Lifeboat

An American freighter sailing from New York City to London is torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat, which in turn is destroyed by return fire. Renowned and well-appointed photojournalist Connie Porter, whose stories focus on her in the middle of whatever the subject she is covering, is alone in one of the freighter's lifeboats, she was helped aboard by Joe, one of the ship's stewards, when the ship started going down. She is most concerned about the film she managed to take of the bombing and the accompanying story she will write first, her appearance and her material possessions second, and the rest of the world third. Before the lifeboat leaves the area of the debris field, other survivors of the bombing are able to take refuge on the lifeboat: C.J. Rittenhouse, nicknamed "Ritt", a self-made wealthy industrialist; Alice MacKenzie, an Army nurse; Mrs. Higley, a shell-shocked woman from Bristol who went to the States to recover, only to give birth there, with the baby, Johnny, dying in the process of the rescue; brusque womanizer Kovac, an engine room man; Stanley, nicknamed "Sparks", a radio man; Gus Smith, another crew member, who is sensitive to the fact that his real last name is Schmidt; and Joe, the aforementioned steward. However, it is the ninth and last passenger to board that causes the rest just a little consternation: a man named Willi, from the German U-boat, who says that he was only a crew member taking orders, and who apparently speaks only German (a language Connie speaks fluently) and no English. In their wait to be rescued, they have to work together to survive, which ends up being a difficult process at times, as they have differing views on certain fundamental things, such as who should be in charge, and thus what they should do, and just how much they should trust Willi, who may be the most knowledgeable among them in survival on the sea. But it's those fundamental differences in them as people which may be their biggest threat in surviving.