Havighurst, Walter "Four Lives"
This immensely affecting piece, a World War 2 North Atlantic convoy short story, opens with a crippled freighter, The EPPING FOREST, reaching Clydemouth. The captain writes up his official report which reads, succinctly and simply:
“Shortly before noon on the 18th we dropped out of convoy with a broken main steampipe. At midnight the engineer had accomplished repairs and we got under way at half-speed. Five hours later, at daybreak, an enemy bomber sighted us, He dropped low low and released two sticks of bombs. One medium bomb scored a direct hit, taking four lives. The casualties were:
– Chief Engineer D. Isherwood
– Second Officer W.B. Allard
– Radio Operator Clyde Dennis
– Oiler Alec Bowen”
The captain then “dried his pen and paid it away, but his eyes continued to stare at that neat list of names.” In flashbacks Havighurst then focuses on the lives of those four merchant mariners, and how they came to lose their lives while bravely carrying out their duties aboard their ship.