The size of ship is also not a good indicator. In fact many of the larger ships are also faster ships (this certainly applies to the tankers Steve mentioned), because they have more space for powerful machinery, and because often they're also the more modern ships with newer technology. It's usually the smaller, older merchants that are slow.
10kt is really not that fast. For lone-sailing merchants in a warzone, that's not unexpected - and indeed as the war went on, only the fastest ships would usually risk passage without escorts.
It's still not the most practical thing, and of course you'll only rarely run into convoys (usually made up of troop ships or high-value tankers) that run at that speed. But for high-value lone ships - not that unusual. A tanker pilot who knew his ship was in a war zone would probably run a pretty swift course.
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