Editing Q-ship (section)

==First World War==
[[File:Mystery Ship trapping German Submarines.jpg|thumb|Q-ships hid naval guns behind moveable or pivoting panels]]

===Royal Navy===
In 1915, during the [[Atlantic U-boat Campaign (World War I)|First Battle of the Atlantic]], Britain was in need of a countermeasure against the [[U-boat]]s that were harassing its sea-lanes. Convoys, which had proved effective in earlier times (and would again prove effective during the [[World War II|Second World War]]), were rejected by the resource-strapped [[British Admiralty|Admiralty]] and the independent captains. [[Depth charge]]s would only start to become available at the start of 1916, and so almost the only chance of sinking a [[submarine]] was by gunfire or by ramming while on the surface.

Submarines could attack by [[torpedo]] or by [[deck gun]]. Torpedoes can be used while the vessel is submerged and invisible to her target, while deck guns are used on the surface. Torpedoes were expensive, unreliable, and a submarine only carried a limited number of them. Ammunition for a deck gun, oppositely, was inexpensive and plentiful in comparison. As a result, submarine captains preferred to surface and use their deck gun on most targets. However, when encountering a warship, submarine commanders could recognise the threat they posed and use a torpedo, or simply not engage.

A solution to this was the creation of the Q-ship, one of the most closely guarded secrets of the war. Their codename referred to the vessels' [[home port]], [[Cobh|Queenstown]], in [[Ireland]].<ref name="Beyer">Beyer, Kenneth M.: ''Q-Ships versus U-Boats. America's Secret Project''. Naval Institute Press. Annapolis, Maryland, USA. 1999. {{ISBN|1-55750-044-4}}</ref> These became known by the Germans as a ''U-Boot-Falle'' ("U-boat trap"). A Q-ship would appear to be an unarmed merchant ship and so an easy target, but in fact were warships that carried hidden armaments. A typical Q-ship might resemble a tramp steamer sailing alone in an area where a U-boat was reported to be operating.

By seeming to be a suitable target for the U-boat's deck gun, a Q-ship was intended to lure a submarine into surfacing to attack. Once the U-boat was vulnerable, perhaps even gulled further by pretence of some crew dressed as civilian mariners "abandoning ship" and taking to a boat, the Q-ship would drop its panels and immediately open fire with its deck guns. At the same time, the vessel would reveal her true colours by raising the [[White Ensign]] ([[Royal Navy]] flag). When successfully fooled, a U-boat could quickly become overwhelmed by several guns to its one, or defer from firing and try to submerge before it became mortally wounded.

The first Q-ship victory was on 23 June 1915, when the submarine {{HMS|C24}}, cooperating with the decoy vessel ''Taranaki'', sank {{SMU|U-40|Germany|2}} off [[Eyemouth]]. The first victory by an unassisted Q-ship came on 24 July 1915 when {{ship||Prince Charles|Q-ship|2}} sank {{SMU|U-36||2}}. The civilian crew of ''Prince Charles'' received a cash award. The following month an even smaller converted fishing trawler renamed {{ship|HM Armed Smack|Inverlyon}} successfully destroyed {{SMU|UB-4||2}} near [[Great Yarmouth]]. ''Inverlyon'' was an unpowered sailing ship fitted with a small [[3-pounder]] (47&nbsp;mm) gun. The British crew fired nine rounds from their 3-pounder into ''UB-4'' at close range, sinking her with the loss of all hands despite the attempt of ''Inverlyon''{{'}}s commander to rescue one surviving German submariner.

On 19 August 1915, {{HMS|Baralong}} sank {{SMU|U-27|Germany|2}}, which was preparing to attack the nearby merchant ship ''Nicosian''. About a dozen of the U-boat sailors survived and swam towards the merchant ship. The commanding officer, allegedly fearing that they might [[scuttling|scuttle]] her, ordered the survivors to be shot in the water and sent a [[Boarding (attack)|boarding]] party to kill all who had made it aboard. This became known as the "[[Baralong incidents|Baralong incident]]".

