Watkins, Richard Howells "Snoop Ship"

Saturday Evening Post tag line: “The hilarious tale of a convoy skipper who used a brand-new method to trap a spy.” Étienne, a roly-poly Frenchman serving as cook aboard the American freighter BLUE HERON in an eastbound North Atlantic convoy, is unjustly suspected by officers and crew alike as being a spy / saboteur after a series of suspicious incidents seem to implicate him. Étienne refuses to stand by idly and instead investigates the matter himself (à la a seagoing Hércule Poirot!). As the BLUE HERON approaches the safety of English shores, the Frenchman unmasks the real spy a German who has been posing as the ship’s 4th Engineer.