Watkins, Richard Howells "Stars in his Head"

Though America was still officially neutral in 1940 you wouldn’t know it from this Watkins short story. Able bodied seaman Sam Browne, an astronomy-mad amateur star-gazer aboard the freighter BETA PERSEUS, detects and foils a plot by his vessel’s pro-Nazi 2nd Mate (“a Bund man — a junior partner in the firm o’ Hitler & Himmel — though his ticket says he’s an American citizen”) to wreck the vessel (and thus deny Britain much-needed war supplies). An interesting subplot involves the Captain of the BETA PERSEUS’ strong belief that “education in the foc’sle means trouble all over the ship.”