How torpedo prestige made small ships useful overseas

HMS Lightning and Norway's HNoMS Rap introduce the first generation of very small, fast torpedo craft. The Royal Navy also put torpedoes aboard third-class sloops whose ordinary value lay in affordable overseas presence rather than fleet battle. Other navies' claims that torpedo craft could kill battleships forced observers to treat those British ships as potentially dangerous even when the Royal Navy itself doubted the advertising. That reputation could create diplomatic and deterrent value before combat performance justified the mythology.