Some merchants were like US Q-ahips, in fact the japanese purchased some US Q-ships between wars. Ive read of one report of a merchant avoiding a US sub's torp shot, run down the wakes and as the sub dived it recieved a small, but close depth charging. The skipper deduced that the merchant had dropped the charges since their were no other vessels in the area and there was no aircraft spotted.
The idea of having DCs on a merchant isnt totally unreasonable, perhaps not very effective, but who cares how effective it really is if it can possibly get you home alive...no matter how unlikly.
You figure a small convoy with one merchant with DCs could at the very least hope to send that merchant at flank speed toward the firing point of the submerged sub and drop a small spread of DCs in an attempt to force the sub down and out of firing position. If your really desperate the merchant can just drop DCs blindly at the first sign of sub attack. Considering the sub will likly be within 1000yds of the convoy, the relativly close proximityt of the DC explosions would likly be enough to bluff the sub into thinking it had been found and trick it into disengaging and diving...even if its only temporary.
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