Merchant raider

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Merchant raiders are ships which disguise themselves as non-combatant merchant vessels, whilst actually being armed and intending to attack enemy commerce. Germany used several merchant raiders early in World War I, and again early in World War II. The most famous captain of a German merchant raider, Felix von Luckner, used a sailing ship SMS Seeadler for his voyage during World War I.

Germany sent out two waves of six surface raiders each during World War II. Many of these vessels had originally been refrigerator ships, used to transport fresh food from the tropics. Most of these vessels were in the 8-10,000 ton range. These vessels were faster than regular merchant vessels - important for a warship. They were armed with 6 x 15 cm (5.9 inch) cannons, some smaller calibre guns, mines and torpedoes. Some of them were fitted for minelaying. Some of the captains were very creative about disguising their vessels to masquerade as allied or neutral merchants. Italy used four "Ramb" class ships as auxiliary cruisers in World War II.

During World War I, the Royal Navy deployed Q-ships to engage German U-boats. Although Q-ships were warships pretending to be merchant ships, their mission of destroying enemy warships was significantly different that the raider objective of disrupting enemy supplies.

Most of these vessels were in the 8-10,000 ton range. British Armed Merchant Cruisers were generally adapted from passenger liners, and were larger than the German vessels.

These commerce raiders were unarmoured because their propose was to attack merchantmen, not to engage naval units in open combat. Eventually most would be sunk or transferred to other duties.