But for a long period the Q-ship did wonders, and to the officers and men of this service for their bravery and endurance we owe much. They were taking enormous risks, and they turned these risks into successes of great magnitude as long as ever the game was possible. Most, though not all, of the ships and officers and men came from the Mercantile Marine, and in this special force we see the perfect co-operation between the two branches of our national sea service for the good of the Empire. The Royal Navy could teach them all that was to be known about the technicalities of fighting, could provide them with guns and expert gunners, could give them all the facilities of His Majesty’s dockyards, whilst at the same time the Mercantile Marine provided the ships and the _personnel_ who knew what were the normal habits and appearances of a tramp, a collier, or a coaster. Originally known as special service ships, as decoys, then as Q-ships, these vessels during 1917 and 1918 were known as H.M.S. So-and-So, but it was under the designation of Q-ships that they reached their pinnacle of fame, and as such they will always be known, so it has been thought well thus to describe them in these pages. But whether we think of them as mystery ships or as properly commissioned vessels of His Majesty’s Navy, there will ever remain for them a niche in our great sea story, and the valour of all ranks and ratings in all kinds of these odd craft, amid every possible condition of difficulty and danger, should be to those who come after an immortal lesson and a standard of duty to the rising race of British seamanhood. Otherwise these men toiled and endured and died in vain. INDEX ⁂ The names of Q-ships are in heavy-faced type. =Acton=, 164 =Alcala.= See _Q 19 Alexander, C. J., Lieutenant, R.N.R., 164 _Alyssum, H.M.S._, 120, 122-3 _Amiral Ganteaume_, 7 Anakin, G. S., Sub-Lieutenant, R.N.R., 269 _Andalusian_, 9 _Anglo-Columbian_, 26 =Antwerp= (formerly _Vienna_), 8, 9, 24, 235 _Arabic_, 20, 32, 132 Armstrong, M., Lieutenant, R.N.R., 67 =Arvonian= (_Santee_, _Bendish_), 231-4 =Athos.= See _Glen_ _Attack, H.M.S._, 211 _Attentive, H.M.S._, 7 =Aubrietia.= See _Q 13_ _Aud_, 140 Auten, Harold, Lieutenant, R.N.R., 164, 266-9 _Bagdale, H.M.T._ 64-5 =Baralong= (_Wyandra_), 20-3, 25, 26-31, 41, 104, 109 _Baron Ardrossan_, 34 _Baron Napier_, 33-5 =Baron Rose=, 190 =Barranca=. See _Q 3_ Bartel, Leutnant Karl, 116 =Bayard=, 77 Bayly, Admiral Sir Lewis, 46, 104, 198, 203, 215, 233, 246, 247, 266 _Bayonne_, 123 Beaton, W. D., Lieutenant, R.N.R. 146 =Begonia=, 139, 163 =Bendish.= See _Arvonian_ _Berlin_, 161 Bernays, Leopold A., Commander R.N., 161-3 _Beryl, H.M.Y._ 160 Beswick, W., Lieutenant, R.N.R., 41, 43 =Betsy Jameson=, 77 _Bidart_, 247 Blackwood, M. B. R., Commander, R.N., 242, 245 Blair, A. D., Lieutenant, R.N.R., 61 =Blessing=, 57