In 1915, Britain was in desperate need for a countermeasure against the U-boats that were strangling her sea-lanes. Depth charges were very primitive, and the only method of sinking a submarine was by gunfire or by ramming. The problem was to lure the U-boat to the surface.
The solution to this problem was the creation of the Q-Ship, one of the most closely-guarded secrets of the war. Known to the Germans as a "U-Boot-Falle" (U-boat trap), it was an old-looking tramp steamer loaded with wooden caskets, wood, or cork, and armed with hidden guns and torpedoes. Its bouyant cargo made it almost unsinkable, so after firing a few torpedos, a U-boat would surface to use its deck gun at close range. The Q-Ship would then hoist the White Ensign and overwhelm the U-boat with its heavy guns.
The first victory of a Q-Ship occured on July 24, 1915, when U-36? was sunk by [HMS Prince Charles]?, commanded by Lieutenant Mark Wardlaw RN.
The "Baralong Incident" involved the Q-Ship [HMS Baralong]?.
Despite some spectacular actions and a great deal of romanticization, Q-Ships were not particularly successful. In 150 engagements they were able to kill 14 U-boats (about 10% of all U-boats lost) and damaged another 60, but at a cost of of 27 Q-Ships lost out of 200.
The term (or "Q-car") has subsequently been used to describe cars that have much higher than average performance (often through extensive modification) but look like conventional, uninteresting family transport. As well as the ships, this term may also be reinforced from the United Kingdom's system of registration plate numbering - the first symbol on a British plate is a letter code for the year of manufacture, but for vehicles of uncertain or mixed age, a plate beginning with "Q" is used.
![[Home]](wikipedia.png)