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Dauntless class Torpedo Boat Destroyer

Note: This is from Jayne's Fighting Ships of Safehold's exhibit on the Charisian fleet during the Jihad. The authors of Jayne's Fighting Ships are refered to as "us".

Along with the threat of new artillery, there was also the threat of torpedo boats. Dohlar, ever the most inventive and dangerous of Charis' enemies, had developed a series of aero-galleys propelled by hand-cranked propellers and mounting heavy cannons in armored bow gunhouses. Long spars in the bows with explosive charges attached gave them a powerful weapon to defeat even ironclad ships, and it was to face this threat that the Dauntless class torpedo boat destroyers were developed.

These fast, nimble ships were intended to drive off attacks by Dohlaran spar-torpedo boats. Their high speed would allow them to get around the sides of the torpedo boats, where they would unleash the pair of rocket launchers in their bows onto the vulnerable wooden bodies of the boats. 4-inch rifled breech loaders mounted fore and aft allowed them to easily engage smaller torpedo boats, and the gatling gun and heavy repeater rifle in the superstructure gave them a final way of driving off enemies or engaging aerial hussars. During the push into Gorath Bay at the end of the Jihad, these small ships proved their worth when they annihilated the force of torpedo boats Earl Thirsk had sent to conduct a night attack on the Charisian main fleet of ironclads.

They went on to serve for about a decade after the Jihad. When they were replaced by the Daring class destroyers of the modern day Imperial Charisian Navy is unclear to us at this time, as the Charisian Archival Office refuses to give us access to what they still deem to be classified information.