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HMS Thunder Child is a fictional ironclad torpedo ram of the Royal Navy, destroyed by Martian fighting-machines in H. G. Wells' 1898 novel The War of the Worlds whilst protecting a refugee rescue fleet of civilian vessels. It has been suggested [1] that Thunder Child was based on HMS Polyphemus, which was the sole torpedo ram to see service with the Royal Navy from 1881 to 1903.
In the novel Wells gives only a rough description of the ship. After the narrator talks about his brother, he introduces us to the Thunder Child in chapter 17, describing her thus: "About a couple of miles out lay an ironclad, very low in the water, almost, to my brother's perception, like a water-logged ship. This was the ram Thunder Child". [2] A few paragraphs later, it is stated that "It was the torpedo ram, Thunder Child, steaming headlong, coming to the rescue of the threatened shipping". [2] The battle takes place off the mouth of the River Blackwater, Essex, where people from London are escaping the Martian offensive by sea. Three Martian fighting-machines having approached the vessels from the seaward side. HMS Thunder Child signals to the main fleet and steams at full speed towards the Martians without firing. The Martians, whom the narrator suggests are unfamiliar with large warships (having come from an arid planet) at first use only a gas attack. When this fails to have any effect, they employ their Heat-Ray, inflicting fatal damage on the Thunder Child. The ship continues to attack, bringing down one of the fighting machines with its gun, even as it succumbs. The flaming wreckage of the ironclad finally rams into a second fighting-machine, destroying it. When the black smoke and super-heated steam banks dissipate, both the Thunder Child and the third fighting-machine are gone. The attack by Thunder Child occupies the Martians long enough for three Royal Navy warships of the main Channel Fleet to arrive.
Elana Gomel describes the scene involving Thunder Child's attack against the Martians as "one of the great depictions of modern warfare in world literature". According to her, the scene is "rendered through an almost cinematic montage of many partial and distorted viewpoints", resulting in a chapter that "feels strikingly modern". [3] A similar view is expressed by Leslie Sheldon, who calls the scene "almost cinematic". [4]
According to Gomel, the scene involving Thunder Child, with its "scriptural descriptions" of events, also demonstrates how The War of the Worlds as a whole is "permeated" by a metaphorical apocalypse that "echoes of the Bible". [5] Despite the apocalyptic nature of the story, Gomel observes that, as a whole, the novel's happy ending (a unique feature among Wells’ novels) describes the technological advances stemming from the invasion as being beneficial for the whole world. [6] Along similar lines, Nathaniel Otjen uses Thunder Child as an example of how Wells' writing "imagines the collapse of fossil fuel modernity and explores alternate forms of energy". [7] According to Otjen, Wells depicts how the fossil fuel technology represented by Thunder Child is only able to combat the Martians' non-fossil fuel technology by mimicking it. [7]
Larrie D. Ferreiro describes how Thunder Child's use of a ram, while a "standard fixture" in ships between 1870 and World War I and extensively discussed by naval officers of the era, is in reality an "illusory" "armchair tactic". Ferreiro bases his stance on an observation that such ramming attacks were "almost never" used effectively in real life, with the notable exception of the sinking of the Chilean corvette Esmeralda during the Battle of Iquique. [8] John Fidler reaches a similar conclusion, describing how Thunder Child's success in damaging its enemy with a ramming attack stands in contrast to the near-complete lack of success by real-world vessels designed for ramming. [9]
Garry Young considers Thunder Child's demise in combat against the Martians in the context of ethics of killer robots, describing Thunder Child's destruction as exemplifying "behaviour as (outwardly) dignified in the face of indignity". [10] According to Young, "the ironclad (and its anonymous crew) is depicted as dying a valiant death against a faceless and non-human enemy, to the sound of cheers from the fearful audience looking on." Young argues that Thunder Child's crew's death should be considered dignified irrespective of whether the Martians are able to recognize or value the humanity of Thunder Child's crew. [10]
HMS Thunder Child is commonly omitted from some adaptations or replaced outright with technology more appropriate to the updated settings.
In Orson Welles's famous 1938 radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds, a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber replaces Thunder Child; it collides with a fighting-machine after being critically damaged by its Heat-Ray.
In the George Pal 1953 film adaptation, the last-ditch defense against the Martians is an atomic bomb dropped by a Thunder Child replacement, a Northrop YB-49 Flying Wing jet bomber; the atomic bomb proves useless, because the Martian fighting-machines are protected by individual force fields.
