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Abstract

“Dreaded”, “deadly” and “notorious”, “a desperate measure” or, the unsurpassable “Golden Story of the Q-ships”?[1] This paper argues that although the Q-Ship myth of the First World War now appears disproportionate to the reality, in terms of numeric value of their contribution to anti-submarine warfare, the historiographical focus on refuting the myth has circumvented the critical issue, which is the cultural value and significance of the myth itself and its role in Naval identity.  Using a range of contemporary and subsequent cultural media, this paper considers why from a cultural history perspective the story gained so much prominence immediately after the First World War, and how that place has subsequently been eroded in British naval historiography, with a view to demonstrating that the value of the Q-Ships as decoys lay as much in their impact as a cultural force for the Navy, as in their effectiveness as an anti-submarine weapon, filling a void in relation to positive naval imagery in the interwar years just as they acted to fill a gap in anti-submarine approaches. The paper concludes that in the decoy role as both anti-submarine warfare agent and cultural influencer Q-Ships proved effective as attractive and engaging short-term tactics, but lacked long-term impact since they were not in either context an embedded part of naval strategy and doctrine, either operationally or institutionally. It is further concluded that culturally the short-term impact had adverse consequences for longer-term notions of naval identity, contributing to the subsequent development of ‘sea-blindness’.[2]  The paper also identifies a significant gap in relation to coverage of naval memoir and literature within the historiography of Great War literature, which needs to be explored in order to embed cultural history within the historiography and understanding of the Royal and Merchant Naval contributions and experiences of the First World War.

Course: Naval History - MA - C2457P

Date Deposited: 2023-10-11

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis14207.html