{{HMS|Farnborough}} (Q.5) sank {{SMU|U-68||2}} on 22 March 1916. Her commander, [[Gordon Campbell (Royal Navy officer)|Gordon Campbell]], was awarded the [[Victoria Cross]] (VC). New Zealanders Lieutenant Andrew Dougall Blair and Sub-Lieutenant [[William Edward Sanders]] faced three U-boats simultaneously in ''Helgoland'' (Q.17) while becalmed and without engines or wireless.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://tauranga.kete.net.nz/remembering_war/images/show/6325-helgoland-q17 |title=Helgoland Q17 – Remembering War – Tauranga Memories |website=Tauranga.kete.net.nz |access-date=2017-06-30}}</ref> Forced to return fire early, they managed to sink one U-boat and avoid two torpedo attacks.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://tauranga.kete.net.nz/remembering_war/topics/show/1478#09 |title=Captain Andrew Dougall Blair (1872-1955) – Remembering War – Tauranga Memories |website=Tauranga.kete.net.nz |access-date=2017-06-30}}</ref> Sanders was promoted to lieutenant commander, eventually commanding the topsail schooner {{HMS|Prize}} in command of which he was awarded the Victoria Cross for an action on 30 April 1917 with {{SMU|U-93||2}}, which was severely damaged. ''Helgoland'', while the ship sustained heavy shellfire, waited until the submarine was within {{convert|80|yd}}, whereupon he hoisted the [[White Ensign]] and ''Prize'' opened fire. The submarine appeared to sink and he claimed a victory. However, the badly damaged submarine managed to struggle back to port. With his ship accurately described by the survivors of ''U-93'', Sanders and his crewmen were all killed in action when they attempted a surprise attack on {{SMU|UB-48||2}} on 14 August 1917.

According to ''Warships of World War I'' by H. M. LeFleming, the Royal Navy converted 58 from merchant ships (18 were sunk by U-boats), in addition to 40 {{sclass2|Flower|sloop|1}}s and 20 [[P-class sloop|PC-boats]]. However ''Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921'' claims that no fewer than 157 named submarine decoy vessels converted from other types of ship, in addition to another ten whose name was unknown. It agrees with LeFleming about the number of sloops and PC-boats. These ones were completed as Q-ships, disguised as coastal freighters and differed from regular service PC-boats. None were lost in the war. The Flower-class sloops were designed on merchant ship lines thus making them easily adaptable for conversion to Q-ships, 39 being completed as such while the other was converted after being torpedoed. These all had single [[Funnel (ship)|funnels]] as the merchant ship silhouette was left to the builders. The "Flower-Q's" were employed mainly on convoy and anti-submarine work. Nine were lost during the war.<ref>{{cite web|last=McMullen|first=Chris|url=http://www.gwpda.org/naval/rnqships.htm|title=Royal Navy 'Q' Ships|access-date=14 December 2011|year=2001}}</ref> 

After the war, it was concluded that the effectiveness of the Q-ship initiative was greatly overrated, diverting skilled seamen from other duties without sinking enough U-boats to justify the strategy.<ref>{{cite book|last=Preston|first=Anthonu|title=Submarines|year=1982|publisher=Bison Books|location=London|page=58|isbn=0-86124-043-X}}</ref> Estimates differ due to the uncertainty of the attribution of lost submarines, but in a total of approximately 150 engagements, British Q-ships destroyed or assisted in the loss of around 12-15 U-boats and damaged 60, at a cost of 27-38 Q-ships lost out of ~200.<ref name=Langenberg>{{cite web|url=https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/q-ship-vs-u-boats-world-war-ii/| title=Q-Ships in World War II| last=Langenberg|first =William H.|access-date=11 April 2024}}</ref> Q-ships were thus responsible for under 10% of all U-boats sunk, ranking them well below the use of ordinary [[naval mine|minefields]] in effectiveness. Around half of Q-ship successes took place in June to September 1915, after which the ships were much less effective. With the second round of unrestricted submarine warfare in 1917, Q-ships sunk only 3 submarines, dwarfed by the ~28 sunk by undisguised warships.<ref>{{cite web|title=U-boat Losses 1914-1918 | url=https://uboat.net/wwi/fates/losses.html |access-date = 11 April 2024}}</ref>

===Imperial German Navy===
The Imperial German Navy commissioned six Q-boats during the Great War for the Baltic Sea into the ''Handelsschutzflottille''. None<ref>Lutz Bengelsdorf: ''Der Seekrieg in der Ostsee 1914-1918'' Hauschild, Bremen 2008, p. 94-98, 106-108. {{ISBN|978-3-89757-404-5}}.</ref> were successful in destroying enemy submarines. The German Q-ship ''Schiff K'' heavily damaged the Russian submarine ''Gepard'' of the {{sclass|Bars|submarine|4||1915}} on 27 May 1916. The famous ''Möwe'' and ''Wolf'' were [[merchant raiders]], vessels designed to disrupt enemy trade and sink merchantmen, rather than attack enemy warships.