Q-Ships and Their Story — Inside the Classic

the most famous of all the Q-ships and rendered splendid service. The dummy deck-house on the poop concealed the after gun (see p. 67).

Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

Author of “Sailing Ships and Their Story,” Late Lieutenant-Commander R.N.V.R.

London Sidgwick and Jackson, Ltd. 3, Adam Street, Adelphi, W.C. 1922

ADMIRAL SIR LEWIS BAYLY, C.V.O., K.C.B., K.C.M.G.,

COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE IRISH COAST DURING THE STRENUOUS YEARS OF THE SUBMARINE CAMPAIGN, WHO BY HIS ENCOURAGEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE Q-SHIP SERVICE DID SO MUCH TO THWART THE OPERATIONS OF THE ENEMY AND TO PROTECT OUR MERCANTILE MARINE

The wonderful and brave story of ships and men here presented needs but the briefest introduction. The deeds will forever remain one of the most glorious chapters in the chronicles of the sea. No excuse is offered for adding another volume to the literature of the war, for the subject is deserving of greater attention than has hitherto been possible. Lord Jellicoe once remarked that he did not think English people realized the wonderful work which these mystery ships had done in the war, and that in these vessels there had been displayed a spirit of endurance, discipline, and courage the like of which the world had never before seen.

To few naval historians, I believe, has it ever been permitted to enjoy such complete opportunities for acquiring authentic information as is here presented. Unquestionably the greatest sphere of Q-ship operations was off the south-west coast of Ireland, owing to the fact that the enemy submarines from the summer of 1915 to 1918 concentrated their attacks, with certain intervals, on the shipping in the western approaches to the British Isles. It was my good fortune during most of this period to be at sea patrolling off that part of Ireland. These Q-ships were therefore familiar in their various disguises at sea or in harbour at Berehaven and Queenstown during their well-earned rest. Throughout this time I kept a diary, and noted down much that would otherwise have been forgotten. Many of the Q-ship officers were my personal friends, and I have enjoyed the hospitality of their ships. Valuable data, too, were obtained from officers of merchant ships who witnessed Q-ships engaging submarines.

A considerable number of authentic manuscripts has been examined. By the courtesy of commanding officers I have been lent documents of priceless historical value, such as copies of official reports and private diaries, plans, sketches, photographs, and so on. All this information has been further augmented by personal conversation, correspondence, and valuable criticism. I submit, therefore, that with all these sources of information available, and with knowledge of much that has been published from the German side, it is possible to offer a monograph that is at once accurate in detail and correct in perspective.

‘With respect to single-ship actions,’ wrote James in his monumental Naval History a hundred years ago, ‘the official documents of them are also very imperfect. The letters are generally written an hour or so after the termination of the contest, and, of course, before the captain has well recovered from the fatigue and flurry it occasioned. Many captains are far more expert at the sword than at the pen, and would sooner fight an action than write the particulars of one.’ That statement is true to-day of the Q-ships, and it would have been negligent not to have availed oneself now of the calm and considered version of the chief actors in the great mystery-ship drama while they are still alive. Although the time for secrecy has long since passed, nothing has here been included of a confidential nature that can be of assistance to enemies past or potential. In one instance, for political reasons and in the interests of the service, I have made a certain omission. Those concerned will recognize this and understand: the rest will not notice it.

Among those who have rendered me the greatest assistance in regard to information, advice, criticism, the loan of manuscripts, illustrations, and in other ways, I desire especially to return thanks to Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly, C.V.O., K.C.B., K.C.M.G., and Miss Voysey, C.B.E.; to Captain F. H. Grenfell, D.S.O., R.N., Captain Gordon Campbell, V.C., D.S.O., R.N., Captain W. C. O’G. Cochrane, R.N., Commander Godfrey Herbert, D.S.O., R.N., Commander Stopford C. Douglas, R.N., and to Lieutenant G. H. P. Muhlhauser, R.N.R.

