In the British Navy the torpedo gunboats never get beyond the “catcher” stage--they never had the opportunity; but it is worthy of note that the first two ships to be torpedoed under anything like modern war conditions--the Chilian _Blanco Encalada_ and the Brazilian _Aquidaban_--were both sunk by vessels of almost exactly the same type as the “catchers,” and not by torpedo boats. So far as the British Navy was concerned, the “catchers” tested in the “secret manœuvres” of 1891 did uncommonly well. They hung about off the torpedo bases, and though only about one to four, accounted for at least 90 per cent. of the hostile torpedo boats. To this very success, perhaps, was due the fact that in their own day they were not thought of as an offensive arm against big ships--destruction of the torpedo boat was then the principal aim in view. This they fulfilled. The South American Republics discovered their “other uses,” and so really led the way to the evolution of the destroyer of a later era. Perhaps the only nation which really read the lesson involved was Germany. So long ago as 1895 she had launched the 2,000-ton “small cruiser” _Hela_; in 1898 the _Gazelle_ of 2,645 tons was set afloat. For years Germany added to the _Gazelle_ class, at a time when all the rest of the world had decreed that “third-class cruisers” were useless. Not for many a year did the British Admiralty discover that Germany had seen the matter of the _Lynch_ and the _Sampaio_[16] better than any other Power. Neither of these ships in attacking got hit. They got home without. But they might have been hit. Germany evolved something that even if hit badly would still float long enough to get off her torpedoes. Till the Chilian “catchers” in 1891 proved their offensive abilities, no one had ever considered that side of the question. To this day Germany has never really received her meed of credit for perceiving that a small third-class cruiser has potentialities with torpedoes against a battleship at night. [Illustration: HOOD. ROYAL SOVEREIGN. BARFLEUR. RENOWN. MAJESTIC. LONDON. KING EDWARD. BATTLESHIPS OF THE WHITE ERA.] So late as the present day much comment about German small cruisers being inadequately gunned, a clear indication that just as in the past there was a difficulty in conceiving of the torpedo-gunboat for other than her nominal use, so the possibilities of the small cruiser in the role of destroyer were still apt to be generally overlooked.