Das Feuerschiff on AllMovie

Director Ladislao Vajda has another success on his hands with this crime thriller about a beleaguered lightship (a ship that functions like a lighthouse to warn vessels about unseen hazards). Capt. Freytag (James Robertson-Justice) is in charge of the lightship when three bank robbers board the vessel and take it over by force. They want to hijack the ship to Denmark, but the captain is unwilling to comply. He knows that if the lightship leaves it might mean disaster and fatalities for other vessels that depend on it so as not to go aground on the sand bars here. The thieves terrorize the crew, but Freytag is determined to hold his own against their demands.