RN Q Ships

[Brian James]

Surrendered Type U 151 Class U Boat SMS U-155 pictured lying alongside Q-Ship HMS Suffolk Coast, at her moorings in St. Katherine's Dock, London,December 4th 1918.
U-155 was initially developed with private funds and operated by the North German Lloyd Line as unarmed cargo Submarine,after making two voyages as an unarmed merchantman, she was taken over by the German Imperial Navy on February 19th 1917 and converted into U-155, armed with six torpedo tubes and two deck guns. As U-155, she began a raiding career in June 1917 that was to last until October 1918, sinking 120,434 tons of shipping and damaging a further 9,080 tons of shipping.
After the sinking of the previous Suffolk Coast in 1916, a new cargo ship of the same name was built in 1917. In August 1918 she was requisitioned by the Admiralty & became HMS Suffolk Coast; being used as a Q-ship & Collier for the rest of the First World War (a Q-ship was a decoy ship disguised as a tramp steamer or other lone vessel, but actually heavily armed to lure U-boats within firing range). After the war she was moored at St Katherine's Dock in London and open to the public during late 1918 & early 1919. She returned to her peacetime duties as a cargo vessel in July 1919.

[limeybiker]

HMS President ex Saxifrage was a Q ship.