Fightin' Navy #87

When the U.S.S. Clovis, a nimble four-stack destroyer built in 1917, is decommissioned after World War I, young helmsman Wiley Craig dreams of commanding a ship like her one day—but the old vessel seems destined for the scrap heap. Years later, as a lieutenant commander, Craig gets his wish when the Clovis is recommissioned in 1940 and he takes her helm, only to find his beloved four-piper thrust into combat duty convoying merchant ships and supporting marine raids in the Pacific. Through German U-boats, Japanese guns, and countless near-fatal encounters, Craig and his aging destroyer prove that even the Navy's cast-offs have fight left in them.

When a U.S. destroyer and damaged freighter fall behind a convoy bound for Russia in 1942, they become sitting ducks for German bombers and U-boats prowling the North Atlantic. With crippled guns and failing steering, the two ships must fight off wave after wave of attacks while racing toward Archangel—relying on grit, quick repairs, and increasingly desperate measures to stay afloat. "The Stragglers" is a tense wartime survival story where the real battle isn't just against the enemy, but against the clock and the odds.

A signalman floating alone in a lifeboat becomes an unexpected weapon when he realizes a German U-boat is using him as bait to lure in Allied destroyers. With quick thinking and the shirt off his back, he turns the hunters into the hunted in this tense North Atlantic showdown from 1959's *Fightin' Navy*.