The first adaptation to feature HMS Thunder Child was Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of ''The War of the Worlds'' , which was released in 1978 and retains the novel's Victorian setting, characters, and situations. The album features the song, "Thunder Child". The album's cover art depicts a Canopus-class battleship fighting a Martian tripod. This version of Thunder Child is based upon the naval painting depicting the Battle of Coronel (1 November 1914). The War of the Worlds was written as an account of fictional events early in the 20th century (possibly the summer of 1901) and the lead ship of the class, HMS Canopus, entered service in 1899 and thus fits the timeline.
The 1999 video game adaptation of Jeff Wayne's musical features a level revolving around Thunder Child. The player is placed in control of the ironclad and must sail it down a river while using its cannons to destroy Martian machines and settlements; the level ends in a climactic confrontation with Tempest, a powerful Martian war machine.
In Steven Spielberg's 2005 film adaptation, War of the Worlds, contemporary American military forces use tanks and attack helicopters against the alien Tripods, again without success. Earlier in the film, civilian ferries trying to escape from the Tripods are trapped and easily sunk, with no intervention by a warship.
The low-budget direct-to-DVD Pendragon feature adaptation of the novel, released in 2005, uses poor CGI to portray HMS Thunder Child as a Royal Navy Havock-class destroyer.
In the BBC's 2019 TV miniseries, the main characters join up again on the Essex coast, where many small boats are gathering civilians to ferry them out to anchored ships. A Martian Tripod appears and several warships open fire on it with their main batteries. Most of the warships are at quite a distance offshore, but one, which could be Thunder Child, is much closer. The Tripod is hit on one its the legs and in its command cupola, and immediately collapses. A second Martian machine appears on the beach, chasing the protagonists. Before it can activate its Heat-Ray, it is struck by naval artillery shells. It falls forward, narrowly missing crushing the protagonists. As in H.G. Wells’ original novel, the refugees manage to escape, while none of the warships are shown being destroyed by the Tripods.
The 2013 science fiction novel The Last Days of Thunder Child, written by C. A. Powell, is set in Victorian Britain of 1898. [11]
Alien invasion or space invasion is a common feature in science fiction stories and films, in which extraterrestrial lifeforms invade Earth to exterminate and supplant human life, enslave it, harvest people for food, steal the planet's resources, or destroy the planet altogether. It can be considered as a science-fiction subgenre of the invasion literature, expanded by H. G. Wells's seminal alien invasion novel The War of the Worlds, and is a type of 'first contact' science fiction.
An ironclad was a steam-propelled warship protected by steel or iron armor constructed from 1859 to the early 1890s. The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships to explosive or incendiary shells. The first ironclad battleship, Gloire, was launched by the French Navy in November 1859, narrowly preempting the British Royal Navy. However, Britain built the first completely iron-hulled warships.
A warship or combatant ship is a ship that is built and primarily intended for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the navy branch of the armed forces of a nation, though they have also been operated by individuals, cooperatives and corporations. As well as being armed, warships are designed to withstand damage and are typically faster and more maneuverable than merchant ships. Unlike a merchant ship, which carries cargo, a warship typically carries only weapons, ammunition and supplies for its crew.
A casemate is a fortified gun emplacement or armored structure from which guns are fired, in a fortification, warship, or armoured fighting vehicle.
H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds, also known as Invasion and H. G. Wells' The Worlds in War internationally, or simply as War of the Worlds, is a 2005 Japanese-American direct-to-DVD independent fantasy horror film produced by The Asylum, which premiered on Sci Fi Channel on Tuesday June 28, 2005, and directed by David Michael Latt. It is a loose adaptation of the H. G. Wells novel, and a mockbuster of the DreamWorks/Paramount film based on the same source, in addition to the third film adaptation overall.
The fighting machine is one of the fictional machines used by the Martians in H. G. Wells' 1898 classic science fiction novel The War of the Worlds. In the novel, it is a fast-moving three-legged walker reported to be 100 feet tall with multiple, whip-like tentacles used for grasping, and two lethal weapons: the Heat-Ray and a gun-like tube used for discharging canisters of a poisonous chemical black smoke that kills everything. It is the primary machine the Martians use when they invade Earth, along with the handling machine, the flying machine, and the embankment machine.
