Rendezvous - South Atlantic

Douglas Reeman was one of my favourite authors when i was younger, although his tales of naval combat all tended to be fairly similar. The main character would be a man broken by past horrors and failure, he would be given a new chance at redemption but knowing that it was probably his last chance.

He would meet a woman, fall in love. Come into conflict with a superior officer or someone higher up in society and face losing everything, including the girl in the final action set piece.

Well that basically is the plot of this excellent story which features a captain given command of an armed merchant ship. Can Commander Lindsay get his battered old ship and crew of misfits into shape before their ultimate test?

Many Reeman stories had this kind of story outline, but this one was one of the best.