Original subtitles

(dramatic music)

- [Matt] Her name was The Witch,

a Salem flipper in the China tea trade.

She put into San Francisco

that morning of October 18th, 1852

with ensign flying an international signal of distress.

It was the beginning of a case

which would eventually change maritime laws

relating to seamen on all American ships.

- What's happening, Matt?

- Mutiny onboard The Witch.

Captain Farragut asked us to keep order on the docks.

- [Man] Detail, attention!

On the right, quick step, march!

(drum beats)

- What's going to happen to 'em, sir?

- Those men will be tried in admiralty court.

If found guilty, they'll hang.

(men vocalize)

Naval prisoners and others subject to maritime punishment

were at that time confined to the hulks

of abandoned vessels lying in San Francisco harbor.

The mutineers from The Witch

were held in one of these hulks.

Things are really boiling down the Barbary Coast.

There's a lot of sympathy for the men off The Witch.

- Yeah, there seems to be a lot of sympathy all over town.

Half of the peoples think that the ship's officers

were real heroes, and the rest think that the crew

should have chucked them on overboard.

- I'm glad this is Navy's job, not mine.

There'll be a riot if people get stirred up enough.

- Marshal Wayne?

- Yes.

- Well, I'm Eben Stone, master of The Witch.

One of my officers is missing.

- Did you report it to my office?

- No.

Under the circumstances,

I thought it best to come to you first.

You see, Mr. Coffin is not exactly popular in some quarters

since he brought in The Witch.

- Since he brought in The Witch?

- Oh, Captain Stone, I'd like you to meet Mr. Jeremy Pitt.

Mr. Pitt is a pretty fair country lawyer.

- Captain, glad to meet you.

I'm sorry I interrupted.

Please go ahead.

- Well, if it weren't for Mr. Coffin, sir,

none of us who berth would be alive today.

You see, he pretended sympathy with the mutineers,

persuaded them to let him navigate the ship.

Then he set a course for this port.

Now, the crew feels that he betrayed them,

and well, they've been making threats.

- Do you mean the crew might've killed the officers

if Coffin hadn't pretended to go along with them?

- That's right, sir.

- Well, I don't think you have to worry, Captain.

The Navy has the mutineers confined.

- Well, I know, but they've got friends.

And well, feelings have risen pretty high.

- In that case, why did you give Coffin shore leave?

- Oh, I didn't, but I couldn't hold him on the ship.

I think he's got a woman friend ashore,

name of Rose Kerrigan.

He may have gone to see her.

- Why don't you try to find her?

- Well, I've got my first and second officers out

looking for her right now.

This girl is from the Barbary Coast,

but my men are not as familiar with that as you are.

- All right, Captain.

I'll have a look on the Barbary Coast,

see if I can find your man.

- Thank you, sir.

You know, I'd dislike seeing anything happen to Mr. Coffin.

He's a credit to the finest traditions of the merchant navy.

Good night, gentlemen.

- Good night, Captain. - Good night, sir.

Hey, Matt, do you think Coffin's in trouble?

- I think he's probably drunk somewhere

trying to forget the 14 men and two boys

that he's turned over to the hangman.

- Hey, you aren't in sympathy with the mutineers, are you?

- You saw those men when they came off that ship.

They looked more sinned against than sinners.

- Yeah, but that's a case

for the federal government to investigate.

- Well, I better to try to find Mr. Coffin

before somebody sticks a knife in his ribs.

- 20 pretty waiter girls!

Count them!

20 pretty waiter girls and all the grub you can drink!

All the fun on the coast down at Sydney Jack's!

Tell your mates, right down there on the corner!

- I got to have a plan, Rosie.

I got to talk to someone who knows someone,

and I don't know who to talk to.

- Maybe you're just imagining things.

- I ain't imagining nothing.

They're out to do me in.

- Hello, Coffin.

I've been looking for you.

Skipper's worried about you.

He wants you back at the ship.

- Tell Eben Stone I'm through with him

and his stinking ship!

- Skipper's orders, matey.

I'm taking you back.

- You're taking me nowhere, Mr. Cross.

One more step and I'll open you!

- All right, all right.

Put the knife away.

Where's the trouble here?

- No trouble, sir.

I was urging Mr. Coffin to return to his ship.

- You're Mr. Coffin of The Witch?

I'm looking for you.

- He ain't done nothing, Marshal.

- According to his skipper, he jumped ship.

- That's a lie.

I was paid off.

- How about that, mister?

- I don't know about that, sir.

I was sent by the skipper to bring him back.

- All right, I'll take care of him.

- But that's my--

- Good night, mister.

- But I'm-- - Good night!

