During World War II there were a number of the small Canadian St. Lawrence Canal and Great Lakes freighters pressed into emergency service on the Atlantic Ocean. The ships for the most part were engaged in carrying bauxite from the Guianas on the East coast of South America through the subinfested Caribbean.
These ships were small, less than 250 feet in length, drawing about 14 feet fully loaded, and low powered—designed especially for the canal work in which they had been engaged for many years. Their ship's officers, too, were a bit long on pilotage and short on the ways of the sextant and H.O. 214.
In one convoy in which several of these ships were being escorted southward on their first journey out of their element, the convoy commodore received his usual noon position reports from all the ships in the group except one. The next day the same ship failed to make any noon position report, so the commodore ordered a message sent to the ship via blinker: "S.S. Blank—What is your noon position?" To which came back a prompt response: "Three boat-lengths behind the S.S. Doakes, Sir!"