Forgotten Voyage Stealing Hitler’s Gold

WWII is raging in Europe and soon the United States will join the war. Captain Alan McKnight, an experienced skipper of giant great lakes ships, is a patriot and volunteers to join the Merchant Marine to help his country. The Maritime Commission has assigned the Captain to the J. L. M. Curry, the first Liberty Ship built by the Alabama Ship Yard. His job is to oversee the building of the ship he will command when it sails. But first, he must first prevent sabotage at the shipyard while the ship is being built.

The Maritime Commission selects the Curry to convoy planes, tanks, guns and ammunition through the Arctic Ocean to Murmansk in support of the Russians. He and his crew will transport supplies through the Arctic Ocean in the middle of winter to support Russia’s war with the Nazis. Ports of call include New York City; Halifax, Nova Scotia; Loch Ewe, Scotland and Reykjavik, Iceland before arriving in Murmansk, Russia. The Captain and crew find that some ports welcome the ship while others are outright hostile.

The ‘Murmansk Run’ will go down in history as the most dangerous voyage of the war due to vicious attacks by German submarines and bombers. A ship’s only respite is when the fury of the Arctic Ocean is too great for even the tenacious Germans to attack. After an Arctic storm severely damages the Curry, the is ordered to abandon ship. Only the Captain and his courageous First Mate remain on board in a last ditch effort to save the ship. The Maritime Commission reports the Curry as sunk due to weather.

Wild Bill Donovan, the head of the OSS, will use this disaster as the beginning of the war’s most courageous and audacious mission. Pitchblende, the ore that contains Uranium, is available deep within the Belgian Congo’s interior. The U. S. has acquired some of that ore, but there are thousands of tons remaining. This ore is the purest in the world and the German atomic program would leap ahead if they could get the remaining ore. We need the remaining ore, but more importantly, we need to assure that the Germans don’t get any for their top rated scientists.

We can’t take the ore by force because we’re fighting in the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Pacific. Why don’t we have the Germans to give us the ore and protect us as we transport it? John Ford the famous director helps select a pirate crew straight out of Hollywood.

WWII Pirates, Arctic Storms, Tropical Hurricanes, close contact espionage and ordinary people doing extraordinary things are the heart of this tale of WWII action against the German Reich.