[SandRat]

A few “Q”-ships could solve the problem.

Q-Ships
Updated - Saturday, 17 August, 2002

Introduced towards the close of 1914 by the British and French - and later deployed by the Italian and Russians navies - Q-Ships were deployed as an initially although decreasingly successful anti-submarine weapon. Alternatively referred to as Special Service Ships or Mystery Ships, the purpose of Q-Ships was straightforward: to trap enemy (usually German) submarines.

Invariably comprised of small freighters or old trawlers they were loaded with hidden guns in a collapsible deck structure. In practice U-boats would hail Q-Ships flying (in the case of the Royal Navy) the merchant red ensign and, in the period before the implementation of Germany’s policy of unrestricted submarine warfare in 1917, a so-called “panic party” would apparently abandon the Q-Ship prior to the usual German policy of approaching the enemy vessel so as to sink it with the minimum depletion of ammunition.

At this stage the use of torpedoes to sink relatively small vessels was officially frowned upon.

Thus with the U-boat effectively lured towards the apparently abandoned vessel the Q-Ship would run up the white ensign and the deck structure would be collapsed by the remaining ship’s crew revealing a series of up to four manned guns, which would immediately open fire.

Initially successful the Q-Ship ploy resulted in the sinking of some 11 enemy U-boats by the British and French. As the war progressed production of Q-Ships notably increased so that by the war’s close the British alone deployed 366. However the Germans quickly developed a certain caution in approaching small enemy vessels, wary of decoys.

[palomonte]

“Q” ships...seems like a submarine shadowing a merchant ship would have the same effect.

[PapaBear3625]

Thus with the U-boat effectively lured towards the apparently abandoned vessel the Q-Ship would run up the white ensign and the deck structure would be collapsed by the remaining ship’s crew revealing a series of up to four manned guns, which would immediately open fire.

Which directly and predictably led to the German's treating ALL ships as potential Q ships, and simply torpedoing them. Which led to the German torpedoing of the RMS Lusitania, with the deaths of over a thousand civilians, and the entrance of the United States into the war

The whole point of the Q ship was to create civilian casualties to make it easier to sell having the US enter the war.

I have a simpler solution. Have an AC-130 cruise along the length of Somalia's coast, and destroy EVERY Somali boat. Repeat every few nights. The pirate incidents will stop.

[Reeses]

the Q-Ship would run up the white ensign and the deck structure would be collapsed by the remaining ship’s crew revealing a series of up to four manned guns, which would immediately open fire.

I'm not seeing the honor at all in using the French flag like that.

[Reeses]

I found out the "white ensign" flag is the British Navy flag and is not a fancy way of saying surrender flag.