Page "Q-ship" Paragraph 4

Following the First Battle of the Atlantic, by 1915 Britain was in desperate need of a countermeasure against the U-boats that were strangling her sea-lanes.

Convoys, which had proved effective in earlier times ( and would again prove effective during the Second World War ), were rejected by the resource-strapped Admiralty and the independent captains.

Depth charges of the time were relatively primitive, and almost the only chance of sinking a submarine was by gunfire or by ramming while on the surface.

The problem was luring the U-boat to the surface.