Wikipedia
Q-ships, also known as Q-boats, decoy vessels, special service ships, or mystery ships, were heavily armed merchant ships with concealed weaponry, designed to lure submarines into making surface attacks. This gave Q-ships the chance to open fire and sink them.
They were used by the British Royal Navy (RN) during the First World War and by both the RN and the United States Navy during the Second World War (1939–45), as a countermeasure against German and Japanese submarines.
Usage examples of "q-ship".
A Q-ship, moreover, that might as well have been a full-fledged battlecruiser for the weight of armament it carried.
Where a Peep commerce raider might be willing to accept the risk of encountering a Q-ship in order to simply destroy Manticoran shipping, a pirate would be looking to capture his victims and would be unlikely to hazard his ship against a merchant cruiser unless he anticipated a particularly luscious prize.
Not only would it give away the fact that Haven had armed some of its Astraclass ships as commerce raiders, but the fact that a Q-ship had been in the system would certainly be persuasive evidence that Haven had played a major role in fomenting the native unrest on Medusa.
How much better was a topic of lively wardroom debate, but given that Captain Honor Harringtons eighty-five-thousand-ton light cruiser had taken out a seven-point-five-million-ton Q-ship, prudence suggested that Haven err on the side of pessimism.
Truman had been a captain of the list then, and once more she'd been Lady Harrington's second-in-command, the senior captain of her Q-ship squadron.
An officer of Truman's caliber, especially one who'd just made the senior captain's list which virtually assured her of future flag rank, might well regard assignment to a Q-ship as a slap in the face.
An officer of Truman's caliber, especially one who'd just made the senior captain's list, which virtually assured her of future flag rank, might well regard assignment to a Q-ship as a slap in the face.