White Squall (1996) Movie Script
Good, Bessie. Come on, Bessie.
Come on. Go get your stick.
Chuck!
- Come on, Bessie.
- Chuck!
Come on. You ready?
- You all set?
- Yeah, I think so.
- It'll all be here when you get back.
- I know.
You're not having
second thoughts?
No. Why?
It's a year of your life.
And this Ocean Academy
isn't recognized as accredited.
- By Yale.
- By any lvy League school.
You can't afford two of us
at Yale or Brown or any
lvy League school, anyway, Dad.
- Your brother got a scholarship,
and you know you'd get one too.
- I'm not him!
I just don't care
about that stuff right now.
It'll be a good thing, Dad.
- Here.
- Thanks, Mom.
- You have everything?
- Yes.
- Passport?
- I'll be fine, Mom.
Why do you look so down?
This is your dream come true.
- That's not why he's letting me go.
- Of course it is.
No. It's because he hopes
it'll look good on my record.
Well.
Either way, you're going.
Besides, he would've loved
to have been able to do this.
- Then why didn't he?
- He never had the opportunity.
It hasn't been easy for him, both
his boys going off at the same time.
All right.
- This is your bus ticket to Idlewild.
- Sir? Just this one.
And, uh, this will get you from Idlewild
to Miami. This is your plane ticket...
Dad? I'll be okay.
Really.
Make us proud, son.
Okay.
Today the adventure begins.
I've given up my last year
of high school to join the crew...
of the Brigantine school ship
Albatross...
to sail halfway around the world
and back.
Dad's made me promise
to keep a journal.
It's like a chore, but it's part
of the deal I had to make.
Because today, I leave the path
that he had chosen for me...
and instead, take my own.
Albatross?
Yeah.
Robert March.
Who the hell are you?
Ah, Gieg, Chuck.
Gieg Chuck? What are you,
a native or something?
No, it's just Chuck.
Hey, Johnstone, I'm surprised to see you
here after the old bowsprit affair.
- Yeah, well I'm back for some more.
- Listen to this, man.
Romeo here was going at it with
some local girl in the jibsheet.
After the deed was done.
- Whoa, hey, he says they did the deed.
- Trust me. We did the deed.
All right, man. After the alleged deed
was done, they fell asleep.
Mr. McCrea walks on deck
and hears Casanova sawing logs.
He calls the whole crew on deck,
up goes the jib and out roll
Tod-o and the girl...
naked as goddamn Adam and Eve,
I swear.
Whoa, here we are, guys.
Home, sweet hell on water.
Whoo-hoo!
Smoked fish, smoked fish.
Let's go.
- I give you one dollar for every fish.
- No, no.
What happened to it?
She cleans up. We'll have her
shipshape before she shoves off.
Come on.
"Now would I give a thousand
furlongs of sea...
- for an acre of barren ground.
- Oh, shit.
Long heath, brown furze, anything.
Will above be done.
But I would fain die
a dry death."
Remember? Hello, Robert.
Excuse me, sir, but what's
that supposed to mean?
It's Shakespeare, Tod.
The Tempest, act one, scene one.
- I suggest you read it.
- Yeah, and why is that?
Because it's the song you'll all
be singing when we put out to sea.
Arbedar!
Arbedar.
Oh, geez, man.
I forgot about him.
- Where are you from, Robert?
- California, man. Here, have a smoke.
- How you doin'? Robert March.
- Dean Preston.
Hi, my name is Gil Martin.
Hi. Chuck Gieg.
That's my brother.
He's dead.
I'm going to take this one.
Well, in case you haven't noticed,
it's already been taken.
- What's wrong with that one?
- What?
I'm sure it's just as comfortable as
this one is, but I get nosebleeds, so...
Does anyone have a problem
with that? Do you?
Absolutely not!
Guys, listen up. Shay Jennings,
first mate of the Albatross.
This here is Dr. Alice Sheldon.
I'm ship's surgeon.
I'm in charge of your aches and pains.
And I teach biology,
math and science.
Girard Pascal here
is the ship's cook.
You want to keep
all your fingers, huh?
Stay the hell out of my galley unless
you're invited and you have clean hands.
Some of you already met
Mr. McCrea.
In case you haven't figured it out,
he teaches English.
So when the heck do we get
to meet El Capitan, huh?
Maybe he's gettin'
his wooden leg waxed.
- Skipper on deck!
- Hello.
On your feet, gentlemen.
Come on, let's go!
Martin.
Preston.
Johnstone.
Lapchick.
Get rid of it, March.
Dowd.
Flamberg.
Burrows.
Gieg.
You're gonna wanna lose that.
- Who'd I miss?