E. KEBLE CHATTERTON. _March, 1922._

I. THE HOUR AND THE NEED 1

II. THE BEGINNING OF SUCCESS 13

III. Q-SHIP ENTERPRISE 26

IV. THE STORY OF THE ‘FARNBOROUGH’ 39

V. THE ‘MYSTERY’ SAILING SHIPS 52

VI. THE ‘MARY B. MITCHELL’ 67

VII. MORE SAILING SHIPS 77

VIII. SUBMARINES AND Q-SHIP TACTICS 92

IX. THE SPLENDID ‘PENSHURST’ 109

X. FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS 132

XI. THE GOOD SHIP ‘PRIZE’ 143

XII. SHIPS AND ADVENTURES 158

XIII. MORE SAILING-SHIP FIGHTS 177

XIV. THE SUMMIT OF Q-SHIP SERVICE 192

XV. LIFE ON BOARD A Q-SHIP 213

XVI. Q-SHIPS EVERYWHERE 228

XVII. SHIPS OF ALL SIZES 242

XVIII. THE LAST PHASE 255

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Q-Sailing-Ship _Mitchell_ _Frontispiece_

An Early Q-Ship (_Antwerp_) 6

Commander S. C. Douglas, R.N. 8

Commander G. Herbert, D.S.O., R.N. 8

Gun’s Crew of Q-Ship _Antwerp_ 12

Q-Ship _Redbreast_ 22

Q-Ship _Baralong_ (Two Illustrations) 28

Officers of Q-Ship _Farnborough_ 42

Captain Gordon Campbell and Lieutenant C. G. Bonner 42

Q-Sailing-Ship _Mitchell_ 68

Q-Ship _Penshurst_ 114

Q-Ship _Penshurst_ (Two Illustrations) 116

Q-Ship _Penshurst_ (Two Illustrations) 120

Captain and Officers of Q-Ship _Penshurst_ 124

Men of Q-Ship _Penshurst_ 124

Q-Ship _Tamarisk_ 138

Q-Ship _Candytuft_ 174

Q-Ship _Candytuft_ 176

Q-Sailing-Ship _Fresh Hope_ 188

Q-Ship _Record Reign_ 188

Q-Sailing-Ship _Rentoul_ 190

Q-Sailing-Ship _Rentoul_ (Gun Crew) 190

The Master of the Collier _Farnborough_ 192

Q-Ship _Farnborough_ 192

Q-Ship _Farnborough_ 194

Q-Ship _Farnborough_ 196

Q-Ship _Sarah Jones_ 198

Q-Ship _Dunraven_ 200

Bridge of Q-Ship _Dunraven_ 202

_Dunraven_ Doomed 206

Q-Ship _Dunraven_ 208

Q-Ship _Dunraven_ 212

Q-Ship _Dunraven_ 214

Officers and Crew of the Q-Ship _Dunraven_ 216

Q-Ship _Barranca_ (Two Illustrations) 220

Q-Ship _Barranca_ (Two Illustrations) 222

Q-Ship Transformation 234

Q-Ship _Barranca_ at Sea 234

DIAGRAMS, ETC., IN THE TEXT.

1. Action of _Baralong_ on August 19, 1915 21

2. Action of _Baralong_ on September 24, 1915 27

3. Action of _Margit_ on January 17, 1916 34

4. Action of _Werribee_ on February 9, 1916 37

5. Action of _Farnborough_ on April 15, 1916 45

6. Action of _Helgoland_ on October 24, 1916 63

7. Action of _Salvia_ on October 20, 1916 99

8. Action of _Saros_ on November 3, 1916 103

9. Action of _Penshurst_ on November 29, 1916 110

10. Action of _Penshurst_ on November 30, 1916 113

11. Action of _Penshurst_ on January 14, 1917 118

12. The Humorous Side of Q-Ship Warfare 127

13. _Farnborough’s_ Farewell 196

14. Action of _Pargust_ on June 7, 1917 201

15. The Great Decision 208

16. Letter from the First Lord of the Admiralty to Captain Gordon Campbell 210

‘The necessitie of a Historie is, as of a Sworne Witnesse, to say the truth (in just discretion) and nothing but the truth.’

SAMUEL PURCHAS in ‘_Purchas His Pilgrimes_,’ 1625.

Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY

THE HOUR AND THE NEED

All warfare is merely a contest. In any struggle you see the clashing of will and will, of force against force, of brain against brain. For the impersonal reader it is this contest which has a never-ending interest. A neutral is just as keenly entertained as the playgoer who sits watching the swaying fortunes of the hero in the struggle of the drama. No human being endowed with sympathetic interest, who himself has had to contend with difficulties, fails to be moved by the success or disaster of the contestants in a struggle of which the spectator has no part or lot. If this were not so, neutral newspapers would cease to chronicle the wars of other nations, novels would cease to be published, and plays to be produced.

Human nature, then, being what it is, man loves to watch his fellow-man fighting, struggling against men or fate or circumstances. The harder the fight and the nearer he is to losing, so much the more is the spectator thrilled. This instinct is developed most clearly in youth: hence juvenile fiction is one mass of struggles, adventures, and narrow escapes. But the instinct never dies, and how few of us can resist the temptation to read the exciting experiences of some entirely fictional character who rushes from one perilous situation to another? Is there a human being who, going along the street, would not stop to watch a burglar being chased over roofs and chimney-pots by police? If you have once become interested in a certain trial at the law courts, are you not eager to know whether the prisoner has been acquitted or convicted? You despise him for his character, yet you are fascinated by his adventures, his struggles, his share in the particular drama, his fight against heavy odds; and, contrary to your own inherent sense of justice, you almost hope he will be acquitted. In a word, then, we delight in having before us the adventures of our fellow humanity, partly for the exciting pleasure which these arouse in us, but partly also because they make us wonder what we should have done in a similar set of circumstances. In such vital, critical moments should we have played the hero, or should we have fallen somehow a little short?

The following pages are an attempt to place before the reader a series of sea struggles which are unique, in that they had no precedent in naval history. If you consider all the major and minor sea fights from the earliest times to the present day; if you think of fleet actions, and single-ship contests, you cannot surpass the golden story of the Q-ships. As long as people take any interest in the untamed sea, so will these exploits live, not rivalling but surpassing the greatest deeds of even the Elizabethan seamen. During the late war their exploits were, for very necessary reasons, withheld from the knowledge of the public. The need for secrecy has long since passed, and it is high time that a complete account of these so-called ‘mystery ships’ should be published, not merely for the perpetuation of their wonderful achievements, but for the inspiration of the new race of seamen whose duty it will be to hand on the great tradition of the sea. For, be it remembered, the Q-ship service was representative of every species of seamen. There were officers and men of the Royal Navy both active and retired, of the Royal Naval Reserve, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, and men from the Royal Fleet Reserve. From warship, barracks, office, colony, pleasure yacht, fishing vessel, liner, sailing ship, tramp steamer, and elsewhere these seafarers went forth in unarmoured, slow-moving, lightly-armed vessels to perform the desperate adventure of acting as live-bait for a merciless enemy. It was an exploit calling for supreme bravery, combined with great fighting skill, sound seamanship, and a highly developed imagination. The successes which were attained were brought about by just this combination, so that the officers, especially the commanding officers, and the men had to be hand-picked. The slow-reasoning, hesitating type of being was useless in a Q-ship; equally out of place would have been the wild, hare-brained, dashing individual whose excess of gallantry would simply mean the loss of ship and lives. In the ideal Q-ship captain was found something of the virtues of the cleverest angler, the most patient stalker, the most enterprising big-game hunter, together with the attributes of a cool, unperturbed seaman, the imagination of a sensational novelist, and the plain horse-sense of a hard business man. In two words, the necessary endowment was brains and bravery. It was easy enough to find at least one of these in hundreds of officers, but it was difficult to find among the many volunteers a plucky fighter with a brilliant intellect. It is, of course, one of the happy results of sea training that officer or man learns to think and act quickly without doing foolish things. The handling of a ship in bad weather, or in crowded channels, or a strong tideway, or in going alongside a quay or other ship—all this practice makes a sailor of the man, makes him do the one and only right thing at the right second. But it needed ‘something plus’ in the Q-ship service. For six months, for a year, she might have wandered up and down the Atlantic, all over the submarine zone, with never a sight of the enemy, and then, all of a sudden, a torpedo is seen rushing straight for the ship. The look-out man has reported it, and the officer of the watch has caused the man at the wheel to port his helm just in time to allow the torpedo to pass harmlessly under the ship’s counter. It was the never-ceasing vigilance and the cool appreciation of the situation which had saved the ship.

