Q Ships and Their Story 4

Q Ships and Their Story 4

her essential mercantile appearance. This meant much clever designing,

much engineering and constructive skill, and absolute secrecy. Thirdly,

the right type of keen, subtle, patient, tough officer had to be

found, full of initiative, full of resource, with a live, eager crew.

Slackers, ‘grousers,’ and ‘King’s-hard-bargains’ were useless.

 

[Illustration: Q-SHIP “ANTWERP”

 

Showing the collapsible dummy life-raft which concealed the two

12-pounders.]

 

[Illustration: GUN’S CREW OF Q-SHIP “ANTWERP”

 

Gun’s crew of “Antwerp” ready to fire on a submarine. The sides of the

dummy life-raft have been collapsed to allow gun to come into action.

 

To face p. 12]

 

 

[Footnote 1: This was U 29, which on March 18 was sunk in the North

Sea by H.M.S. _Dreadnought_.]

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER II

 

THE BEGINNING OF SUCCESS

 

 

We turn now to the northern mists of the Orkneys, where the comings

and goings of the Grand Fleet were wrapped in mystery from the eyes

of the world. In order to keep the fleet in stores—coal, oil, gear,

and hundreds of other requisite items—small colliers and tramp

steamers brought their cargoes northward to Scapa Flow. In order to

avoid the North Sea submarines, these coal and store ships used the

west-coast passage as much as possible. Now, for that reason, and also

because German submarines were already proceeding in earnest, via the

north-west of Scotland, to the south-west Irish coast, ever since the

successful sinking of the _Lusitania_, it was sound strategy on our

part to send a collier to operate off the north-western Scottish coast.

That is to say, these looked the kinds of ships a suspecting U-boat

officer would expect to meet in that particular locality.

 

Under the direction of Admiral Sir Stanley Colville, a handful of

these little ships was, during the summer of 1915, being fitted out

for decoy work. One of these was the collier S.S. _Prince Charles_, a

little vessel of only 373 tons. In peace-time she was commanded by her

master, Mr. F. N. Maxwell, and manned by five deckhands, two engineers,

and two firemen. These men all volunteered for what was known to be

a hazardous job, and were accepted. In command was placed Lieutenant

Mark Wardlaw, R.N., and with him went Lieutenant J. G. Spencer, R.N.R.,

and nine active-service ratings to man the guns and use the rifles.

She carried the weakest of armament—only a 3-pounder and a 6-pounder,

with rifles forward and aft. Having completed her fitting out with

great secrecy, the _Prince Charles_ left Longhope in the evening of

July 21 with orders to cruise on routes where submarines had recently

been seen. Proceeding to the westward at her slow gait, she saw very

few vessels until July 24. It was just 6.20 p.m. when, about ten miles

W.N.W. of North Rona Island, she sighted a three-masted vessel with one

funnel, apparently stopped. A quarter of an hour later she observed a

submarine lying close to the steamer. Here was the steel fish _Prince

Charles_ was hoping to bait.

 

Pretending not to see the submarine, and keeping on her course like a

real collier, Lieutenant Wardlaw’s ship jogged quietly along, but he

was closing up his gun’s crews behind their screens and the mercantile

crew were standing by ready to hoist out the ship’s boats when

required. The German now started up his oil-engines and came on at full

speed towards the _Prince Charles_. It had just gone seven o’clock and

the submarine was 3 miles off. The collier had hoisted her colours and

the enemy was about five points on the bow when a German shell came

whizzing across. This fell 1,000 yards over. Lieutenant Wardlaw now

stopped his engines, put his ship head on to the Atlantic swell, blew

three blasts, and then ordered the crew to get the boats out, in order

to simulate the movements of an ordinary merchant ship in the presence

of an attacking submarine.

 

In the meantime the enemy was approaching rapidly and fired a second

shot, which fell between the funnel and the foremast, but landed 50

yards over. When the range was down to 600 yards the enemy turned her

broadside on to the collier and continued firing; and this was now

the time for the Q-ship’s captain to make the big decision. Should he

maintain his pretence and continue to receive punishment, with the

possibility of losing ship and lives in the hope that the submarine

would come nearer? Or should he reveal his identity and risk everything

on the chance of winning all? This was always the critical moment when

the Q-ship captain held in his judgment the whole fate of the fight, of

the ship, and his men.

 

Lieutenant Wardlaw, seeing that the enemy could not be enticed to

come any nearer, took the second alternative, and opened fire with

his port guns. The effect of this on the German was remarkable and

instantaneous; for her gun’s crew at once deserted the gun and darted

down into the conning-tower. But whilst they were so doing, one of

_Prince Charles’s_ shells struck the submarine 20 feet abaft the

conning-tower. The enemy then came round and showed her opposite

broadside, having attempted to dive. She now began to rise again as the

collier closed to 300 yards, and frequent hits were being scored by

the British guns. By this time the surprised Germans had had more than

enough, and were observed to be coming out of the conning-tower, whilst

the submarine was settling down by the stern. Still the British fire

continued, and when the submarine’s bows were a long way out of the

water, she took a sudden plunge and disappeared. A large number of men

were then seen swimming about, and the _Prince Charles_ at once made

every effort to pick them up, fifteen officers and men being thus saved

out of thirty-three.

