world history

 During WW2, did they consider sending lone ships across the Atlantic instead of convoys to make it harder for U boats to hunt them down?

They did that all the time. Troops were mostly transported by fast passenger liners which sailed individually (but escorted by one or two warships). These ships were much faster than any U-boat so the chances of getting caught by one were negligible, and in fact none of them were sunk.

The Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth could each transport about 15,000 troops.

But apart from that, as far as ordinary cargo ships were concerned, the experience of the first year of the war showed clearly that ships sailing alone were much more likely to fall victim to U-boats than ships sailing in convoy.

EDIT: The discussion went on however. For a few months in early 1941, at Churchill´s insistence, merchant ships capable of doing 13–15 knots crossed the Atlantic alone. Apart from saving crossing time, this facilitated unloading as arrivals were more spread out compared to several dozen ships arriving together. But this policy had to be abandoned as losses mounted rapidly. At the end of June, the rule became that only ships doing 15 knots minimum were allowed to sail individually.

The British merchant navy was not in good shape at the start of the war. Shipyards had been largely idle during the Depression and many ships were old with worn-out machinery. There were some relatively modern and fast ships, which in peacetime were used to transport perishable goods (such as refrigerated meat from Argentina), notably of the Glen, Clan, City and Blue Star lines. When available, such ships were used on the dangerous supply runs to Malta, where they often were under constant air attack.