Let's go.

- Well, you can't take him, Marshal.

He ain't done nothing, I tell ya!

- It's all right, Rosie.

- You say you were paid off.

Let's see your papers.

(upbeat piano music)

Why did Captain Stone say you jumped ship?

- He wants to get me back, that's why.

- Why?

- It ain't nothing to concern you, Marshal.

- Well, you better stay off the street.

Captain Stone seems to think that you're in danger.

- You mean I can go?

- You haven't committed any crime.

- Who's a good lawyer in town?

- A lot of good ones.

- I need one that can do miracles.

- Off hand, I'd recommend a man named Jeremy Pitt.

- Jeremy Pitt, where can I find him?

- He rooms on Montgomery Street.

- Mr. Pitt?

- If this is a holdup,

then you've picked on a struggling lawyer

and they never have any money.

- It isn't a holdup, sir.

I have to see you.

- Oh, then you must be a client,

and I hope you have some money.

Come in.

You picked a strange hour to find a lawyer, mister,

mister, I didn't get your name.

- Names ain't important, sir.

- All right, as you say.

Now, what's the problem?

- I wanna hire you to defend some people.

- What people?

- The men off The Witch, sir.

- They'll be tried in an admiralty court.

It's a case for a lawyer who knows marine law.

- They tell me you fight for your cases, Mr. Pitt.

That's what they need, someone who'll fight

and try to get them off as easy as possible.

- Tell me, is there any doubt of their guilt?

In other words, you're giving me an impossible case.

Hey, let me put it to you, sir.

Now, of all that crew, I might obtain,

might, I said,

obtain leniency for the boys because of their youth.

Now, half of the men, those least involved in the mutiny,

well, they'll get off with long prison terms.

And the rest, the rest will indubitably hang

from one of Captain Farragut's yard arms,

unless there's some bit of evidence as yet undisclosed.

Do you know of any such evidence, Mr. Coffin?

- How did you know?

- Oh, your identity, Mr. Coffin?

A lawyer quickly learns to detect an uneasy conscience.

Your conscience brought you here, a sense of guilt

for delivering those men to certain death.

- I done my duty.

- Oh, of course, I know, and now you regret it.

Why?

- Don't ask me no more, Mr. Pitt.

Here's money, sir.

A thousand dollars in gold, take it, use it,

but don't ask me no more questions.

I can't give answers.

- Mr. Coffin, come back!

Mr. Coffin!

(ominous music)

(suspenseful music)

But he retained me over a week ago.

He laid down a thousand in gold, walked out and disappeared.

- What do you want me to do about it?

- Find Coffin.

- It's not my job.

That's a federal matter.

- I can't get them to move on it.

You know they don't have enough people

to handle the investigations.

- That's out of my jurisdiction.

You know that.

Why is Coffin so important to you?

- He's the only witness I've got.

- Witness?

- Tell you what you do.

Take a trip with me down to the prison hulks

and you'll see what I mean.

- All right.

But Mr. Pitt, just to keep things legal,

don't you think we ought to get a permit from the Navy?

- All right, come on, let's get it.

- [Matt] Captain Farragut's office

issued us passes to see the prisoners.

- Mr. Cross ordered Samuels to the gratings

and beat him with a rope's end.

And after Samuels fainted, Mr. Cross kept on beating him.

And two days later, Samuels died and we buried him at sea.

- And what did Captain Stone do during this beating?

- He stood on the quarter deck and watched.

- You mean he approved.

- He didn't stop it, sir.

- And he didn't do nothing when Mr. Soreby, the second mate

kicked me and broke my hip.

- Well, did you get any treatment?

- The captain put some oil and rags on my leg

and turned me to galley duty.

- What about your eyes, Poke?

- Mr. Cross ordered me aloft to wreath the fort.

I slipped and fell.

He called me a clumsy dog

and began beating me on the head with a belaying pin.

When I come to my senses, sir,

my lights were gone.

- Is that when you decided to take the ship?

- No, sir.

We went to Mr. Coffin first.

- The third mate.

- Aye.

Mr. Coffin was a decent officer.

He did all he could to stop Mr. Cross and Mr. Soreby

from doing all they did.

- Oh, I see.

What did Mr. Coffin tell you?

- He told us to take the ship, sir.

He said he'd navigate us to land fall

and stay with us whatever happened.

We were desperate, sir.

We stood all that flesh and blood could bear.

If we're mutineers like they say, we was driven to it.

- Can you will help us, sir?

- If there's anything I can do, I will.

The plight of the 16 men

and the simple honesty of their stories made us decide

to seek Captain Farragut himself about their case.