- Beaumont, sir. He's not here yet.
The ship beneath you
is not a toy...
and sailing's not a game.
The Albatross will take us far,
gentlemen,
but she demands
constant attention.
Respect that,
and we'll do fine.
One more thing.
Nothing happens on this ship
that I don't know about.
She speaks to me in the night,
so... don't test me.
Not even a little.
"No man is an island,
entire of itself.
And therefore never send to know
for whom the bell tolls.
It tolls for thee."
John Donne.
I'll see you on deck.
Let's go!
All right! Come on,
roll out, sailors. All hands on deck.
Sixty seconds.
That's one minute, Johnstone.
Go, go, go! Okay, let's run.
Run! Come on, run, run, run.
Guys, line up single file, please.
Single file. Okay, everybody, swim!
- Whoo!
- Guys, I'm not joking. Into the water.
I'm not joking, boys.
Come on, into the water. Let's go!
Let's go! Everyone.
Go, go, go!
Hey, Preston, what's the matter now?
Come on, everyone swims.
I don't.
You will if you want to eat.
You gonna swim for your breakfast,
you little weasel?
Go for it, man!
All right.
Come on, you sissy, go!
Let's go, you little monkey.
- Come on, Shay!
- Move it, you maggot!
Show 'em what you're made of!
Yeah!
Nice dive!
Whoo! Not too bad.
All right. I've been in twice.
So, what's it gonna be?
I've got five bucks
that says he doesn't.
- I got ten says he doesn't live.
- I'll take a dollar of that.
- Jesus.
- I can't watch this.
Shh.
Ay.
Skipper on deck!
You know what's out there?
Wind and rain
and some damn big waves.
Reefs and rocks and sandbars,
and enough fog and night
to hide it all.
So why the hell do it, then?
Builds character, Mr. Preston,
of which you are in
desperately short supply.
The kind you only find
on mountaintops and deserts,
on battlefields...
and across oceans.
Nice dive, Preston.
If we don't have order,
we have nothing.
"Where we go one, we go all."
Some of us are here
for discipline, some for escape.
And the rest
don't even know why.
I'm not sure where I fit in,
but I can see a small piece
of myself in each of them.
I think I'll have friends here,
and I hope this will be home.
What are you looking at?
Hmm?
Why'd you jump?
'Cause I felt like it.
It was so high, you know.
Let me tell you something. As soon
as you grow some balls, doughnut,
let me know and
I'll tell you all about it.
I thought it was a pretty
stupid stunt myself too.
What was that?
You heard what I said.
Don't ever call me stupid.
He didn't mean it.
Let me tell you girls something. I do
what I want to do when I want to do it,
and I don't give a damn what some Ahab
up there says otherwise.
Well, if it ain't Howard Hughes
come to fly me home, boys.
There you go. That's it.
No, use your,
use your whole hand, whole hand.
What's the matter with you?
The other way.
Ahoy there!
Good afternoon!
Albatross, huh?
Doesn't inspire
a lot of confidence, does it?
On the contrary, the albatross
is considered a very good omen.
Legend has it they embody
the spirits of lost sailors.
Only bad luck if you kill one.
I'm not interested in legends.
Francis Beaumont.
That's my son behind you. Frank.
Frank.
Sir.
You're a day late. We keep a schedule
aboard ship. Lives depend on it.
Your cable said you would not
be putting out until late October.
As you can see,
there's a lot of work to do.
Mm-hmm.
Indentured servitude is not
what my son had in mind.
This is a working ship.
Promptness is not a luxury,
it's a necessity,
as is the work to maintain her.
Your son will do his part
if he wants to stay on board.
I'll be honest with you.
This was his mother's idea.
A romp through the Caribbean sounds more
like a holiday than an education.
It will be more than that,
I can promise you.
All right.
You take good care of my son.
He'll need
a hand with that. It's heavy.
Well, Frank.
We'll do our best.
All right, take him below,
Shay.
Sing along. Go!
Me way, hey, hey, ya
Me way, hey, hey, ya
You got it. He's got it.
Atta boy!
Head up, eyes up.
Then the leg.
Keep moving up. Look up when you're
going up. Not so fast, Frank.
That's it! Keep your arms straight,
shoulder length.
Okay, now I want you
out on these spars...
but I don't want you to release
the gaskets until I tell you.
That's good. Just keep your back
inside the backrope.
Okay. Now remember these are the sails.
They can shift. They're not locked.
- Avast hauling.
- Over.
Stop!
Gentlemen, when you hear
an order, shout it out!
I want to know you've heard
and understand.
- Set the main.
- Set the main!
- Set the main!
- Set the main!
Main!
Heave! Heave!
Shay!
Skipper! Skipper!
