The Torpedoboot 1916 was an improved version of the Torpedoboot (Design 1915), operating at the shallow waters of the Coast of Flanders. In difference to its predecessors, those boats were equipped with two turbine engines like the bigger torpedo boats operating in the North Sea.

The almost 40 boats build were all known as excellent seagoing ships which also proved to be very maneuverable as well.

Several boats were lost because of mine hits during the war, most of the surviving ones were delivered to the allied nations after the war and scrapped in the early 1920. Only a few of them were used for active duty until the mid 1930s.