Converted liners enter commerce warfare

Cap Trafalgar was a large Hamburg-Süd passenger liner requisitioned for attacks on British trade in the South Atlantic. A German gunboat supplied her naval officers, ammunition, and weapons at Trindade, and she adopted a disguise believed to resemble Carmania. The real Carmania entered Royal Navy service with her prewar master as second-in-command, holding reserve rank under a naval captain. This arrangement retained merchant-service experience within the new military command. Cap Trafalgar's two 10.5-centimetre guns and six one-pounders suited attacks on merchants, while Carmania carried eight heavier 4.7-inch guns, with roughly four available on a broadside. Carmania's assignment to investigate a suspected German coaling base brought the converted liners into combat.