Why official torpedo loads omit spare weapons

Official prewar loadouts listed no reload torpedoes for Royal Navy destroyers. Wartime references to torpedo standing points, sailors' recollections, and firing sequences exceeding launcher capacity suggest that some carried a few spare weapons. One cited record gives successive salvos of three, three, and two torpedoes from a ship described as having a single quintuple launcher. The inferred reload sequence depends on the gaps between salvos; the example does not establish a full reload outfit or securely identify the ship. Spare weapons could be tied down low in the hull and moved with block and tackle. The proposed explanation for their absence from peacetime figures concerns whether reloads were intended for carriage when calculating standard displacement. A purpose-built Japanese reloading system is preferred here as less troublesome for crews, although including that equipment and its weights imposed compromises elsewhere.