Amazon.com description: Product Description: St Vincent Halfhyde, captain of the steamer TARONGA PARK, is sailing for Valparaiso in Chile and the Admiralty have "requested" that he carry two "special" passengers - Mr Mayhew of the Foreign Office and Detective Inspector Todhunter of the Metropolitan Police - on a secret mission to rescue the bombastic Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Navy, Admiral Watkiss, late of the British Navy, whose life is in danger. Feathers fly among the passengers - the alarming Mrs Weder-Ublik, about to offer herself as a missionary to the South American Indians, finds the free and easy lifestyle of Halfhyde's Australian girlfriend far from satisfactory, and the "missionary's" life aboard ship is only made tolerable by the kindly Canon Rampling, himself not totally at ease with the lady's ministrations. Meanwhile in Valparaiso, a desperate Admiral Watkiss is unaware of the surprises in store for him when the TARONGA PARK docks and the politicians take over...