McCutchan, Philip The Convoy Commodore

McCutchan's "Convoy" series all focus on Mason Kemp, a 50ish former ocean liner captain serving as Convoy Commodore during World War 2. During the Second World War, a Convoy Commodore was senior naval officer aboard the lead civilian ship of each convoy, responsible for overall coordination of convoy movements. Defense of the convoy rested with the actual naval escorts -- corvettes, destroyers and battleships -- which accompanied the convoy across the oceans.

This first in the Kemp series finds the Commodore aboard the converted ocean liner ARDARA, coincidentally a ship which he had once commanded in the Mediterranean-to-Australia service. (The ARDARA seems to have been modeled after a P&O pre-War liner). The novel follows Kemp's convoy trans-Atlantic westbound to Halifax and then back east to Scotland. Enemy action occurs on both segments of the round trip voyage, with the ARDARA being torpedoed -- but not lost -- on her eastbound trip while filled with Canadian troops bound for England. A subplot of sorts highlights Winston Churchill's 1942 trip aboard the battleship PRINCE OF WALES to meet up with Franklin Delano Roosevelt off Newfoundland.