Jackson, Guy "Scrimshanker Jones."

World War 2 short story, set aboard a tanker. “Scrimshanker” is nautical slang for someone who shirks his job responsibilities. The scrimshanker in this case is a lazy and inept supposed Able Bodied seaman named Jones who sustains what today would be called an industrial injury at sea and then nurses the injury along for months to keep his job. Jones ultimately rises above himself during an emergency and rescues the Mate from a gas-filled tank aboard ship, and is then given another chance to prove himself as a mariner.