Original subtitles

The amazing drama you're about to see

is a matter of human record.

You may believe it or not,

but the real people who lived this story,

they believe it; they know.

They took that one step beyond.

From the very earliest days,

the sea and the unknown have been linked in men's minds.

The strange fire-breathing monsters

with which primitive mapmakers filled in the unknown areas

have proved to be figments of their imagination.

Most of the strange tales of the sea

have yielded quite reasonable explanations.

But others are part of that irreducible mystery

for which every man is free to devise his own explanation.

Devise one that is, if he can.

♪ ♪

"As per my instructions,

I've kept the captain under closest surveillance."

No.

"Observation."

Mr. Blake?

Mr. Blake?

You've got ten minutes, Mr. Blake.

You want some coffee?

Yes. Come on in.

Well, I figured you could use some of this

before you go on watch.

Well, you figured right, Cookie.

How we doing?

Like lightning, smooth as silk,

since we have the sea at our back.

Since what?

Well, it's been like that since,

well, just about midnight.

Is anything wrong?

What's the matter?

No.

Must be some reason.

I don't know, except maybe the captain.

Maybe the captain what?

Nothing.

Well-well, everybody knows about the captain.

He's old.

Yes, he is.

Go down to his cabin, give him my compliments

and ask him if he'd be kind enough to meet me on deck.

Yes, sir.

And, Cookie... Sir?

Don't mention this to anybody.

Very well, sir.

♪ ♪

Mr. Dibble!

What's the matter? Can't a man read?

I don't care what you read...

I'm only the mate... but I'd like to be informed

when the course has been changed.

What are you talking about?

Nobody's changed the course.

We've been west by northwest

for the last four hours.

Well, of course, we have.

Do you know how far off course that takes us?

I wouldn't know.

I'm not the navigator.

Well, just try to remember that.

I'll try to remember, Mr. Blake.

You just try to remember

what course you put down and don't blame other people.

I put down? Take a look.

Who put that course down?

When I go on watch,

I'm not supposed to ask who set the course.

I'm just supposed to see the helmsman steers the course

that's on that board,

and that's just what I've done.

Ford'll tell ya.

He's had the wheel the whole watch.

He'll tell you that board read west by northwest

when we came on! That's impossible.

I gave the order myself. And the next time,

be more careful when you go around...

Don't tell me to be more careful!

Gentlemen!

You asked to see me, mate?

What is it?

Captain, our course has been changed.

So I see.

Change the course to south by southwest, helmsman!

South by southwest, aye, aye, sir.

May I remind you, Mr. Blake,

that while the duties of the mate on this vessel

are also the duties of the navigator,

those duties are executed

at the approval of the captain,

who is to be consulted prior to a change in course.

Captain, we've been west by northwest

for the last four hours.

Four hours?!

Upon whose authority did you do such a thing?!

No authority. I didn't.. That's enough!

All I want to hear from you is why you saw fit

to change my vessel's course.

I never changed that course.

Then who did?

Captain, somebody sneaked in

and put a new course on the board,

probably during the last change of watch.

It's possible.

That'll do, Mr. Dibble. Aye, sir.

Meaning it's also possible that I'm a liar.

You said it, Mr. Blake, not I.

But you meant it.

Perhaps, Mr. Blake.

Well, I resent that.

You can resent it all you like,

but while you're resenting it,

you'll keep your mouth shut.

And that's an order, Mr. Blake.

Very... An order!

Captain? Yes!

We're becalmed.

Not a breath of wind.

That's not necessary yet, Mr. Blake.

To whomever changed our course, my compliments.

Not only have we lost the wind,

we found ice.

Ice? Where?

Can't you feel it, Mr. Blake?

It's all around us.

Ice off the port bow!

Ice off the port bow!

Now do you feel it, Mr. Blake?

♪ ♪

Now, whoever played this idiotic trick

made one little mistake.

After he finished with his mutinous joke,

he forgot to put the chalk back.

See?

He probably was so thrilled

with putting one over on the old captain

that he got carried away,

and in the excitement,

he dropped the chalk in his pocket.

Now, since we've got nothing better to do,

we'll have a little court of inquiry right here.

Your pockets...

Empty them out right here and be quick about it.

And turn the linings out

so I can see that they're empty.

Hear me, Mr. Blake?

Yes, sir. Then move.

I don't think it's a lawful order, Captain.

You don't?

An officer has no right

to inspect a brother officer's private property.

You know, you may be right.

But surely you're aware that even if an order is unlawful,

it still must be obeyed.

Your remedy is to take it up with higher authority

when we reach port.

You have a legal right to refuse to obey

only such unlawful orders

as you believe menace the safety of the ship.

Are you aware of that?

I am.

And surely you do not believe

that my exercising my curiosity in this way,

even if unlawful,

menaces the safety of the ship.

Huh? Do you?

No, sir.

Then I order you to empty your pockets

on this table right now.

All right.

All right, pick it up.

Ford, I want every man not actually on duty

assembled on the deck at once.

Mr. Dibble, you will inspect the contents

of the pockets of every man on duty.

Get going. Both of you.

Aye, aye, sir. Aye, aye, sir.

You, too, Cookie, out!

"This certifies

"that Walter Blake is a security officer

"for the Triport Shipping Company

"and is authorized to investigate conditions

aboard the Bark Triport Queen."

And so on.

