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English engineer

Robert Whitehead (3 January 1823 – 14 November 1905) was an English engineer who was most famous for developing the first effective self propelled naval torpedo.

He was born in Bolton, England, the son of James Whitehead, a cotton bleacher, and his wife Ellen Whitehead née Swift. He trained as an engineer and draughtsman, and attended the Mechanics' Institute, Manchester. and then as a consultant engineer in Milan, Italy. He then moved to Trieste, on the Adriatic coast of Austria. Whitehead's work in Trieste was noticed by the owners of Fonderia Metalli, a metal foundry in the nearby city of Fiume (today Rijeka, Croatia). In 1856, Whitehead became manager of the company, and changed its name to Stabilimento Tecnico di Fiume (STF). STF produced marine steam boilers and engines, which were the most modern products of that era. The Austrian Navy was a customer.

In the early 1860s, Whitehead met engineer Giovanni Luppis, who had recently retired to Trieste from the Austrian Navy. Luppis had produced the first prototypes of a self propelled torpedo in 1860, which he called the "coast saviour" Luppis' device was a low profile surface boat, propelled by compressed air, and controlled by ropes from the land. Whitehead and Luppis formed a partnership to perfect the torpedo as an effective weapon.

Whitehead's initial torpedo experiments were conducted with the help of his 12 year old son, John, and a workman, Annibale Ploech. They discarded Luppis' concept of shore launch and control for an unguided weapon launched from a ship on a straight line at the target which became known as the Whitehead torpedo. This resulted in Minenschiff, the first self propelled (locomotive) torpedo, officially presented to the Austrian Imperial Naval commission on 21 December 1866. The commission was impressed and the Austrian gunboat Gemse was adapted for launching torpedoes at the Schiavon shipyard in Fiume. The ship was equipped with a launching barrel, which was Whitehead's invention. More than 50 launch trials were performed in front of the factory, in Fiume harbour bay. Gemses commander, Frigate Lieutenant Count Georg Anton von Hoyos, later married Whitehead's daughter Alice. By 1870, Whitehead had managed to increase the torpedo's speed to and it could hit a target away. The torpedo was driven by a small reciprocating engine run by compressed air.

Though the product was promising, the torpedo did not produce profits for Stabilimento Tecnico di Fiume, which went bankrupt in 1873. In 1875, Whitehead reorganised the company as Torpedo Fabrik von Robert Whitehead – later Whitehead & Co., Societa in Azioni. In 1890 Whitehead opened a UK manufacturing and test site in Portland Harbour, Dorset. When Whitehead retired, the Whitehead family sold the company to two large British armaments companies, Vickers and Armstrong Whitworth. Thus the company remained under British control until the First World War.

In 1915, the Whitehead company established one of its largest enterprises, the Hungarian Submarine Building Corporation (German: Ungarische Unterseebootsbau AG, or UBAG) in Rijeka. SM U XX, SM U XXI, SM U XXII and SM U XXIII type diesel electric submarines were produced in Rijeka.

Whitehead was a devout Christian and a supporter of the temperance movement. In the early 1880s, he gave £1000 to Agnes Weston, who was attempting to buy and repurpose two public houses in Devonport, expressing his hope that the gift "would knock a hole in one of them". He left his fortune to his granddaughter Agathe Whitehead. Whitehead is buried at the Parish Church of St Nicholas, Worth in Crawley, West Sussex. His epitaph reads "His fame was in all nations round about". Kozala Cemetery in Rijeka is home to the Whitehead Family Mausoleum. The Torpedo Research Vessel RMAS Whitehead (built by Scotts, launched 1970, sold 1993) was named in his honour.