Q-ships, also known as Q-boats, decoy vessels, special service ships, or mystery ships, were heavily armed merchant ships with concealed weaponry, designed to lure submarines into making surface attacks. This gave Q-ships the chance to open fire and sink them. The use of Q-ships contributed to the abandonment of cruiser rules restricting attacks on unarmed merchant ships and to the shift to unrestricted submarine warfare in the 20th century.
RMS Laconia was a Cunard ocean liner, built by Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson as a successor of the 1911–1917 Laconia. The new ship was launched on 9 April 1921, and made her maiden voyage on 25 May 1922 from Southampton to New York City. At the outbreak of the Second World War she was converted into an armed merchant cruiser, and later a troopship. She was sunk in the South Atlantic Ocean on 12 September 1942 by torpedoes. Like her predecessor, sunk during the First World War, this Laconia was also destroyed by a German submarine. Some estimates of the death toll have suggested that over 1,658 people were killed when the Laconia sank. The U-boat commander Werner Hartenstein then staged a dramatic effort to rescue the passengers and the crew of Laconia, which involved additional German U-boats and became known as the Laconia incident.
German submarine U-96 was a Type VIIC U-boat of the German Navy (Kriegsmarine) during World War II. It was made famous after the war in Lothar-Günther Buchheim's 1973 bestselling novel Das Boot and the 1981 Oscar-nominated film adaptation of the same name, both based on his experience on the submarine as a war correspondent in 1941.
Michel(HSK-9) was an auxiliary cruiser of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine that operated as a merchant raider during World War II. Built by Danziger Werft in Danzig 1938/39 as the freighter Bielsko for the Polish Gdynia-America-Line (GAL), she was requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine at the outbreak of World War II and converted into the hospital ship Bonn. In the summer of 1941, she was converted into the auxiliary cruiser Michel, and was commissioned on 7 September 1941. Known as Schiff 28, her Royal Navy designation was Raider H. She was the last operative German raider of World War II.
SM UB-47 was a Type UB II submarine or U-boat for the German Imperial Navy during World War I. UB-47 was sold to the Austro-Hungarian Navy during the war. In Austro-Hungarian service the B was dropped from her name and she was known as SM U-47 or U-XLVII as a member of the Austro-Hungarian U-43 class.
SM UB-43 was a Type UB II submarine or U-boat for the German Imperial Navy during World War I. UB-43 was sold to the Austro-Hungarian Navy during the war. In Austro-Hungarian service the B was dropped from her name and she was known as SM U-43 or U-XLIII as the lead boat of the Austro-Hungarian U-43 class.
SM UB-45 was a Type UB II submarine or U-boat built for and operated by the German Imperial Navy during World War I. UB-45 operated in the Mediterranean and the Black Seas, and was sunk by a mine in November 1916.
SM UB-14 was a German Type UB I submarine or U-boat in the German Imperial Navy during World War I. The submarine was also known by the Austro-Hungarian Navy designation of SM U-26.
SM UB-10 was a German Type UB I submarine or U-boat in the German Imperial Navy during World War I.
SM UB-13 was a German Type UB I submarine or U-boat in the German Imperial Navy during World War I. The submarine was probably sunk by a British mine net in April 1916.
SM UB-16 was a German Type UB I submarine or U-boat in the German Imperial Navy during World War I. The submarine was sunk by a British submarine in May 1918.
SM UB-17 was a German Type UB I submarine or U-boat in the German Imperial Navy during World War I. The submarine disappeared during a patrol in March 1918.
German submarine U-177 was a Type IXD2 U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. The submarine was laid down on 25 November 1940, at the DeSchiMAG AG Weser yard in Bremen, as yard number 1017. She was launched on 1 October 1941, and commissioned on 14 March 1942, under the command of Kapitänleutnant Wilhelm Schulze. After a period of training with the 4th U-boat Flotilla at Stettin, the boat was transferred to the 10th flotilla on 1 October 1942, and based at Lorient, for front-line service, she was then reassigned to the 12th flotilla at Bordeaux on 1 December.
HMHS Glenart Castle was a steamship originally built as Galician in 1900 for the Union-Castle Line. She was renamed Glenart Castle in 1914, but was requisitioned for use as a British hospital ship during the First World War. On 26 February 1918, she was hit and sunk by a torpedo fired from the German U-boat UC-56.
HMHS Dover Castle was a steam ship originally built for the Union-Castle Line and launched in 1904. In 1914 she was requisitioned for use as a British hospital ship during the First World War. On 26 May 1917 she was torpedoed 50 nautical miles North of Bône, Algeria by UC-67 of the Imperial German Navy.
German submarine U-203 was a German Type VIIC submarine U-boat built for Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine for service during World War II.
SM UB-50 was a German Type UB III submarine or U-boat in the German Imperial Navy during World War I. The U-boat was ordered on 20 May 1916. She was commissioned into the Pola Flotilla of the German Imperial Navy on 12 July 1917 as SM UB-50.
SS Roger B. Taney was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after Roger B. Taney, who was the fifth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, holding that office from 1836 until his death in 1864. Prior to joining the Supreme Court, Taney served as the United States Attorney General and United States Secretary of the Treasury under President Andrew Jackson.
The British passenger steam liner SS Leasowe Castle was built between 1915 and 1917 at Cammell Laird shipyards in Birkenhead.
United Kingdom
Union-Castle Line (1911—1914; 1919—1942 Royal Navy (1914—1919)
