The torpedo boat tender was a type of warship developed at the end of the 19th century to help bring small torpedo boat

Torpedo boat

A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval vessel designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs rammed enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes, and later designs launched self-propelled Whitehead torpedoes. They were created to counter battleships and other large, slow and...

 to the high seas, and launch them for attack.

During the Turko-Russian war in 1877, the Russians requisitionned 19 trade vessels to convert them as torpedo boat tenders. Velikiy Knyaz Konstantin

Russian tender Velikiy Knyaz Konstantin

Veliky Knyaz Konstantin was the name of a torpedo boat tender of the Russian Navy named after the Grand Duke Konstantin of Russia, and which served in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78...

was the first historical vessel in this new ship class. She was captained by Stepan Makarov

Stepan Makarov

Stepan Osipovich Makarov was a Ukrainian - born Russian vice-admiral, a highly accomplished and decorated commander of the Imperial Russian Navy, an oceanographer, awarded by the Russian Academy of Sciences, and author of several books. Makarov also designed a small number of ships...

, who was major naval engineer, early practitioner of torpedo

Torpedo

The modern torpedo is a self-propelled missile weapon with an explosive warhead, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater towards a target, and designed to detonate either on contact with it or in proximity to it.The term torpedo was originally employed for...

 usage and the author of concept of torpedo boat tender. On 14th January 1878, Makarov performed the first successful attack by self-propelled torpedoes in history. The Turkish ship Intibah was destroyed by torpedo boats launched from Velikiy Knyaz Konstantin.

In 1878, the British Navy commissioned the Hecla as a torpedo boat tender. The 1896 French ship Foudre was a torpedo boat tender, before it was converted to a seaplane carrier.

During War World II, the type evolved and in the US adopted the designation of Motor torpedo boat tender

Motor torpedo boat tender

Motor torpedo boat tender is a type of ship used by the U.S. Navy during World War II. The Motor torpedo boat tender's task was to act as a tender in remote areas for patrol boats and to provide the necessary fuel and provisions for the torpedo boats she was responsible for...

 (AGP, or "Patrol Craft Tender", according to the United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

 hull classification system

Hull classification symbol

The United States Navy, United States Coast Guard, and United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration use hull classification symbols to identify their ship types and each individual ship within each type...

).