Townend, William "Rendezvous"

Set during the early days of World War 2. Collier’s tag line: “The passenger on Captain Brame’s ship knew the sea but didn’t know the captain.” German naval officer, pretending to be a Czech fleeing the Nazis, talks his way aboard the freighter TARNBROOK which is bound, from Brazil, for England. Though he pretends to know nothing of the sea, his real identity is established in mid-Atlantic when he attempts to hijack the ship in order to rendezvous with a German U-boat that has been awaiting him. Quick action by the TARNBROOK’s master aborts that plan, and British destroyers in the vicinity soon dispatch the lurking sub. As nearly always the case in World War 2 popular sea fiction, the German is depicted as double-dealing, duplicitous, arrogant and dishonest. The British, on the other hand, in the character of stalwart Captain Brame are seen as retaining their sense of common decency and humanity, even in time of war. Indeed, the good captain decides to not transfer the German officer to one of the British destroyers, knowing, as he does that the British are about to sink the submarine containing the German’s colleagues and friends.