Pick it up.

In other words, you're a spy.

Don't you think I can guess

what conditions you're investigating?

Me, that's what!

Look, it's nothing personal,

but you've had cargo damage and you've been late.

Bad weather, bad luck.

Three trips out of six?

Four trips out of seven.

You're forgetting our present situation, Mr. Blake.

Well, there must be some reason.

Oh, surely.

There always has to be a reason.

Everything has to fit together.

Maybe that's true on dry land,

but there are things that happen at sea

that just don't have any reason.

Like how our course was changed?

Maybe.

You care to empty your pockets, Captain?

You're hesitating.

Are you sure?

Could you have done it and forgotten about it?

You see any chalk there, hmm?

Or there?

Or perhaps you think I've hidden it, hmm?

Go ahead, look. Look.

No.

I may be an old man,

and perhaps I forget things now and then,

but I keep my ship on course.

Unless some cheap company spy's

so anxious to turn in a nice, fat report

that he doesn't mind tricking me, hmm?

That's not my handwriting.

Here, look, I'll show you.

You could have had somebody else do it for you.

You could put that in your report.

You can say that I think people are picking on me.

You know, there's lots of us old ones

that think that.

I have no doubt

your report will put me on the beach,

but you won't write it until you reach port.

Until then, you're my first mate

and subject to my orders

which are to get out of here

and help round up the crew.

Get on with it.

Yes, sir.

What have you checked?

Checked the forward hull and galley.

I'll take this hatch.

Anybody working down there?

Mr. Blake?

Mr. Dibble said the crew is assembled on the stern,

all that aren't working.

All of them?

That's what he said: "All present or accounted for."

Are you coming?

Yeah, in a moment.

Mr. Blake!

Mr. Blake, would you mind joining us topside?

Captain, would you come down here?

You may not have to search through any more pockets.

I think we've got a stowaway down here.

If this is some kind of a trick, Mister...

Hey, hey, Mr. Blake, get him!

What are you doing here?

You're soaking wet.

Where'd you come from?

What's your name, hmm?

Speak up!

You speak English?

Maybe he's got papers on him.

Put your hands up in the air and turn around.

What have you got in your hand?

Open it. Open it!

It's the chalk.

You changed that course.

Why?!

Speak up!

Why did you change that course?!

We've got a wind, Captain.

We're underway.

Put the irons on him, Mr. Blake.

Keep a sharp lookout for ice!

Trim the main!

Ahoy!

Ahoy!

Ahoy!

Ahoy!

Captain, did you hear that?

I heard.

Answer them.

Where away?!

Where are you?!

Keep shouting!

We'll find you!

Ahoy!

What would you do, Mr. Blake?

Shall we try and save 'em?

Of course.

You sure?

There's ice all around us.

We could damage the vessel or worse.

Ahoy!

What would the company advise in such a matter?

It's your ship, Captain.

Ahoy!

All right, Mr. Blake, launch the workboat.

Aye, aye, sir.

Ahoy!

Boatswain, get the workboat over the side.

Get the workboat over the side!

Be quick!

Where are you?!

Keep shouting!

Ahoy!

Hold water.

Over here!

Hard to starboard.

Ahoy!

There they are!

Thank God!

Swanson, second mate of Flying Eagle.

We struck an iceberg five, six, seven hours ago.

Blake, first mate, Triport Queen.

Where are the rest of your men?

God knows.

She went down fast.

That's all that's left.

What about him?

The navigator... He died almost immediately.

Well, pull him aboard.

He's entitled to a decent burial.

Cut him loose, quick.

Oh, no.

No... no.

No, no, no!

No, no, no! What is it, what's the matter?

No, that... CAPTAIN: Mr. Blake!

What do you think's the matter?

This lad hasn't been to sea 40 years like you and me.

He drags a body from the water

and it takes the billy out of him.

That's right, isn't it, Mr. Blake?

Isn't that it, isn't that it?

Mr. Dibble, I want you to take these men below

and get them some dry clothes and some hot food.

Aye, aye, sir.

My God.

My God.

It was the same man.

Yes.

H-H-He was dead.

Dead for hours.

Yes.

The course was changed,

men's lives were saved.

Do you want a reason, Mr. Blake,

a dry-land reason?

I don't have one.

You saw him.

What did you think?

What did I think?

I thought that the company was right...

That I was a very old man.

But you're quite a young man... and you saw him, too.

But there must be some explanation...

some answer.

And if there is no answer,

what do you do, Mr. Blake?

But I'm sure by the time you hand in your report,

you'll have found an answer to satisfy the gentlemen in Boston.

Report?

What report, Captain?

The Flying Eagle went down here... off the tip of Greenland.

At that time, the Triport Queen was here

and headed for Boston.

Now, exactly what happened

to make the Queen change her course?

Well, parapsychologists...

That is, those whose profession is

the study of psychic processes...

Will tell you that at the instant of death,

the navigator of the stricken vessel somehow managed

to do something to save the lives of his shipmates.

Or was the course on the blackboard a coincidence

and the stowaway an hallucination?

Who knows?

In any event, the fact is

that three men who otherwise would have perished were saved.

In a moment, a hint about next week.

For a long time, Sylvia Ackroyd was a lonely, neglected woman.

Then, suddenly, inexplicably, she wasn't lonely anymore...

for she met a most amazing companion.

You'll meet him next week.