His parents were Georg Anton, Count of Hoyos (1842–1904) and Alice Whitehead, who was the daughter of Robert Whitehead, the British engineer and inventor of the torpedo.
Cronyn was also father to Benjamin Cronyn, Jr. a former mayor of London, Ontario and relative of Robert Whitehead.
The principal armament was five Whitehead torpedo tubes, one in the bow and two in each broadside.
In 1864 Rijeka the future mayor Giovanni de Ciotta introduced Luppis to the British machine engineer Robert Whitehead, manager of the local factory 'Stabilimento Tecnico Fiumano', with whom he signed a contract to develop the 'salvacoste' further.
On 21 June 1892 in Vienna he married Countess Marguerite Hoyos, a member of the originally Spanish magnate family of Hoyos from Hungary, who herself was half-English and a granddaughter of Robert Whitehead, the inventor of the torpedo.
His sister, the Honourable Marian Cecilia Brodrick, married Sir James Whitehead, son of the inventor Robert Whitehead.
Luppis knew Robert Whitehead, an English engineer who was the manager of a marine engineering works in the city, and in 1864 Luppis formed a partnership with him in order to perfect the invention.
The torpedo ram concept came about at a time when the self-propelled torpedo, pioneered by Robert Whitehead, had only just been invented.
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Originally produced as Call Me Jacky at The Oxford Playhouse in 1967, the play eventually caught the attention of producer Robert Whitehead, who viewed it as an ideal star vehicle for Katharine Hepburn.