Torpedo Gunboats

I was just rereading what D.K. Brown says about torpedo gunboats. By the early 1890's the Navy thought that they were too slow, and they turned to the early torpedo boat destroyers. D.K. Brown says, though, that in any sort of a seaway, the TGB's could outrun the early destroyers, which had too little freeboard. This was not corrected until the River class boats, which had a lower speed and a raised forecastle.

D.K. Brown says that the TGB's could have formed the basis for building, rather than the enlarged torpedo boat, which was in fact used. He says that they were better ships than they were given credit for at the time.