Andreas I appreciate your input. Of course the UK could have easily gone through the process of withdrawing from that accord and instituting a new one. Instead they chose to claim Germany could not adhere to prize regulations using a submarine, which is also true and so chose to arm their ships in view of German violation of existing agreements. Since a DAMS had a stern mounted gun then it was clearly defensive as opposed to offensive in nature.

Since the above I have found the Technical History dealing with arming merchant ships and a number of accounts of their use.

Including the interesting case of the french Montenegro which was a commercial sailing vessel hastily fitted with four 75mm guns behind hidden bulwarks and a naval gun crew carried aboard. So it was an instance of a civilian vessel with a commercial cargo appearing unarmed sailing through waters/route known to be patrolled by submarines to entice a submarine to surface engagement. If no contact occurred then a cargo was delivered. It was a melding of both naval and civilian.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/21/2018 05:07AM by Felix C.