Podolin, Si "Blitz on the ANTHONY J"

The freighter ANTHONY J., heavily laden with military equipment, encounters a fierce storm at sea which causes a 30-ton Army tank to break loose from its moorings ‘tween decks. As the ship rolls in the storm, the tank batters its way back and forth from portside to starboardside, threatening to break through the ship’s hull and cause her sinking. Two crew members volunteer for dangerous duty below in an attempt to secure the careening tank: the ship’s bos’n and “Chips,” the ship’s carpenter. At the risk of great bodly harm, the task is finally accomplished, but not before Chips is seriously mauled. This somewhat routine “storm-at-sea” story’s chief claim to interest lies in the fact that Chips is African-American — one of the very few appearances of non-Caucasians in World War 2-era popular American sea fiction. And not only is Chips drawn as an intelligent, sympathetic character but he is also, non-condescendingly, the story’s hero, a rare bird indeed in terms of the popular fiction of that time.