Get him!
Get him!
Somebody, get to him!
Excuse me!
Come here! Aah.
Put your feet on here.
All right, come on.
Watch yourself now.
- Okay, take it easy.
- Are you all right?
- Yeah.
- Huh?
It was my fault.
I was reaching for the...
Why didn't you
climb up there, son?
Speak up.
'Cause he's afraid to climb.
Is that true?
Shay, why wasn't
I made aware of this?
It's your job to know!
If something goes wrong up there,
the other 16 people on board...
can't be wondering if
he's going to do his job or not.
- Swing up, son.
- What?
Up you go right now.
You got something to say?
- No.
- Then keep your mouth shut!
It takes discipline to make it out here.
There are no special cases.
- Now, what's it gonna be?
- I'm sorry.
Sorry's not gonna cut it.
Now, get up there!
Get goin'!
That's it.
One hand in front
of the other, son.
We'll do it together.
And don't look down.
You look in my eyes.
Look in my eyes!
Climb.
- Come on. We'll do it together.
- I can't.
You climb, damn it!
That's it.
Are you hating this?
Huh, are you?
I hate you,
you son of a bitch.
Good! Good!
Hate your way up another rung.
Do it right now!
All right, all right.
All right, come down.
- Oh, God.
- Stay there.
You're all right.
That's it.
Come on.
That's it.
It's all right.
- It's all right.
- I'm sorry.
I'm only going to say this
one time.
I'm not here to wipe your noses
and your asses.
I'm not your mother.
He can take care of himself.
Are there any other phobias
I need to know about?
No, sir.
Excellent!
Shay, find Mr. Martin a position
to suit his condition.
And remember something.
Sooner or later
we all have to face it.
Hey.
We're awfully quiet tonight.
Something on your mind, Girard?
I think you were
too tough on Martin.
- You do, huh?
- Yes, I do.
They're green, all of 'em,
and full of themselves.
That's a dangerous combination.
- He pissed on his pants.
- Mmm, and all over me.
Wh-What do you call that?
Humiliation training?
Because I'm pretty familiar
with psychological theory.
There's nothing I've read...
- What you do, you traumatize the kid.
- The point is!
We're as strong
as our weakest link.
I don't want to find that out
the hard way.
So I will challenge them
as will you.
And they will come together.
And I don't care
if they like me or not.
Does that apply
to the staff too, sir?
I'll tell you what, Girard.
I'll stay out of your galley,
you stay off my poop deck.
We'll get along fine that way.
Otherwise it's going to be
a long ride.
I want a head count
when they're in the racks.
We're putting out in the morning.
- Good night.
- Good night, Skipper. Good night, Alice.
Good night.
I've seen him snatch
the tail of a tempest...
and stuff it screaming
into a bottle.
- The bilges are full of 'em.
- McCrea, what do you mean by that?
He's been beyond the reach.
He'll do well by us all, Girard.
He's a real salt.
Got one for me?
No. These I paid
two dollars for. Havana.
Oh!
How you doin'?
Look, I appreciate, you know,
your concern and all.
But, ah, like Skipper said,
I can take care of myself.
I know.
Just brought you a Coke.
I feel like I got you into this.
Forget it.
My own brother and I
used to climb to the top...
of this old beech tree in the backyard
and watch the sun go down like this.
My, um, parents, they'd, uh,
they'd fight a lot,
so we'd sneak out there
where we couldn't hear 'em.
Do you believe I miss it?
I mean, all the crap I had to put up
with at home and I'm still homesick.
Well, I wouldn't worry.
I'm sure they'll have some fight
left in 'em by the time we get back.
That's a fact.
And so it was
that after weeks of training...
with the hurricane season
behind us,
the Albatross
took to the open sea.
In each of us were feelings
of excitement and hesitation...
for the man at the helm...
and the unfamiliar world
he would be leading us into.
Gieg.
Come here. Take the wheel.
C'mere.
- Hold her steady into the wind.
Southwest by west.
- Yes, sir.
Ah, holding her steady
southwest by west... sir.
In South Australia
'round Cape Horn
What's wrong, Mr. McCrea?
Seems like we're short
on singers, Skipper.
Everyone sings
aboard a windjammer, gentlemen.
Lets everyone know
you're in sync.
It shows unity, that all thoughts
are one. Besides, I like it.
Heave away, you rolling kings
Heave away, haul away
Haul away
You'll hear me sing
We'll bear off to port
and run downwind.
Okay, Mr. McCrea, stand by
to ease the main sheet.
Robert, get on the jibsheet.
Fall off to port. Ease her around
to a heading of northeast.
- Sing out when you're there.
- Yes, sir.
All right,
stand by to loose the squares.
