This is a vastly underrated story. Set in 1942 with the fall of Singapore to the Japanese, a British national, Brigadier Farnholme (Retired) barges into an army base and demands a ship out of the habour before the Japanese get there.
The story basically follows him and his attempts to get out of Singapore, but develops reasonably quickly to also include the fate of a British tanker and its crew who keep on bumping into the Brigadier and the motley crew that he joins in the escape from the doomed city.
The story is full of suspense and you know that something is wrong with more than one of the passengers' stories. Also why are the Japanese chasing them with all they have and refuse to let them get away?
The action jumps from the burning doomed port of Singapore to the waters around the South China Sea and the Indonesian islands as the tanker makes a brave attempt to get away. Finally the story follows the crews and passengers onto the Javanese shore and littoral where their true identities and roles in the story are revealed.
Great story, great characters and a classic suspense action thriller.