A tew details are so popular that they may "standard practice" today. These features include hidden gun emplacements for six-inch and anti-aircraft defensive armament—deck reinforcement to withstand gun recoil, possibly provision for munition stowage and handling, and a higher top speed than the economical peacetime needs of the vessel warrant, Occasionally there are Ship together with its speed generall decides the kind of an auxiliary the ship will be. Passenger liners become troop transports, armed merchant cruisers, and hospital ships. Freighters and tankers become supply ships and tenders for naval vessels. Still smaller boats, such as fishing trawlers, large yachts—in fact, any bottom fit for deep-water service, may be adapted for mine-laying.
Great Britain fully realizes the value of the Royal Navy's "second line of defence" From the accounts of two world wars we learn how Britain has used her merchant fleet. In 1914, Capt. Dudley W. Knox, U.S.N. retired, tells us that Britain fitted the Aquitania with 6-inch guns and sailed her "forth as an armed cruiser within five days of the declaration of war." The Carmania—famed for the of. sunk by the oer anes in s eco 1 ly. armour walpindi fought " losing battle against envy odds. she with her guns blazing and not before is believed to have inflicted serious punishment on the pocket battleship. The Rawalpindi gave a performance that stood alone for exactly a year, until. the much smaller merchantman, jervis Bay, deliberately engaged an unidentified pocket battleship in what has been called
cónvoy.
roa encounter to save the ships in
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