- Northeast, sir.
- Speak up, boy!
- Northeast, sir!
- Loose the squares!
- Loose the squares!
- Loose the squares!
All right,
loosen those gaskets.
All the other sails up.
What's taking so long, huh?
Keep your eye on the pennant,
Chuck.
If you jib now
we'll have people in the water.
Yes, sir!
Storm at sea!
All stop on the engine.
Behold the power of the wind.
Skipper, the crew is doing
group boot over the side.
All right, keep it
over the side. That's it.
Come on. Okay.
Whoa, boy. Watch your step.
- Should we turn away?
- You can't run from the wind, son.
You trim your sails,
face the music and keep going.
This guy's certifiable.
- No, he's suicidal, man.
- We won't have any crew left, Skipper.
Excellent point!
How'd you like to have to bet
on Tracy here getting us home today?
Each one of you
is responsible for the rest.
It's up to you.
Nothing like a little experience
to put things in perspective, huh?
I want you all to make sure
your gear is stowed.
McCrea, your team will stand watch.
Everyone else hit the rack.
Hey, Skipper?
Listen, I'm not staying
out here, okay?
Robert, take his place.
Robert, I got an idea.
Why don't you help me swab the decks?
Stand by to go about.
- Oh, God.
- Watch yourself. Get in your bunk.
Checked out.
- Harden up the main staysail.
- Aye, Skipper.
Harden up the main staysail.
Whoa!
Jesus! Skipper!
Skipper, the jib's blown out!
Bring it in and run up the storm jib.
Stay out of reach of the blocks!
Haul on the down haul.
Let go of your sheets.
Hold on to your clews and blocks.
Well, we're in it now.
- Look out!
- Whoa!
- What do we do?
- Get block and tackle!
- I'll go to block and tackle.
Robert, here. Hold on, Dean.
- I'm going in.
Get him. Easy over, Alice.
- Hold her steady!
- Holding her steady, sir!
You all right?
Hang on, Dean!
More line!
Hold on!
Grab the line!
Now the ladder.
All right, take it. Come on in, Dean.
Swing around, all right?
Come on. You all right?
There you go.
There you go, all right.
You all right?
Nice dive, Preston.
You all right?
Now you got something
to write home about.
Leave my wife alone
and go in and get warm.
All right, let's bring her in
and run up the storm jib.
Let's bring the storm jib up.
Let's go.
Nicely done.
Thank you, sir.
You're enjoying this.
Yes, sir.
The seas lasted 16 hours...
and when we weren't throwing up,
it scared the hell out of us.
Skipper never left the deck.
Not once.
I think he loved every minute
out there.
He's strong, tough,
and he won't take no for an answer.
But he makes you want
to please him.
I wonder if we'll ever
live up to his expectations.
Help me!
Gil, hey. Gil, wake up!
- Wake up, wake up!
Hey, hey, easy, easy.
It's okay.
You're okay.
- I was falling.
- It was just a bad dream.
- It was so real.
- Here's the thing.
Whenever you're having a nightmare
like that and you can't get out of it,
all you have to do is say,
"One, two, three, wake up."
One, two, three, wake up.
That's it,
and you just come out of it.
- Who told you that?
- My dad.
It's the only good advice
he ever gave me.
Is that how he died?
He fell...
out of the beech tree in the backyard,
and, um, broke his neck.
I was on a camp out
away from home.
l...
They must've been going at it,
you know,
throwing things, pushing.
A real knockdown.
They didn't find him
until the next morning.
They didn't even know why
he was up there.
You never told them
why he was there?
I couldn't.
I couldn't.
Remember,
be back by 7:00 p.m.
We got a shallow reef to cross,
and I'm not going to wait.
I could go for that
in a heartbeat.
Yeah, man, that was
a matched set for sure.
- You're gonna be paying for it,
because she's a professional.
- Yeah? How do you know?
'Cause I know, man. I know.
Now believe me, I know.
- I'll tell you who's got some nice ones.
- Who?
Dr. Alice Sheldon, that's who.
Oh, yeah? How the...
How do you know that?
Dogwatch, night after the storm,
I'm looking in the Skipper's skylight.
And there they were
doing the nasty dance.
- You just happened
to be standing there?
- What'd they look like?
- What?
- You know, her, uh, her hooters.
Come on, man, you sound like
you never even seen a pair.
Shut up. I've seen 'em.
Well, even considering that she's 30,
Boner City, fellas.
No foolin', man? But seriously,
what'd they look like for real?
- You're a damn virgin, aren't you?
- No.
- Come on, give me what you got.
What you got there?
- Here you go. That's a dollar.
- Tod? A dollar from Robert. Let's go.
