The modern torpedo (historically called an automotive, automobile, locomotive, or fish torpedo; colloquially called "fish") is a self-propelled explosive projectile weapon, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater toward a target, and designed to detonate on contact with, or in proximity to, a target.
"We have met the enemy, and they are ours": message sent by Oliver Hazard Perry during the War of 1812 announcing US victory in the Battle of Lake Erie (1813)