Dummy ships

Dummy ships: The squadron of converted merchant ships or wooden "Dreadnoughts," which Lord Fisher introduced in 1915 for bluffing the Germans in the North Sea and purposes of strategical deception. They were exact duplicates of, and given the same names as, corresponding Grand Fleet ships. One of them, the Tiger, was later torpedoed by a German submarine in the Mediterranean, and the sight of her wooden turrets and wooden guns floating about on the waves brought on an attack of "D.T." with the hard-drinking German U-boat commander.