- Yeah, all right.
This isn't enough. This is
pathetic. You got something, Beaumont?
I'm not gonna spend my money
so Gil can get his cherry broken.
Daddy's money. All right, Daddy's boy,
Daddy's boy. Hold that, Gieg.
We're gonna spin for it then
just to make Mr. Daddy's boy happy.
All right? Here you go.
The winner gets a 15 minute honeymoon.
Gather 'round.
All right, go get 'em, Tiger!
Hey, man.
- I got seven dollars.
- You must be in a hurry. Come on.
Come on.
- Money?
- Oh, right.
Wait here.
Okay.
Okay.
Hey, Frank,
what's taking you so long?
We're waiting on you, bro.
Let's get outta here.
Hey, Frank!
Hi, baby.
- Um...
- What you waiting for?
Whoa! Whoa!
Hey, what happened?
Nothing, nothing happened. All right?
Why not? Oh, I don't know.
Let's see. Perhaps because
she was older than Moses?
You owe us seven bucks.
You set me up.
All right? You set me up.
Don't look at me, buddy.
You're the one with the...
See you later, limpdick!
I ran outta there. I turned
and ran and slammed the door behind me.
My parents don't do it anymore.
They don't. I swear.
My parents don't do it anymore.
They tell you that?
No. I figured it out.
What time is it?
What time is it? Oh, shit, man!
- Where is it?
- Jesus H. Christ.
You guys, we're screwed.
I knew we shouldn't have gone.
I knew it.
Shut up!
You sound like my sister.
How the hell do you idiots suppose
we're going to get out of here?
- We'll think of something. Don't worry.
- Oh, yeah?
I feel so much better
now that you're here...
because lughead over here's
going to think...
No, no, no, no!
Get off him!
Dean!
Dean!
Yes, Chuck, nice.
Up! Up! Come on!
Get up! Let's go!
Come on, get up.
Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!
Skipper?
You know what
a loose cannon is?
A couple of thousand pounds of pig iron
crashing around the deck in a storm.
Maybe take out a mast,
punch a hole right through the hull.
Send a man-of-war
straight to the bottom.
People are like that sometimes.
Before you know it,
they're punching holes in everything.
I'm thinking of shutting
this whole thing down.
I can fly you all home
from Grenada.
It's gonna be New Years by the time
we hit port. I want a tight ship.
I want them all shaved and
in clean clothes when we get there.
We have an obligation to host a cruise
for some Dutch students there.
Each one of you is going
to be responsible for a student.
I expect you to be courteous
and thoughtful.
If everything goes well
and your test scores are acceptable,
I might reconsider.
All right. That's it.
Get 'em on board, McCrea.
Right, Skipper. All right, come on,
shake it off. What happened, huh?
...unlike that of the Soviets...
since the end of World War II,
demonstrates that we have no desire
to dominate or conquer any other nation.
Johnstone, what do you say
I have a crack at the wheel there?
Negative, twerp.
And you still owe me two bucks.
...and become adjusted to living
daily on the bull's-eye...
of Soviet missiles...
Iocated inside the U.S.S.R.
or in submarines.
In that sense,
missiles in Cuba...
add to an already
clear and present danger,
although it should be noted
the nations of Latin America...
have never previously been subjected
to a potential nuclear threat.
But this secret, swift...
extraordinary buildup
of Communist missiles...
in an area well-known to have
a special and historical relationship...
to the Unites States and the nations
of the western hemisphere...
in violation
of Soviet assurances,
and in defiance with American
and hemispheric policy...
Fifteen minutes, gentlemen.
Fifteen minutes.
Where're you going?
- To take a piss.
- Oh, really?
Yeah. You wanna come in
and shake it for me?
What are you doin'?
You were cheating.
- I don't want to listen to this.
- Yes, you do, stupid!
You get caught cheating, your ass is
on the first plane back to Idiotville.
Cut it out!
Cut it out, Dean!
Cut it out!
If Frank had caught you, he would
have ratted you out in a second.
Listen to us. You get caught cheating
and you're off the boat!
I cheated to get on the boat, damn it!
I doctored the grades
so I could make the cut.
I'm a moron, all right?
Are you satisfied now?
You're not a moron, Dean.
Bet?
It takes me half a day to get
through one chapter of McCrea...
and I still don't have any idea
what he's talking about.
Know why it takes me so long
to write all those papers?
Because I can't spell.
They even kicked me out of vo-tech
because I couldn't read a slide rule.
That's right.
I could show you how
to read a slide rule.
Oh, what the fuck?
How long have you
been standing there?
Long enough.
I'm never gonna pass the boards.
I'm never gonna pass the boards.
I'll tell you what.
