Marmur, Jacland "Action Off Para"

A World War 2 tale from the period of U.S. neutrality just prior to America’s entry into the War. Experienced 1st Mate Johnny Elder and his buddy Nils (a Norwegian) take positions aboard the American-registered, diesel-powered barque RIPANA for what is supposed to be a routine trading trip out of New York City to Chile. The vessel’s skipper, Captain Bludnow, has a reputation for shady dealings, so Elder isn’t all that surprised to learn that the ship is illegally loaded with arms and munitions which Bludnow, when confronted, claims to be consigned to the Chilean government. But something more sinister than arms smuggling is afoot: Bludnow secretly opens a seacock in mid-Atlantic and soon thereafter orders his crew to abandon their seemingly foundering ship. Elder and Nils, however, don’t buy the captain’s “the ship is sinking” tale and manage to get back to the RIPANA after all the other crew have taken to the lifeboats. There they discover Bludnow’s treachery, made all the more mysterious by the fact that the jimmied seacock had been closed just before the ship was abandoned. Something more than barratry is afoot. The mystery is soon solved when a German cargo vessel appears – manned by German Navy personnel and ready to take over the seemingly deserted barque – appears on the scene: Bludnow had deliberately abandoned the RIPANA, leaving her at a pre-arranged spot in mid-ocean for the Germans, who, it develops, intend to turn the neutral American vessel into a German sea raider. Yankee ingenuity and resourcefulness (along with a healthy dose of the suspension of reality so often encountered in pulp fiction) defeat Nazi plans, with Elder and Nils successfully eluding the Germans. At tale’s conclusion, they prepare to single-handedly (double-handedly?) take the RIPANA to the safety of a South American port where both men intend to enlist in the navies of their respective countries (U.S. and Norway). America may not yet be officially at war, author Marmur is saying, but patriotic American seamen like Johnny Elder certainly know that war is coming and are prepared to fight – as they will be by year’s end, 1941.