 

So ended the career of U 36. She had left Heligoland on July 19 for

a cruise of several weeks via the North Sea, and, up till the day of

meeting with _Prince Charles_, had had a most successful time; for she

had sunk eight trawlers and one steamer, and had stopped the Danish

S.S. _Louise_ when the _Prince Charles_ came up. It was not until the

submarine closed the latter that U 36 saw the Englishmen clearing away

some tarpaulins on deck, and the next moment the Germans were under

fire, and the captain gave orders to dive. By this time the submarine

had been hit several times, and as she could not be saved, she was

brought to the surface by blowing out her tanks. The crew then took to

the sea, and the engineer officer opened the valves to sink her, and

was the last to leave. Inside, the submarine was wrecked by _Prince

Charles’s_ shells and three men were killed, the accurate and rapid

fire having immensely impressed the Germans. Thus the first Q-ship

engagement had been everything that could be desired, and in spite

of the submarine being armed with a 14-pounder and carrying seven

torpedoes, the U-boat had been beaten in a fair fight. Lieutenant Mark

Wardlaw received a D.S.O., two of the crew the D.S.M., and the sum of

£1,000 was awarded to be divided among the mercantile crew.

 

Another of the ships fitted out under similar auspices was the _Vala_,

who commissioned on August 7, 1915. She was of 609 tons, and could

steam at nothing better than 8 knots. In March of the following year

she was transferred from Scapa to Pembroke, and her career was long and

eventful. In April of 1917 she was in action with a submarine, and she

believed that one shell hit the enemy, but the latter then submerged.

One day in the middle of August _Vala_ left Milford Haven to cruise

between the Fastnet and the Scillies, and was last heard of in the

early hours of the following day. She was due to arrive at Queenstown,

but, as she did not return, the Q-ship _Heather_ was ordered to search

for her in the Bay of Biscay. For a whole week there had been a series

of gales, and it was thought that the little steamer had foundered in

the bad weather, but on September 7 the German Government wireless

announced that ‘the U-boat trap, the former English steamer _Vala_,’

had been sunk by a U-boat.

 

Besides the _Vala_ and _Prince Charles_, three other Q-ships were

fitted out in the north. These were the _Glen Isla_, of 786 tons; the

_Duncombe_, 830 tons; and the _Penshurst_, 740 tons, and they all

performed excellent work. But before we go any further we have to

consider still another novelty in naval warfare, or rather a strange

revival. Who would have thought that the sailing-ship would, in

these days of steam, steel, and motor, come back in the service as a

man-of-war? At first it seems almost ludicrous to send sail-driven

craft to fight against steel, mechanically propelled vessels. But, as

we have seen, this submarine warfare was not so much a matter of force

as of cleverness. It was the enemy’s unimaginative policy which brought

about this reintroduction of sail into our Navy, and this is how it all

happened.

 

During the summer of 1915 German submarines in the North Sea had either

attacked or destroyed a number of neutral schooners which used to come

across with cargoes of pit-props. One used to see these fine little

ships by the dozen arriving in the Forth, for the neutral was getting

an excellent return for his trading. It annoyed the enemy that this

timber should be able to enter a British port, and so the submarines

endeavoured to terrorize the neutral by burning or sinking the ships

on voyage. It was therefore decided to take up the 179-ton schooner

_Thirza_, which was lying in the Tyne. Her purchase had to be carried

out with great secrecy, lest the enemy should be able to recognize her

at sea. She was an old vessel, having been built as far back as 1865

at Prince Edward Island, but registered at Whitstable. She changed her

name to _Ready_, and began her Q-ship service at the end of August,

1915, when soon after midnight she sailed down the Forth. Armed with

a couple of 12-pounders, having also a motor, carrying a small deck

cargo of pit-props, and suitably disguised to resemble a neutral, this

schooner, manned by a hardy volunteer crew, used to pretend she was

coming across the North Sea, though at first she never went many miles

away from the land. Under the various aliases of _Thirza_, _Ready_,

_Probus_, _Elixir_, and Q 30, this old ship did splendid work, which

did not end until Armistice. We shall have occasion to refer to her

again.

 

Who can avoid a feeling of intense admiration for the men who, year

after year, were willing and eager to roll about the sea in a small

sailing ship looking for the enemy, well knowing that the enemy had

all the advantage of speed, handiness, and armament? Even the motor

was not powerful, and would give her not much more than steerage way

in a calm. The submarine could always creep up submerged, using his

periscope but now and then: the schooner, however, was a conspicuous

target all the time, and her masts and sails advertised her presence

from the horizon. These Q-ship sailing men deserve much for what

they voluntarily endured. Quite apart from the bad weather, the

uncomfortable quarters on board, the constant trimming of sheets

and alteration of course off an unlit coast, there was always the

possibility that some U-boat’s crew would, after sinking the schooner,

cut the throats of these British seamen. The Q-ship crews knew this,

and on certain occasions when U-boat prisoners were taken by our ships

the Germans did not conceal this fact. Life in these sailing craft

was something quite different from that in a battleship with its

wardroom, its cheery society, and a comfortable cabin to turn into.

In the latter, with powerful turbines and all the latest navigational

instruments, bad weather meant little inconvenience. After all it

is the human element which is the deciding factor, and the Q-ship

service certainly wore out officers and men at a great pace. It is

indeed difficult to imagine any kind of seafaring more exacting both

physically and nervously.