DisputedOrigin is disputed
Q-ship
noun · first attested 1910s
The letter is usually explained by an Irish port that has since changed its name back.
A merchant ship with concealed guns, used to lure submarines into surfacing and attacking.
Record
- Relationship
- Origin is disputed
- Confidence
- DisputedCompeting explanations remain live.
- Attested
- 1910s
- Part of speech
- noun
Explanations here are written for this atlas. Dictionary text is not copied; the sources are linked so the claim can be checked.
- Step 1
Cóbh
- In English
Q-ship
Royal Navy decoys worked out of Queenstown in Cork Harbor during the First World War, and many were converted at the Haulbowline dockyard there, which is the standard explanation for the Q. No Admiralty statement confirms it, so the letter may have been nothing more than a file designation. Queenstown was renamed Cobh in 1920.
Ireland
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