Not Under Command

"All the officers are dead," the coxswain said. "You'll take orders from me."

He was an expert steersman and, though his navigation knowledge and ship-handling ability were elementary, he knew enough to get Roper home … whilst she steered a steady course in the open seas.

They were trained and responsible men, but all their naval lives they had been used to the instant and unequivocal obeying of orders.

No one dared think how much he'd match the trained ability of an enemy captain in action.

Now, after the enemy aircraft had dropped its five hundred pound bomb, there were no orders—only discussion. And they were soon to realise that steering the frigate was vastly different from handling it!