FIUME - THE  INVENTION OF THE TORPEDO

Did you know that the torpedo was invented in Fiume?

       !n the 1880;s one Ivan Luppis, a resident of Fiume and retired naval officer, was thinking of how to defend the coastline at long range. He came up with the idea of what he called “the coastal saviour”, but had neither the technical background nor physical means to make the idea a reality.

He heard about a British engineer, Robert Whitehead, who was manager of a steam ship manufacturing company in Diume. They put their heads together, and came up with the prototype “torpedo”, as Whitehead called it.   The first tests were made in 1866 and by 1943, the factory in western Fiume reached its peak output of 160 torpedos a month. 

Fiume gained a reputation for high-technology engineering.

       The company went bankrupt in the 1990s, but plans are now afoot to restore historic parts of the factory (such as the torpedo launching ramp) as an industrial heritage monument, relocated  the city fish market area.  

       By the way, the imposing building next to the Capuchin church (by the coach station), the 'Ploech Palace', was the home of Annibale Ploech, a chief engineer and shareholder in the torpedo company, and his wife – Robert Whitehead’s daughter.