Three hundred and seven ships brought wheat
from different parts of America to Britain, France, and Italy under
special convoy in the summer of 1918, and only one was lost.
"Q" ships, those ships of mystery and such strange romance as former
navies never dreamt of, were meant to lure the German devils to their
doom. One Q ship was a dirty old collier so well disguised as a common
tramp (steamer belonging to no regular line) that she completely took
in a British cruiser, whose boarding officer was intensely surprised to
find her skipper was one of his own former shipmates. After five
months of thrashing to and fro in the wintry North Atlantic a torpedo
sped across her bows and she knew her chance had come. Instantly her
alarm signals, quietly given, brought all hands to action stations,
some in deck-houses, others in hen-coops, but each with his finger on
the trigger or his hand on a ready spare shell. Presently the
submarine broke surface and fired a shot across the Q ship's bow. On
this the well-trained crew ran about in panic, while the captain
screeched at them and waved his arms about like mad.
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