ARMED MERCHANTMEN

the name given to cargo and pa enger ve els mounted with defensive guns against the depredations of German submarines during the European War of 1914-18. The wholesale destruction by Germany of commercial shipping on the high seas, especially that of neutrals, was a determining cause of bringing the United States into the conflict, as America’s commerce suffered no le than others. Germany’s attacks on allied and neutral shipping were intensified when her submarine commanders found that a ve el was armed. She held that such craft, by mounting guns, had -deprived themselves of the privileges of non-combatants, and could legitimately be sunk as war ve els without warning, regardle of the safety of pa engers. A number of armed ve els met this fate. Germany’s defense was that if her submarines did not act quickly, they would themselves be sunk by the guns of the armed merchantmen they encountered. Germany herself was to blame for the appearance of guns on such craft. Her submarine edict early in 1917 condemned to immediate destruction all allied or neutral shipping found in a naval war zone she mapped out, and ‘merchantmen of all affected countries accordingly began to mount defensive guns. Several gave good accounts of themselves in_holding off and sometimes in sinking German submarines.