Thunder-child to disable two Martian tripod war-machines, although the ship was blown to bits with all hands by the heat-rays of its opponents. The Martians had been taken by surprise by the ability of this attacker, as they had little more than canals on their world and few real warships in their history. The Martian war machines used in the assault on Earth, despite their fearsome power, were lightweight fighting vehicles designed to be assembled after the transit and had only thin armor (immune to maxim guns but not to field artillery, or the weapons on warships). The Martians adapted quickly however, and when the rest of the British Channel Fleet was sent in to engage the Martian forces on shore the battleships and ironclads were turned into firey ovens for their crews at long range.
The historical Polyphemus relied mainly on torpedos and its ramming ability, not guns. (The USA had a similar vessel, the Kathadin, which did not even have torpedos but was purely a ramming ship). In the decades after the American Civil War and the Battle of Lissa between Italy and Austria, ramming was thought to be a real threat and many fictional depictions of battles written at the time (including the first ironclad fight in "Blake of the Rattlesnake", and the battle in "Trafalgar Refought"; see this page) included significant losses of ships due to being deliberately rammed. In reality, ramming attacks were ineffective against moving ships and almost all damage due to ramming was done by accidental collisions with friendly ships.
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