But the incident is only beginning. The next stage is to lure the enemy on, to entice him, using your own ship as the bait. It may be one hour or one day later, perhaps at dusk, or when the moon gets up, or at dawn, but it is very probable that the submarine will invisibly follow you and attack at the most awkward time. The hours of suspense are trying; watch has succeeded watch, yet nothing happens. The weather changes from good to bad; it comes on thick, it clears up again, and the clouds cease to obliterate the sun. Then, apparently from nowhere, shells come whizzing by, and begin to hit. At last in the distance you see the low-lying enemy engaging you with both his guns, firing rapidly, and keeping discreetly out of your own guns’ range. Already some of your men have been knocked out; the ship has a couple of bad holes below the water-line, and the sea is pouring through. To add to the anxiety a fire is reported in the forecastle, and the next shell has made rather a mess of the funnel. What are you going to do? Are you going to keep on the bluff of pretending you are an innocent merchantman, or are you going to run up the White Ensign, let down the bulwarks, and fire your guns the moment the enemy comes within range and bearing? How much longer is it possible to play with him in the hope that he will be fooled into doing just what you would like him to do? If your ship is sinking, will she keep afloat just long enough to enable you to give the knock-out blow as the inquiring enemy comes alongside? These are the crucial questions which have to be answered by that one man in command of the ship, who all the time finds his bridge being steadily smashed to pieces by the enemy’s fire.

‘If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting ...’

then, one may definitely assert, you have in you much that goes to the making of an ideal Q-ship captain and a brave warrior. As such you might make a first-class commanding officer of a destroyer, a light cruiser, or even a battleship; but something more is required. The enemy is artful; you must be super-artful. You must be able to look across the tumbling sea into his mind behind the conning tower. What are his intentions? What will be his next move? Take in by a quick mental calculation the conditions of wind, wave, and sun. Pretend to run away from him, so that you get these just right. Put your ship head on to sea, so that the enemy with his sparse freeboard is being badly washed down and his guns’ crews are thinking more of their wet feet and legs than of accurate shooting. Then, when you see him submerging, alter course quickly, reckon his probable position by the time you have steadied your ship on her course, and drop a series of depth-charges over his track. ‘If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds’ worth of distance, run’; if you have acted with true seamanship and sound imagination, you will presently see bits of broken wreckage, the boil of water, quantities of oil, perhaps a couple of corpses; and yours is the U-boat below, my son, and a D.S.O.; and a thousand pounds in cash to be divided amongst the crew; and you’re a man, my son!

That, in a few phrases, is the kind of work, and shows the circumstances of the Q-ship in her busiest period. As we set forth her wonderful story, so gallant, so sad, so victorious, and yet so nerve-trying, we shall see all manner of types engaged in this great adventure; but we cannot appreciate either the successes or losses until we have seen the birth and growth of the Q-ship idea. As this volume is the first effort to present the subject historically, we shall begin at the beginning by showing the causes which created the Q-ship. We shall see the consecutive stages of development and improvement, the evolution of new methods, and, indeed we may at once say it, of a new type of super-seamen. How did it all begin?

Turn your attention back to the autumn of 1914. It was the sinking of the three _Cressys_ on September 22 by U 9 that taught Germany what a wonderful weapon of offence she had in the submarine. Five days later the first German submarine penetrated the Dover Straits. This was U 18, who actually attacked the light cruiser _Attentive_. But it was not until October 20 that the first merchant ship, the British S.S. _Glitra_ in the North Sea, was sunk by a submarine. Six days later the French S.S. _Amiral Ganteaume_, with Belgian refugees, was attacked by a German submarine. A month passed, and on November 23 the S.S. _Malachite_ was attacked by U 21, and after being on fire sank. Three days later the S.S. _Primo_ was sunk also by U 21. It was thus perfectly clear that we had before us a most difficult submarine campaign to contend with, and that merchant ships would not be immune. On the last day of October H.M.S. _Hermes_ was torpedoed off Calais, and on November 11 H.M.S. _Niger_ had a similar fate near Deal.