Title: The lame duck
Description: I read this book many years ago but still remember -- Set during the second world war, the lame duck of the title is a merchant vessel which is torpedoed. The crew abandon ship and are in life boats on the high seas for many hours when they see smoke in the distance. They row towards it only to find their own ship still afloat. They re-board it and the rest of the story tells of how they manage to get the engines going and through many problems limp back to an English port. This is a very moving and uplifting book showing the indomitable spirit of the crew and how the ship ( which you begin to think of as another character) keeps going. I would love to find the book again and reread it.

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Time periods: 2nd world war