armed merchant ship
{{Short description|Vessel built for civilian purposes, carrying weaponry}}
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-crewed 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.Hague 2000 pp.101-105
- 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.Schmalenbach 1979 pp.11-15
- 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.Lenton and Colledge 1968 p.265
- Naval trawlers were fishing trawlers commissioned as naval vessels with a military crew and equipped for minesweeping or anti-submarine escort.Lenton and Colledge 1968 pp.403-404
- 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.Morison 1975 pp.281-286
- Armed boarding steamers were merchant steamers converted by the United Kingdom for boarding enemy vessels.
Sources
- {{Cite book| title=The Allied Convoy System 1939–1945 |author=Hague, Arnold |publisher=Naval Institute Press |year=2000 |isbn=1-55750-019-3}}
- {{Cite book| title=British and Dominion Warships of World War II |author1=Lenton, H.T. |author2=Colledge, J.J. |name-list-style=amp |publisher=Doubleday and Company |year=1968}}
- {{Cite book| title=History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Volume I The Battle of the Atlantic 1939–1943 |author=Morison, Samuel Eliot |publisher=Little, Brown and Company |year=1975}}
- {{Cite book| title=German Raiders |author=Schmalenbach, Paul |publisher=Naval Institute Press |year=1979}}