- This is all very irregular.

Are you intervening in an official capacity, Mr. Wayne?

- No, Captain Farragut.

I'm here at the request of Mr. Pitt.

I wish I could intervene,

but I realize local authority has no right to.

- Good.

I'd be obliged to take vigorous action

against any interference in a federal matter.

And as for you, sir,

I'm afraid you were undertaking is hopeless.

- I refuse to consider any case hopeless.

- The word of any ship's officer will be sufficient

to convict your clients.

- Any ship's officer

against the sworn testimony of 14 men and two boys?

- Admiralty court, sir,

do not accept the oaths of farmers' hands.

- But they are men, sir!

They have rights under the law!

- Not under sea law, which recognizes but one right,

that of the ship's master to command.

- Sounds like tyranny.

- Ordinary seamen have no rights, Jeremy.

- Just dumb brutes to be driven hither and yon

at the decree of their masters, is that it?

- That about sums it up.

Oh, I don't say it's right, Mr. Pitt,

but it is the system in the merchant ships at present.

Thank heavens it doesn't exist in the Navy.

- Coffin's the break in this case.

His word as the ship's officer,

his testimony regarding the brutality aboard The Witch

is enough to justify their taking the ship

in the eyes of any court.

Matt, you've got to help me now.

You've got to help me find Coffin.

- I told you I can't get mixed up in a federal matter.

(knocking on door)

Come in.

- This just came in, sir.

- Thank you, Sergeant.

They found the body of a murdered man in the bay.

According to papers found on the corpse,

it looks like your Mr. Coffin.

Well, this changes everything.

Now your mutiny is my business.

Now it is local,

at least until I find Mr. Coffin's murderer.

Third mate Coffin's funeral was small.

Captain Stone and First Mate Cross, Jeremy Pitt and me.

Captain Stone paid for the funeral.

- Touching funeral, wasn't it?

- Oh, very.

- If I ever saw two slimy murderers

gloating over their victim, it was just now.

- And Captain Stone's eulogy.

Henry Coffin was a good man, a brave man.

And we, his dearest friends.

- I know they're murderers

but I can't make it stand up.

Why would they kill one of their own fellow officers?

- To shut him up.

They knew if he ever testified,

they'd hang for the foulest murders

ever committed on the high seas.

Too bad you can't prove it though.

- Matt, can you help?

Is there anything you can do for those men?

- I've got a hunch.

That's all.

- Do you mean one of those gambler's things?

- Yeah, one of those gambler's things

that makes you play out a hand.

- All the grub you can drink

and pretty, pretty waiter girls!

Count them, 20.

Evening, governor.

Out to slum a bit?

Right down here on the corner, Sydney Jack's.

That's the place to go, sir.

- I'm looking for a girl who works here,

calls herself, Rosie.

- That's right, right on the corner, sir, Sydney Jack's.

Oh, beg your pardon, sir.

Rosie, you say?

Never heard of her.

- Come on.

- I'm new around here, sir.

As for the girls, well, they comes and they goes.

I pay 'em no mind, sir.

I'm a respectable married man, I am.

- I'm sure you are.

(upbeat piano music)

- Good evening, Mr. Wayne.

Something on the house?

- No, thanks.

- What, might I ask, brings you here?

Nothing official, I hope.

- I'm looking for a girl who works here, Rosie.

- Rosie?

Oh, never heard no Rosie here.

- Oh, come off it, Jack.

She was here the night I busted up the fight

between the ship's officers from The Witch.

- Ah, that Rosie.

I haven't seen nor heard of her since that night.

- You're lying, but why?

- Lying, me?

Why?

For what reason will I lie?

- [Matt] The Barbary Coast protects its own

when it wants to.

This time, it wanted to.

Nobody knew Rosie.

I worked every dive in the district,

but the word ran ahead of me.

No one would talk about Rosie.

I had to find someone I could buy.

I'm looking for a girl named Rosie.

- So you're looking for Rosie.

You come a long way, Marshal, to get so far.

- And it wasn't easy.

- Look, no one's gonna talk about someone they like.

We like Rosie.

- Where is she?

- How would I know?

- She was staying here.

. Sure.

She left.

- All right.

Where did she go?

- [Sadie] What do you want her for?

- Nevermind.

Where is she?

- Why don't you give the kid a break?

- Come on, Sadie.

Tell me where she is.

- I said I don't know.

- All right, I'm gonna have to arrest you

and put you in jail on suspicion.

- You won't hurt her, will you?

- I only wanna talk to her.

- All right, she's gone uppity.

She got herself married.

It's funny what a man can do to a gal.

He's a good man though, and she's got a job and everything.

