Sorenson, Harold Francis "Delivery at Sea"
Short Stories tag line: “It was Sparks who first thought there was something wrong about the THORLESON.” Set aboard the ploddingly slow freighter PINDAR, at sea in the tropics (Indian Ocean?), sailing out of convoy. The PINDAR encounters what appears to be a Swedish tramp vessel, the THORLESON. Wireless operator“Sparks” thinks that something about her looks fishy, and soon figures out that the ship is actually an Axis prison ship, carrying Allied prisoners of war back to Europe. Taking the initiative, the PINDAR’s Navy artillery crew attacks the THORLESON (herself heavily armed, it turns out), and, after a brief firefight, succeeds in overwhelming the enemy ship and freeing her prisoners. Sorenson’s story is enlivened early on with an interesting description of the PINDAR’s crew making ready to abandon ship when, mistakenly thinking the THORLESON to be an enemy raider, they prepare their own lifeboats for launching:
“On his way back to the radio room, Sparks saw crew members rushing in and out of their quarters in the stern. The men brought out their blankets, and armloads of their possessions. The threw the blankets on the deck, flung their armloads on the blankets, and proceeded to fold and roll the blankets into bundles. They knew they probably had run into an enemy ship, and they knew it was almost certainly a vessel that could outfight the PINDAR. It meant a maximum of ten minutes to take to the boats, or perhaps no time at all, after coming into range.
Standing in the radio room doorway, Sparks looked into the faces of the men as they came up the vertical iron ladder to the boat deck. Most of them grinned. Under the directions of the second and third officers, who carried their mahogany boxed sextants, the boats were uncovered, bundles flung in, and men turned the cranks that swung the boats out.”