ACE OF SPADES

pon the dark green waters of the Benguela current, west of Cape Town, the Royal Navy was out on patrol in the last week of August 1942. Watch officers sighted a 31ft Marconi-rigged ketch, running east in the heavy swells under storm jib, trysail and freshly patched mizzen. The yacht was duly closed on, sandwiched between ship and submarine and spoken with. Was this boat a Japanese or German trick to distract from the battle in Madagascar? An errant Vichy Frenchman or Italian? Everyone was confused, until the skipper began rapidly to explain himself in Spanish. This was Vito Dumas, a middle-aged Argentine of Italian and French descent. This was his first human contact since casting