Torpedo Boats were fast, light surface craft armed with torpedoes that were developed at the end of the 19th century. As torpedoes could destroy large warships this boats became an important feature of all navies in the period before the First World War. Consequently, the British Navy had to develop strategies to deal with the expected swarms of torpedo boats attacking at high speed. Batteries of small surface guns were added to battleships and cruisers. Faster destroyers were developed specifically to protect the large battleships against torpedo boats. Those torpedo boats built after 1910 tended to be equipped with searchlights and machine-guns.