A torpedo ram is a type of torpedo boat combining a ram with torpedo tubes. Incorporating design elements from the cruiser and the monitor, it was intended to provide small and inexpensive weapon systems for coastal defence and other littoral combat.
Thunderchild, Thunder Child or variant, may refer to:
The Martians, also known as the Invaders, are the main antagonists from the H.G. Wells 1898 novel The War of the Worlds. Their efforts to exterminate the populace of the Earth and claim the planet for themselves drive the plot and present challenges for the novel's human characters. They are notable for their use of extraterrestrial weaponry far in advance of that of mankind at the time of the invasion.
The third HMS Polyphemus was a Royal Navy torpedo ram, serving from 1881 until 1903. A shallow-draft, fast, low-profile vessel, she was designed to penetrate enemy harbours at speed and sink anchored ships. Designed by Nathaniel Barnaby primarily as a protected torpedo boat, the ram was provided very much as secondary armament.
HMS Hotspur was a Victorian Royal Navy ironclad ram – a warship armed with guns but whose primary weapon was a ram.
Scarlet Traces is a Steampunk comic series written by Ian Edginton and illustrated by D'Israeli. It was originally published online before being serialised in 2002, in the British anthology Judge Dredd Megazine. A sequel, Scarlet Traces: The Great Game, followed in 2006.
A naval ram is a weapon fitted to varied types of ships, dating back to antiquity. The weapon comprised an underwater prolongation of the bow of the ship to form an armoured beak, usually between 2 and 4 meters (6–12 ft) in length. This would be driven into the hull of an enemy ship to puncture, sink or disable it.
Superman: War of the Worlds is a DC Comics Elseworlds graphic novel, published in 1998, written by Roy Thomas with Michael Lark as the artist. The story is a rough adaptation of the H. G. Wells 1898 novel The War of the Worlds, but is primarily based on the Superman mythology. Wells' story is transported from early 20th century Britain to Metropolis in 1938, where the Martian invasion is met with a Golden Age-style Superman who is not blessed with the full range of powers that he typically has in modern comics.
The Martian War: A Thrilling Eyewitness Account of the Recent Invasion As Reported by Mr. H.G. Wells is a 2005 science fiction novel by American writer Kevin J. Anderson, published under his pseudonym Gabriel Mesta. It is a retelling of H. G. Wells' 1898 novel The War of the Worlds similar to Anderson's past work War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches. It recounts the Martian invasion from a variety of viewpoints, and has ties to Wells' other work.
War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave is a 2008 direct-to-DVD science fiction-thriller film by The Asylum, which premiered on Syfy on Tuesday March 18, 2008, directed by and starring C. Thomas Howell. The film was produced and distributed independently by The Asylum.
The War of the Worlds is a 1953 American science fiction thriller film directed by Byron Haskin, produced by George Pal, and starring Gene Barry and Ann Robinson. It is the first of several feature film adaptations of H. G. Wells' 1898 novel of the same name. The setting is changed from Victorian era England to 1953 Southern California. Earth is suddenly invaded by Martians, and American scientist Doctor Clayton Forrester searches for any weakness to stop them.
War of the Worlds: Goliath is a 2012 Malaysian animated science fiction war film directed by Joe Pearson that was released in 15 November 2012 in Malaysia. The film is voiced by actors Peter Wingfield, Adrian Paul, Tony Eusoff, Elizabeth Gracen, Jim Byrnes, Rob Middleton, Mark Sheppard, Matt Letscher, Adam Baldwin and other voice actors. The film is a loose sequel to H. G. Wells' 1898 novel The War of the Worlds. Its title refers to the human tripod the main characters use in the film. The film was negatively received, with the Los Angeles Times calling it "violent, messily drawn and lifelessly dragging" and The New York Times calling it "remarkably uninvolving".
The War of the Worlds is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells. It was written between 1895 and 1897, and serialised in Pearson's Magazine in the UK and Cosmopolitan magazine in the US in 1897. The full novel was first published in hardcover in 1898 by William Heinemann. The War of the Worlds is one of the earliest stories to detail a conflict between humankind and an extraterrestrial race. The novel is the first-person narrative of an unnamed protagonist in Surrey and his younger brother who escapes to Tillingham in Essex as London and southern England is invaded by Martians. It is one of the most commented-on works in the science fiction canon.