- Where?

- At the millinery shop in Montgomery Street.

You're not gonna arrest me.

- No.

- Don't hurt her, will you?

- Sadie, when a girl gets a chance

to lift herself into a better life,

who am I to spoil it for her?

Hello, Rosie.

- Please, I haven't done anything.

- Let's go where you're living.

- How did you know?

- I didn't, not really.

Rosie, you were one of the last people to see Coffin alive.

When we found his body floating in the bay,

I remembered the night that I saw you with him.

I thought maybe you had been setting him up for the kill.

I want to know if you had and who employed you.

- Look, I didn't know nothing about any killing.

All I know is he come to me.

He'd been in a fight.

He was sick.

He was scared.

I took care of him.

It's funny what taking care of somebody does to you.

It makes you different.

I can't turn him in, Marshal.

I won't.

- Rosie, I promise you no harm will come to him.

- Well, how can I believe you?

- You've got to.

The lives of 14 men depend on what you do right now.

Listen, you can have

the peace and respectability that you want,

but you're gonna have to earn it.

- All right.

- You realize this is a federal matter, Mr. Wayne!

You have no business--

- A murder in San Francisco is my business, sir.

Any interest I have in the mutiny

is incidental to the matter of a murdered man

found in the bay, and the fact that he was an officer

on board The Witch might throw a little light on the mutiny.

- Yes, I suppose you're right.

Oh, good morning, Captain Stone,

Mr. Cross. - Good morning, sir.

- Good morning, sir.

- This meeting is Mr. Wayne's idea, gentlemen.

Are you ready to proceed, Mr. Wayne?

- No, sir, I'm not.

- Sir?

- I asked that all the officers of The Witch be present.

Where is Mr. Soreby?

- Soreby?

- Yes, your second mate.

You do have a second mate, don't you?

- Why, Mr. Soreby left ship, sir.

- [Matt] When?

- When?

Why,

when did he leave, sir?

- Well, I,

I don't know!

- You don't know?

But you had to sign his papers, didn't you?

- Well, yes, I did but--

- What Captain means, sir, is that the Soreby jumped ship.

- Yeah, that's right.

He jumped ship.

- Jumped ship.

When?

- Captain Farragut, what's the meaning of this?

- We want answers, Captain Stone.

- Well, I refuse.

- Perhaps I can supply the answers for you, Captain.

You haven't seen Mr. Soreby since the night you sent him

to get rid of Henry Coffin, your third mate.

- That's a lie!

- Is it?

Come in.

- You.

We buried you.

- Not me, Captain.

You buried Soreby.

It was Soreby who went in the bay, not me.

- But your papers, they were on the body.

- Aye, sir.

I put them there.

Mr. Soreby was out to kill me.

We fought in the docks, went over the side together.

He hit a stringer with his head on the fall.

No one would have ever recognized him.

When I saw he was dead, I traded papers with him.

That's how my papers got in his body.

- Why did you do that?

- I didn't want to testify at the mutiny trial, sir.

- In the name of all that's eternal, man, why not?

- Sir, I've been a seaman all my life,

never got to be more than third mate,

never would have got to be more than that,

never would have got another berth

if it came out I encouraged a crew to mutiny.

No matter how right I was, I would have never sailed again.

- Mr. Coffin, tell me one thing.

Would you step forward to testify

to save these men from the rope?

- Mr. Pitt,

I won't know the answer to that

till the day of the trial.

(dramatic music)

(dramatic music) (people chattering)

It's all right, Rosie.

The verdict was not guilty.

- Oh.

- All right, men, all right.

You're free.

Go on home.

Go on.

- Nice work

for a jackleg lawyer.

- What do you mean jackleg lawyer?

I made one of the finest speeches

ever heard in that courtroom.

- Sure, but your case wouldn't have gotten anywhere

without Coffin's testimony.

- Gentlemen, you're witnessing the end of an era.

This case has set a precedent.

It'll establish the rights of seamen,

put an end to brutalities like that.

You're to be congratulated.

- Thank you, sir.

- Both of you.

- Thank you, sir.

(dramatic music)

* California

* Oh, I've traveled here, I've traveled there *

* I guess I'm been most everywhere *

* But I like where I am today

* And here is were I'll stay

* Now, one thing I just can't endure *

* Is being broke and being poor *

* So I come west to take the cure *

* And here is where I'll stay

* I've come to Californi-a

* Californi-a

* The gold and ember hills in Californi-a *

* I've come to live where life is best *

* In the golden west

* I'm gonna strike it rich in Californi-a *

* Californi-a

* Californi-a

* There's gold in them there hills *

* In Californi-a

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