You don't cheat anymore,
and we'll make sure you get the grades.
We'll start our own private study group.
Nobody else knows. You'll ace that test.
I'm in.
Me too.
Why would you guys do that?
You guys don't have to do that.
'Cause, man. We, um...
We got a hard-on for you, pansy.
- Whoa!
- Oh, no, wait.
- What do you got?
- Whoa!
- Wait, wait, wait.
- All right, fellas.
We got women.
Yes!
Hold your head line!
Slack your spring!
Midships.
Take a turn on the stern line.
Get the heavin' lines ready.
Stand by the fenders!
Go on, get up there.
Ready to launch on the port side.
All right, all right,
all right.
Be calm, gentlemen.
Be calm.
Slack your spring!
Goddamn...
- Ah, good morning, ladies.
- Good morning.
All secure alongside.
Finish with engines.
Finish all engines.
One thing, though.
What are we supposed to say to 'em?
- Are you serious, man? Come on, get in the game.
- They don't speak English.
Well, there are some things
everybody does in the same language.
How are you supposed
to make the first move?
Well... be bold.
How you doin', ladies?
Dean Preston. Here you go.
- Mrs. Jensen?
- Jensen.
The girls have been
looking forward to this for some time.
- Hello, this is my wife Alice.
- How do you do?
Shay, help these ladies on board.
I think we're going to have
a wonderful sail tomorrow.
You might have your girls dress,
you know, uh, casual.
Thank you, Captain.
They will.
This is Girard, our chef.
Welcome.
Ladies, this area of the ship
is the bow.
This is the foremast
and the foremast fife rail with pins,
holding lines we use to control
the sails along the foremast.
There are sheets used to set the sails,
and there are clew lines...
used to haul the sails back in.
Every line along the fife rail
serves a specific purpose.
The ship beneath you
is not a toy, ladies.
Respect that,
and we'll all do fine.
If you'll follow me this way.
So one full turn of the wheel is indicated
by the kingspoke, which is this right here with...
Um, ladies.
The wheel, all right?
Um, then, uh... That's... -
We were walking around
and somebody's clever idea.
I guess we saw this brothel.
...this really pretty woman.
And she was a woman!
Keep it up, Frankie.
Come on.
Ahoy there!
Surprise! Surprise!
Frank! Ooh!
Oh, Frank!
Well, well. What do we have here?
Good afternoon, Captain.
This is my wife, Mrs. Beaumont.
- Hello.
- Hello. Pleasure to meet you.
We thought we would drop by and see
if you were all still in one piece.
And of course we are.
Well, you never can tell, can you?
What can we do for you today?
We just thought we'd give our little boy
a break from the monotony.
It's not monotonous.
Nevertheless.
Come on! Hop to, boy.
We haven't got all day.
What's this?
All right, gentlemen.
Best behavior, please.
We sail with the tide.
That's 6:00 a. m... sharp.
Are you listening to me?
Tracy, what time are we leaving?
- 6:00.
- All right, have a good time but don't be late.
Thanks, Dad.
- Please come in.
- Thank you.
It's magnificent.
It's got lots of rum in it.
Frank. Frank!
Hey. What's wrong?
You don't like steak? Hmm?
I should be eating with the crew.
Well, you're not. You're eating with us.
So, sit up, humor me and eat your steak.
- Why did you come here?
- Why am I here?
We missed you, sweetheart.
Why in the Sam Hill
do you think I'm here?
- We just wanted to check
on you. That's all. - Stay out of this.
I don't need you spying on me.
- Spying?
- Frank!
Thanks a lot, son.
- I can take care of myself.
- Oh, really? Huh.
I can't wait for that, son.
You put me on this stupid boat
in the first place.
I didn't want to go, but I did.
Why do you have to embarrass me?
Why can't you just leave me alone?
You come outside with me.
- But, Francis...
- Stay here.
It's all right.
Frank. Frank!
- Get your hands off me!
- Francis, stop it!
- Settle down.
- Let go of him.
- Let go of me!
- Francis, just... Take your hands off of him!
- Listen to me, you little...
- Francis, you're hurting him! Now, stop it!
You hear me? Don't you dare
ever talk to me like that.
Francis! My God!
My God!
Now, Frank.
Frank!
Oh, Christ!
What is the matter with you?
Do you want to dance?
Yeah, yeah.
I can't ever remember
feeling this way about myself,
or a place,
or someone like you.
We've come such a long way
and we've seen so many things, but...
This is...
What?
I'm not, um, I'm not so great
at expressing myself.
And maybe the only reason
I can do it right now...
is because I know you don't
understand a word I'm saying.
Right.
Roger Maris
steps up to the plate!
It's a corker down the pipe!
