The Scoop Deck

The return of the ‘Mystery Ships’

June 18th, 2009 | Foreign navies Historical Pirates | Posted by Phil Ewing

The Q-Ship Big Horn, which you probably thought was just an innocent merchant vessel, actually was modified to hunt and kill German U-Boats. It was later sunk by a U-Boat // Naval History and Heritage Command

The Q-Ship Big Horn, which you probably thought was just an innocent fleet oiler, actually was modified to hunt and kill German U-Boats. // Naval History and Heritage Command

By way of New Wars comes a captivating item about a Malaysian container ship that has been converted into a naval auxiliary for escort work off the lawless coast of Somalia — just like the famous Q-Ships fielded by the U.S. and Royal Navies to escort convoys back in World Wars I and II.

Just as when Navy trade show speakers finish their remarks and then greet audience members afterward — but one of those audience members turns out to be a Navy Times reporter — so too did the Q-Ships pretend to be merchant vessels to entice submarine attacks, then open up with their guns and depth charges.

Malaysia’s conversion of the container ship Bunga Mas Lima is apparently a response to the hijacking last year of two Malaysian ships, the Bunga Melati Dua and Bunga Melati 5.

This Marine Log story doesn’t specify what new kind of capabilities or weapons the Bunga Mas Lima has added as part of its conversion, nor does this post at the Malaysian Defense blog. But we couldn’t help imagining how sweet it would be if the sides of some of the ship’s containers folded down to reveal a battery of Mk 38 Bushmaster chainguns, for use on any pirate skiffs unwise enough to try a hijacking.

Deltamarin

The Malaysian navy's new "Q-Ship," Bunga Mas Lima // Deltamarin

The problem, as New Wars’ Mike Burleson points out, is that despite the schoolboy-adventure romance surrounding Q-Ships, they didn’t have that successful a track record against German U-Boats. We’ll be watching to see how Malaysia’s does.

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Permalink | June 18th, 2009

Comments

  1. stephen russell Says:
    June 18th, 2009 at 8:16 pm

    Must expand this in that area IE
    Yachts
    More ships.
    to lure Pirates into Open & then backtrack routes to Home ports for Intercept at home by AC130s.

    Homeport these new Q ships in:
    India
    Thailand
    PI
    Java.
    Dubai?

    I love this, Id love to sign up for the experience on a US flagged ship IF US Merchent Marine adopts plan from Malaysia.
    Very Cool & Radical.

  2. Maritime Monday 167 Says:
    June 27th, 2009 at 3:32 am

    [...] Scoop Deck has Malaysia’s deployment of a Q-Ship to fight piracy off Somalia in “The return of the ‘Mystery Ships’“. (Found via Neptunus [...]

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