Last Line of Defence: A Brief History of the Torpedo Boats and Torpedo Boat Support Facilities of Colonial New South Wales

The torpedo boats Acheron and Aver nus were built for the naval defence of New South Wales at a time of heightened tension between Great Britain and Imperial Russia. Their purchase in 1877 was intended to allay the colony's immediate concerns about seaborne assault by Czarist warships, but was also part of a larger initiative among all of Britain's Australian possessions to develop their own navies and promote home defence as a long-term objective. Twenty-five years later, both vessels were deemed obsolete, removed from service, and purchased by civilian interests.