Havighurst, Walter "A Lesson in Knots"

North Atlantic convoy story. “It was a tough initiation for young Captain Satterfield – green hands in the foc’sle, a man short on the bridge, bombers above and subs below”– Adventure Magazine tag line. Add to this several days of heavy fog, during which time Satterfield’s freighter (the ITASCA) loses her convoy and the untried ship master must try to relocate it. Havighurst’s story climaxes with an attack on the vessel by a German bomber, an attack foiled by the gunnery skills of two crew working in closely in tandem: old “Chips” – the ship’s carpenter – and “Pitchfork” – a young Iowa farmer on his first voyage. Satterfield learns an important lesson from this: teamwork can combine the tried skills of an experienced mariner with the malleability of the novice to forge a partnership strong enough to even bring down a Nazi bomber.