Alarmed by the success of the German U-boat campaign during World War I, the British Royal Navy decided to fight back by arming Q-ships. These were vessels such as freighters, coasters, fishing trawlers, schooners,and colliers that were armed but resembled innocent carriers. The larger Q-ships often carried deck guns under fake deck cargo, depth charges in concealed racks under the stern or fitted with torpedo tubes. Hinged doors on the side of the ship could fall open to reveal 12 pound guns. Under collapsible deck houses, a 4-inch gun would be mounted. Often false funnels, moveable ventilators, booms, rigging and fast paint jobs would morf the Q-ship into a different national idenity, of say, a Norwegian tramp steamer one moment, to a Dutch freighter the next day. Costume changes and stage props were essential for a successful decoy to battle the U-boat menace.
One of the oddest encounters of the decoy Q-ships was the three masted schooner "Prize" under the command Lieutenant W. E. Saunders, and the U-93 under the command of Baron Spiegel von und zu Peckelsheim off the Southwest coast of Ireland, on April 30, 1917. The U-93 was returning home after bagging 11 allied freighters, when it was decided to rub off an easy schooner target. When the U-93 was within deck gun range, the "Prize" dropped her disguse and blasted the submarine with shellfire. When the smoke cleared, the Baron and another crewman were treading water where the sub had been. Fished from the sea, both were taken as prisoners of war to England. The U-93 had gone under to wash her captain and a crewman off the vessel, but was not sunk. The "Prize's gunfire had shot eight holes into the sub's conning tower, killing two crewmen, but the sub managed to escape into the gathering darkness for a perilous surface run back to her home base to be repaired for further duty.
Source information: Time-Life Books, The U-Boats
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