The deck gun was first used by the Germans in World War I, and proved its worth when the U-boat needed to conserve torpedoes or attack enemy vessels straggling behind a convoy. Submarine captains often considered the deck gun as their main weapon, using torpedoes only when necessary (i.e. situations like an enemy warship where it was dangerous to use a deck gun), since many World War I submarines carried ten or fewer torpedoes and typically fired several torpedoes simultaneously to increase the probability of hitting the target. Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière used a deck gun or a dynamiting team on 171 of his 194 sinkings.[citation needed]