Armed merchant ship

The term armed merchant ship may describe a number of similar ship modifications intended for significantly different missions. The term armed merchantman is generally used.

• East Indiaman describes late 18th and early 19th-century sailing ships engaged in trade while carrying guns similar to contemporary warships.
• Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships were civilian-manned cargo ships carrying a small number of military personnel to operate an anti-submarine gun and anti-aircraft machine guns during the world wars of the early 20th century.^[1]
• Auxiliary cruisers were cargo ships commissioned as naval vessels with a military crew, converted to carry the guns of a light cruiser, and sometimes used as Merchant raiders.^[2]
• Armed merchant cruisers were fast passenger liners commissioned as naval vessels with a military crew and converted to carry the guns of a light cruiser.^[3]
• Naval trawlers were fishing trawlers commissioned as naval vessels with a military crew and equipped for minesweeping or anti-submarine escort.^[4]
• Q-ships were small civilian ships commissioned as naval vessels with a military crew, but retaining their original appearance while carrying concealed anti-submarine weapons.^[5]
• Armed boarding steamers were merchant steamers converted by the United Kingdom for boarding enemy vessels.

Sources

• Hague, Arnold (2000). The Allied Convoy System 1939-1945. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-019-3.
• Lenton, H.T. & Colledge, J.J. (1968). British and Dominion Warships of World War II. Doubleday and Company.
• Morison, Samuel Eliot (1975). History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Volume I The Battle of the Atlantic 1939-1943. Little, Brown and Company.
• Schmalenbach, Paul (1979). German Raiders. Naval Institute Press.

Notes

1. Hague 2000 pp.101-105
2. Schmalenbach 1979 pp.11-15
3. Lenton and Colledge 1968 p.265
4. Lenton and Colledge 1968 pp.403-404
5. Morison 1975 pp.281-286