It's outta here!
Frank, put it down! Frank!
Come on!
- It's a corker down the pipe!
- Frank, what's goin' on?
Frank, what the hell are you doing?
- It's outta here!
- Talk to me. Tell me what happened.
I just don't cut the mustard.
Come on. Let's go.
I don't hold up under scrutiny.
Chuck!
Chuck!
- Gieg!
- What?
Oh, you...
Double-time it, man.
Frank's in trouble.
I gotta go. I'm sorry.
I'll see you.
Come on.
Tod, dance.
One, two, three, four.
Hey, buddy, how ya doin'? You know
you're gonna work for me someday.
Frank? Why don't we go?
Why don't we go?
Let me go. I was invited too!
Look at these guys. They're homos.
- Frank, we're gonna go.
- Get off me!
I'm fine, all right?
- Frank?
- Stop doing that. What are you guys, homos?
Hey, hey, hey, hey!
Calm down.
Shh. If you don't calm down,
I'm gonna have to hurt you.
It's okay. We got you.
Get him up.
Get him outta here.
Get him outta here.
Do you remember the last time
you and I danced?
You're gonna tell me again anyway.
It was on the deck
of the Yankee...
the night you asked me
to marry you.
I wasn't much older
than they are.
- Shall we?
- I don't wanna.
Okay.
May I?
Don't slip, Captain.
Your students are watching.
Gotta get my sea legs here.
- Coming about. You ready?
- I'm ready.
You know, Sheldon, sometimes,
not often, you act almost half human.
I am halfway human.
Look at those two over there.
"Much have I traveled
in realms of gold.
And many goodly states
and kingdoms seen.
'Round western islands
I've been,
which bards in fealty
to Apollo hold."
- Do you know what
he's talking about here?
Aw, humility.
He's saying he has traveled the seas
as Homer did, as Ulysses before him.
"That deep-browed Homer."
Brilliant, seasoned,
wise of the mind.
He commands the voyage
of the imagination...
like a god.
Piss on Homer, sir.
We're livin' it.
That's the spirit, Dean.
- Dolphins off the stern!
- Aw, dolphins. Okay. Come on.
Come on! Look!
There's one over there!
Beautiful!
- Oh, wow! This is incredible!
- Oh, she's beautiful.
Lower him down.
Come on! Yes!
What the hell, guys?
- What happened?
- What's going on?
Guide her alongside.
That's it.
All right, ease her away.
- Bring the nose up onto the sled.
- Okay.
- Dean, watch the spear.
- All right.
Haul away.
Easy. Easy.
Tighten it off, Tim.
That's it.
Whoa!
All right, ease away.
Easy.
Keep it coming.
What do you think?
He's punctured her lung.
Nice shot.
Finish it.
Man, I'm n-not gonna kill it.
You already have.
Go on, do it.
No way.
- What the hell's wrong with you?
- Back off, man!
- You wanna kill somethin' so bad?
- It's just a fish.
- It's just a fish!
- Come on! Let's see what you've got!
That's what I thought.
You're done here.
You're going home.
The guy's gone ballistic, all right?
I'm telling you, he's gone mentally
insane. It's like cabin fever.
All right, man. Enough.
It's still not right.
They shouldn't be puttin' him
off the boat.
- The guy's outta control.
- We've all been out of control.
But we're a crew.
No, wait, wait.
That's what this whole thing
is supposed to be about.
You're the last person that should be
whining about us being a crew right now.
- Yeah? How do you figure that?
- I'd love to go into the subject...
of vertigo and everything, but I
wouldn't want you to piss your pants.
- You know what I'm sayin'?
- Oh, yeah, Tracy?
Come on!
- Get... Stop it!
- You're a real jerk. You know that?
Tell it to the dolphin, Preston.
He deserves another chance.
We'd do the same for you.
You know that.
You do whatever you want, Gil.
All right?
It's not gonna make
any difference anyway.
- The dolphin was a symptom.
- Of what?
Of a fight he can't win out here.
- But, sir, it's his father.
- It's his father, sir.
- Oh, it's his father. Mm-hmm.
- H-He, he sent him down here.
All of them.
They sent us down here because...
they want us to change or grow up or something,
and all they do is try and keep us the same.
I mean, h-he has
all these expectations...
about who his son should be,
and he doesn't even know who Frank is.
How do you think you got here?
Do you think they owe you something?
Do you think they enjoy riding
subways and commuter trains?
The same repetition day in and day out
just to keep you in tennis shoes...
and private school?
You know, there are ground rules
in families just like on this ship.
You can understand that.
Does Frank know
how you guys feel?
I don't know.
Well, somebody should tell him.
That's it.
Well, I'm all ears.
