Watkins, Richard Howells "Blessed Event"

Garrulous Mr. Jimpson, 2nd Mate aboard the American (i.e., neutral) freighter MARJORIE TOLLIVER, is deputized by his captain to take over and claim for salvage an abandonned British steamer encountered 400 miles east of Cape Hatteras. Jimpson does so, and along with his small crew, gets the vessel underway, only to be stopped some time later by the German submarine that had originally attacked the vessel. Mr. Jimpson is forced to meet with the German U-boat’s commander and when he attempts to convince the German that the vessel is now neutral and controlled by American merchant mariners, the German becomes suspicious. The German commandant ultimately lets the 2nd Mate return to his ship because he incorrectly thinks Jimpson actually a U.S. naval officer in mufti. As the suspicious German remarks: “We have been warned that your country might like a convenient excuse to enter the war, as you did the last war. The destruction of a ship with a U.S. naval crew aboard would help, hein?”