Sealed Cargo

The Daniel Webster returns to Gloucester, Massachusetts with the day’s catch and a heavy mission to ferry Margaret McLean to Trabo. The captain reluctantly hires a Danish sailor named Konrad to join the voyage, and the crew prepares for a long crossing of perilous seas. They set course for the Grand Banks, hoping their trip will influence the war at sea.

As the voyage unfolds, Holger reports radio sabotage, hinting that enemies may be closer than the horizon. The captain grows wary of the two Danes and of Margaret, wondering if one of them could be a German agent. The air on the ship thickens with mistrust, shaping every decision and glance.

Night falls in a sea of fog and distant gunfire shatters the silence. They row toward the source and discover a Danish square-rigged vessel, Den Magre Kvinde, badly damaged with a single dead body aboard and a story of a storm and a U-boat attack. The Daniel Webster tows the stricken Kvinde toward Trabo, a fragile lifeline between suspicion and aid.

Konrad notices the German gunfire misses the waterline and a tarpaulin on a lifeboat is bullet-riddled while the boat remains undamaged. They uncover a second, hidden hold packed with torpedoes—the Kvinde is covertly resupplying U-boat wolfpacks. The discovery shifts every assumption aboard and tightens the noose of danger around the crew.

Holger slips into the hold and uses a radio to signal the Germans, revealing the dangerous truth behind the Kvinde’s mission. The two Danes watch in tense silence as the plan to resupply German submarines becomes undeniable. Loyalties on the ship hang in the balance as suspicion sharpens into a dangerous reality.

Skalder's crew arrives and the captain learns his plan: use Trabo as a staging point to resupply U-boats. The Danes pretend they know nothing of the spy and keep up the ruse to avoid tipping off their own vessel’s cover. The crew braces for a dangerous confrontation that could fracture their fragile alliance.

A Canadian flying boat lands in the harbor and an officer inspects Skalder's papers, finding nothing amiss. He informs Skalder that a corvette will inspect the cargo the next day. In response, the captain proposes to leave one Danish crewman as a witness to identify the spy, a calculated gamble to save lives.

Departing the harbor, the captain signals a split: one man remains aboard to relay to the nearest radio station while the rest withdraw to lifeboats and shore. That night, the villagers prepare to meet a calculated ambush and defend themselves against the approaching Germans. The plan hinges on timing, courage, and the sea's unpredictable mercy.

As the Germans come ashore to seize villagers, the Danes strike decisively, wiping out the intruders. The Kvinde is set ablaze during the chaos, and Margaret is held hostage as the situation spirals toward catastrophe. The battle of wits and fire tests the crew’s resolve to protect their charges at any cost.

The captain refuses to let the ship explode near the village and orders the Kvinde moved farther out to sea. He rigs torpedoes for a controlled explosion away from the shore, hoping to end the threat without harming those he’s vowed to protect. The crew, with Margaret, works to endure the peril while the night deepens.

Two U-boats edge closer to the Kvinde as Skalder's men close in with guns drawn. Skalder wields a pistol, wounding a guard as Konrad is wounded in the exchange, and the captain with another crewman helps Konrad into a boat under heavy fire. They fight their way clear as the sea erupts around them.

The Kvinde detonates, sending a billowing cloud of flame and debris that swamps the submarines and thwarts the covert resupply. The sea’s mercy and brutality intertwine as the surviving crew and Margaret drift toward an uncertain horizon, seeking safety and a new fate.