Hi Bobbysocks,
I'm no expert on this sort of thing, but torpedo aircraft of that period are of interest to me. The first unofficial record of a ship being attacked by aircraft is again by our erstwhile Far Eastern friends (in WW1 at least) the Japanese during the siege of Tsingtao, a German held colony in China. At the outbreak of WW1 the Japanese sent a naval task force that included the seaplane tender
Wakamiya equipped with four Maurice Farman floatplanes. These carried out a number of notable aviation firsts against German targets, although some of these are disputed. On 5th September 1914 one of the Japanese Farmans dropped what were essentially naval artillery shells on a German mine layer, which is often referred to as a torpedo boat, and caused damage to it; some accounts claimed this vessel was sunk, but this is not recorded in German shipping losses around that time.
Also during the Wakamiya's aircraft's ventures, German ground positions were attacked. These operations are often claimed by many sources, notably on the internet, to be the first successful aircraft carrier air strikes in history. This is somewhat over stating their significance since the
Wakamiya could not launch her aeroplanes, they had to be lowered into the sea; she was a seaplane tender. Another claim of the Japanese Farman seaplanes at Tsingtao is that they made the first night attacks against enemy positions, but there is debate about this and whether if it at all took place, how successful such an attack was. Nevertheless, these actions illustrated the resolve of the Japanese to use any weapons at their disposal to achieve their aims before many European and US military organsations were prepared to realise the potential of military aviation.
Unless I can be proven wrong, the first bombing attack on a capital warship by an aeroplane was by Royal Navy Short 184 seaplanes against the German battlecruiser
Goeben sailing under the Turkish flag as the
Yavuz Sultan Selim. On 20 January 1918, the seaplane tender HMS
Empress launched a night attack against the ship, which had run aground off Nagara Point off the Dardanelles; one bomb struck the ship but caused little damage. Over the next few days more Short seaplanes dropped bombs on the ship, causing small amounts of damage, but none of the small sized (230 lb) weapons were able to penetrate the
Goeben's deck armour and it was towed off the reef by a Turkish warship.
One of the unsung aircraft of WW1, the ubiquitous Short 184 has a distinguished naval history; during the Dardanelles campaign in 1915, Short seaplanes sank Turkish vessels using torpedoes on more than one occasion, although one of the vessels had been disabled by a submarine prior to being shot at by the aeroplane. For more, read my article posted under the World War One heading on this forum called Laying Eggs in Someone Else's Basket.
One again, I've hijacked a thread! Mind you, you could argue it was in order to establish a potential game changer!