Torpedo results in the Russo-Japanese War and Jutland

The Russo-Japanese War produced roughly fifty-eight Russian and Japanese ship losses, yet only six battleships or destroyers were attributed to torpedoes alone or torpedoes combined with gunfire. Gunfire, shore batteries, and other causes did far more of the destructive work than the weapon's war-winning reputation implied. At Jutland, John Jellicoe's decision to turn away from a suspected torpedo attack can be read as fleet preservation rather than timidity. Britain did not need a Trafalgar-style close melee; it needed to retain enough naval superiority to keep the High Seas Fleet from controlling the sea or blockading British trade. Torpedoes could therefore exert major operational influence by changing manoeuvre and preserving a fleet-in-being even when they were not the main source of sinkings.