Experiments with torpedo gunboats encouraged a faster vessel capable of both attacking and protecting a fleet. Steam turbines later suited destroyers because they supported sustained high speed. Treating turbines as an essential definition would nevertheless exclude the early Daring, Havock, and Ferret classes, which used triple-expansion engines. Ferret is described as a 284-ton vessel built in 1893-1894 and commissioned from 1894 to 1912. The argument defines the emerging type through its role and armament before propulsion technology became closely associated with it.
Chapter · 25:44-30:22
The first destroyers combined attack and defense before turbines
Threat mitigation, high speed, guns, and torpedoes converged in the first torpedo-boat destroyers before turbines became standard.