MYSTERY SHIPS
THE "Q" boat, or mystery ship, has been surrounded by so much secrecy
that to most people its very being is an unknown quantity. Yet it is to
these curious vessels of all sizes and types that the destruction of
many hostile submarines was due, and the dangerous work performed by
their intrepid crews equalled anything described in sea romance.
The mystery ship was not a specially constructed war vessel, such as a
destroyer or cruiser, but merely a merchantman converted into a
powerfully armed patrol ship, camouflaged to give the appearance of
genuine innocence, but with masked batteries, hulls stuffed with wood to
render them almost unsinkable, hidden torpedo tubes, picked gunners, a
roving commission and a daring commander and crew. Their work was
performed on the broad highways of the sea, and they hunted singly or in
pairs, often fighting against overwhelming odds with certain death as
the price of failure.
[Illustration: INNOCENT LOOKING BUT DEADLY, H.M.S. "HYDERABAD"
The famous "Mystery Ship," powerfully built to resemble a helpless
merchantman. Sitting almost flat on the surface of the sea the torpedoes
from U-boats ran harmlessly beneath her keel.
_Thornycroft & Co., Ltd._]
[Illustration: THE HIDDEN TORPEDO TUBES OF H.M.S. "HYDERABAD"
_Thornycroft & Co., Ltd._]
The number of these vessels was not large, possibly 180, but their
operations extended far and wide. They roamed the North Sea, the
Atlantic, the English Channel, the Mediterranean, the Arctic Ocean
and even the Baltic, but until challenged were quite unknown to all
other vessels of the Allied navies. Theirs was a secret service,
performed amidst great hardships, with no popular applause to spur them
on.
As all "Q" boats--as they were officially called--differed from each
other in size and armament, any description given here can only be taken
as applying to one or more vessels with which the writer was personally
familiar. Some of these so-called mystery ships were old sailing
schooners, others fine steamships, while quite a number were converted
fishing smacks, drifters and trawlers, the method being to give the
prospective commander a free hand in the conversion of his ship from a
peaceable merchantman to a camouflaged man-of-war, and many were the
ingenious devices used.
One vessel fitted out for this desperate duty at a Scottish base was a
steamer of about 400 tons burden. She was armed with a 4.7 quick-firing
gun hidden in a deck-house with imitation glass windows, the sides of
which could be dropped flat on to the deck for the gun to be trained
outboard by simply pressing an electric button on the steamer's bridge.
Two life-boats, one on each side of the aft deck, were bottomless, and
formed covers for two additional 12-pounder guns. A false deck in the
bow shielded a pair of wicked-looking torpedo tubes, each containing an
18-inch Whitehead ready for launching; and the crew for each gun were
able to reach their respective weapons, without appearing on deck, by
means of specially constructed gangways and hatches. The very act of
dropping the sides of the aft gun-house hoisted the White Ensign, and
technically converted this unsuspicious-looking merchantman, which asked
only to be allowed to pursue its lawful vocation on the high seas, into
a heavily armed warship.
This "Q" boat had, when met and challenged by the writer's ship, already
accounted for no less than three German submarines which had opened the
attack from close range, thinking her defenceless.
Another smaller mystery ship was a converted fishing drifter with a
single 12-pounder gun on a specially strengthened platform fitted in the
fish-hold, which had been cleaned, matchboarded and painted to provide
accommodation for the crew of picked gunners. This little ship had no
torpedo tubes and the muzzle of her gun was hidden beneath fishing nets.
There were, however, some very large and elaborately fitted "Q" boats.
These had specially constructed torpedo tubes low down in the hull,
masked 4.7-inch guns in more than one position, special chutes for depth
charges, coal bunkers arranged round the vital machinery to protect it
from shell-fire, and, moreover, were filled with wood to make them
almost unsinkable even if torpedoed.
Each such vessel was provided with a "panic party," whose duty was to
rush to the life-boats when the ship was attacked by a submarine. This
gave the final touch to the disguise, and often induced the submarine to
save further torpedoes by coming to the surface and continuing the
assault with gun-fire.
[Illustration: FIG. 16.--Method of masking a 3, 6, 12 or 13 pounder gun.
_A._ Stern of ship. _B._ Shield constructed to resemble a life-boat
which can be raised or lowered over gun _C_.]
The story of the sinking of the last German submarine in the war by the
"Q 19" will give some idea of how these vessels worked. It occurred in
the Straits of Gibraltar, about twenty-four hours before the signing of
the Armistice. The Q 19 was waiting in the Straits expecting to
intercept three big U-boats on their way back to Heligoland. About
midnight the first of these craft came along, and sighting the
innocent-looking "Q" boat prepared to attack her with gun-fire. For
nearly an hour the mystery ship "played" the submarine by pretending to
make frantic efforts to escape, but all the time allowing the
under-water craft to draw closer and closer.
The "Q" boat was under a heavy fire from the submarine, one shell
wounding eleven out of the crew of sixty, another carrying away the mast
and a portion of the funnel, but no sign of a gun was yet displayed on
board the surface ship. This withholding of fire until the last moment,
when the range has become short and the effect certain, is one of the
great nerve tests imposed on the crews of all mystery ships. It is an
essential of success, for a few wild shots at long range would disclose
the fact that the vessel was heavily armed, and the attacking submarine
would either sheer off or else submerge and use her torpedoes.
When the chase had been on for about fifty minutes, and the submarine
was only 200 yards astern, the "panic party" in the "Q" boat rushed for
the life-boats. The shells were now doing serious damage to both hull
and upper works, and the submarine was creeping close to give the _coup
de grace_.
At this, the psychological moment, the order to open fire was given. The
collapsible deck-house, shielding the 4.7 gun, fell away on its hinges.
Eleven shots were fired in quick succession, all of which struck the
submarine. One blew the commander off the conning-tower and another rent
a gaping hole in the vessel's hull. In less than fifteen minutes the
fight was over and the last U-boat to be sunk in the Great War of
civilisation had disappeared beneath the waters of the Straits of
Gibraltar.[4]
FOOTNOTE:
[4] One of the remaining U-boats afterwards succeeded in torpedoing the
battleship _Britannia_.