Fox, Edward S. "Prey"

Atlantic convoy tale set circa 1943. The freighter STARLING, en route from Bermuda to Europe with a cargo of TNT, dynamite and other explosives, has an engine failure and is forced to fall out of convoy. Her German-American skipper (Carl Krueger) is distrusted by many of the crew, especially after they learn that he has had three ships in a row sunk under his command in mid-Atlantic. Sure enough, a German U-boat soon spots the drifting STARLING, shells her and then demands to know whether the ship has a doctor onboard (the submarine’s commandant has appendicitis). The STARLING’s crew suspect the worst when Captain Kreuger, carrying his black overnight bag, has himself rowed over to the German vessel. A few seconds later, though, the Nazi sub explodes and sinks. Kreuger, it seems, had impersonated a doctor just long enough to get aboard the U-boat and detonate his “doctor’s bag” — in reality a bag stuffed with explosives. Fox’s subtext, of course, is that German-Americans were just as loyal as other Americans during the War, and just as willing to give their lives for the Allied cause.