Breyfogle, William Arthur "Judas Ship."

A Nazi U-boat disables the BANKS MAID, a Canadian Maritimes sailing vessel, in mid-Atlantic in order to use the ship as a “Judas ship, a stalking horse” to lure unsuspecting merchant vessels to a German torpedo doom. The Germans, depicted as the basest of human beings, leave a prize crew aboard the BANKS to make certain that her crew don’t try anything heroic. But men have to eat, and that proves to be the Nazis downfall: the BANKS’ cook is an unreformed drunk — and mighty handy with a frying pan! As the Maclean’s tag line promises (and Breyfogle’s story delivers): “Bait, were they? Human decoys for unsuspecting rescuers? — Well, the Nazis hadn’t reckoned on big Eli Dessett, ship’s cook.’ After Eli dispatches the Germans onboard (the first one falls to his frying pan, others are shot to death with Nazi #1's gun), members of the BANKS’ crew are able to escape under cover of night’s darkness into nearby shipping lanes and shortly thereafter alerted aircraft arrive overhead to destroy the Nazi U-boat.