Qualla: HMS Farnborough

HMS Farnborough: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

She looked like exactly what the U-boats hunted. *Farnborough* had been built in 1904 as a tramp collier called *Loderer*, 3,207 gross tons of unremarkable merchant ship, the kind of slow, dirty steamer that German submarines surfaced to sink with deck guns to save torpedoes. That was the point. Behind the flaps and dummy compartments cut into her hull sat five 12-pounders, two 6-pounders, and a Maxim gun. The Royal Navy had converted her at Devonport into a Q-ship, named her after a Hampshire town, and given her to a young captain named Gordon Campbell. Her job was to be torpedoed, then kill the submarine that thought it had won.

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HMS Farnborough: The First Depth Charge

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On 22 March 1916, *U-68* fired a torpedo at *Farnborough* off Britain's west coast. It missed the bow. Campbell, the kind of officer for whom deception was a form of discipline, held course and speed as if nothing had happened. Twenty minutes later the submarine surfaced 1,000 ya...

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HMS Farnborough: Hoppe's Submarine

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

For eleven months after sinking *U-68*, *Farnborough* found no further action. Campbell came to a conclusion that would have ended most careers had he been wrong: to lure a U-boat close enough to destroy, the Q-ship had to let itself be torpedoed first. On 17 February 1917, off s...

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HMS Farnborough: Goodbye From Q5

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

*Farnborough* herself was finished. Campbell sent a radio message that became one of the more famous signals of the war: 'Q5 slowly sinking respectfully wishes you goodbye.' The destroyer HMS *Buttercup* and the sloop HMS *Laburnum* arrived within an hour and began towing her tow...

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HMS Farnborough: The Crew Who Disobeyed

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Gordon Campbell received the Victoria Cross for the action against *U-83*. The crew shared £1,000 in prize money. Ronald Stuart, the lieutenant who had refused to leave his captain, and Engineer-Lieutenant Len Loveless were both awarded the Distinguished Service Order. Most of *F...

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