Hill, James L. "Battle Stations"

A U.S. Navy officer (Lieutenant-Commander Cooper) is relieved from the command of his Pearl Harbor-based destroyer after one too many fistfights with civilians and given command of a broken down old cargo ship (the fictitious U.S.S. KINGMAN) which had been hastily converted into a combination hospital ship / military wives evacuation vessel. Sent in convoy back across the Pacific to San Francisco, the KINGMAN breaks down the third day out to sea and is left on her own. All too soon a Japanese submarine spots the ship and comes in for the kill, but her canny Navy skipper has other plans for the sub. By story’s end the Nipponese submarine has been sunk, though unfortunately, so too has the KINGMAN (nearly all of her crew and passengers, however, are saved due to Lt.-Commander Cooper’s foresight). Hill’s short story is fast-paced – and even somewhat believable – though somewhat bogged down by a silly love interest involving our brave Navy officer and an admiral’s daughter who just happened to be aboard the KINGMAN while being evacuated back to the continental United States.