Gery, R.V. "The Captain Lays an Egg."

Set in the Canadian Maritimes (most probably in (unidentified) Halifax), where Atlantic convoys are being assembled and set off eastwards to England. Aged Captain Bantry, master of the “char” boat MARY ANN (further described by Gery as “a scandal, a ragamuffin civilian blotch and blemish upon the trim, hard face of the war”), knows that his vessel is the laughingstock of the convoys. Now reduced to hauling coal coastwise, Bantry yearns for real wartime action. With the connivance of a sympathetic Royal Navy officer (who turns out to be Bantry’s nephew), the old shipmaster gets the MARY ANN rigged out as an Admiralty tug. Alone at sea some time later, the vessel encounters a German U-boat and, utilizing some highly unorthodox depth charge launch gear created by old Captain Gantry himself, sinks same. Score one for seagoing ingenuity! And once word circulates about the MARY ANN’s success, Bantry and his boat receive accolades from those same convoy shipmasters who laughed so heartily earlier.