- You may not like what you hear.
- Oh, I can take it.
Chris, they've become
what we wanted.
They're a crew.
That's why they came.
Do you remember why
we began this?
Self-reliance and discipline
through the community of sailing.
- I haven't forgotten.
- Mmm. Community.
That boy doesn't know
the meaning of the word.
So, the best thing you can do
is to keep him right here.
- He has a lot of problems.
- He better start to learn to deal with them.
Oh, Captain Compassionate speaks.
It's not about compassion.
It's not about what happens here.
- It's about what they take away with them.
- He was coming around.
He was coming apart!
He lost control out there!
And what is so important
about being in control?
- He's just gonna have to figure that out, isn't he?
- I'm not talking about him.
We watched in silent protest.
Aboard ship, the low morale
was matched only by the feeling...
that maybe Skipper was no different
than our own fathers back home.
We'll miss Frank.
Jesus!
Yeah, I'm... I'm sorry.
Frankie!
Bye, bye!
Bye, Frankie!
Whoo-oo-oo!
Bye, buddy!
They never gave up on you,
you know.
Bye, Frankie!
I got a problem, man.
- We all have problems.
- No. A big problem.
I'm pissing fire.
Fire?
Fire.
Hmm.
Had a good time in Grenada,
did you, Tod?
Yeah. I did, actually.
Thanks for askin'.
Turn around.
Ow! Ow.
Ow.
Hold that.
Next!
Robert! Drop your pants.
Way to go, Valentino.
I never even copped a feel
in Grenada.
Well, your sexual orientation
is not my problem.
What do you make of it, Skipper?
"Venceremos."
Cubans.
I'll get the horn.
Jesus! She's got guns.
Get down! Everybody down!
Run up the colors.
We're Americans, damn it! Shay!
Run up the colors!
Jesus Christ!
Are they gonna sink us?
- Take in all sail! Do it now.
- Sails down! Get going! Go on!
- Here's the horn, Skipper.
- Who the hell do they think they are?
They want us
to identify ourselves.
Tell them we're the American
school ship Albatross.
Use your best
Puerto Rican accent.
They think we're
carrying Cuban refugees, Captain.
I don't think they're going to take it
lightly that I'm a Cuban national.
Nothing's going to happen. Remind them
that according to the Geneva Convention...
firing on citizens on the high seas
is an act of war.
They say they're acting
on the direct order of Fidel Castro.
Tell them to come aboard.
Do it! Come on!
Give me your passport.
Give it to me. Come on, do it.
I don't think...
You've come a long way,
gentlemen,
but this is no time
for heroes.
I need you to be boys right now.
That's an order.
Get below.
Find your passports.
- Bring 'em on deck.
- All right, let's go.
- On the double!
- Let's go find those little bits.
On deck right now! Come on,
get your stuff. Go, go, go, go!
Don't worry.
Nothing's gonna happen.
Preston, got it? Let's go. Let's get
outta here. Trace! Trace, come on!
- Damn it!
- What?
I can't find my passport.
Oh, no!
Is this your stuff here?
Jesus, what a... Come on, we gotta go.
- I can't find my passport!
- Don't worry about it. Let's go! Now, damn it!
He's Puerto Rican.
You know, Captain,
playing cat and mouse
is not very smart.
Not for the mouse. Do you know
you're violating international law...
- by boarding my ship?
- But, you invited us.
- That's bullshit, man.
- Shh.
Your cannons made
a compelling argument.
It's okay. He's got one.
- I've got a passport. I swear to God.
- A stowaway?
He left his passport in Grenada.
It's being mailed to him in Panama.
- I left it last time we boarded.
- That is unfortunate.
We'll have to take him with us.
No! No!
All right, all right, all right.
If he's Cuban,
Castro wears a dress!
All right. Now we've seen
what you can do with a boy.
How would you like to go
a few rounds with a grown-up?
None of my crew
is leaving this ship.
Seventh cavalry.
What are you looking at?
You want to take a souvenir,
you take me.
All right, that's it.
Let's move, gentlemen.
Now you will really have something
to teach your students, Captain.
Las estrellas...
es lo unico que un marinero
necessita para navegar.
What'd he say?
He says a real sailor only needs
the stars to navigate with.
And so he guided us
silently through the convoy of warships.
And we later learned they were bound
for a little known destination...
called the Bay of Pigs.
As we rode the trades,
he shared the ancient secrets...
of how to read the waves
and follow the stars.
Panama and the Americas
rose and fell away again.
With the locks of Miraflores
and a continent behind us,
we entered into a new ocean
and a new world...
- that we would stake
and claim as our own.
All right, pens down.
Time's up.
Leave your papers.
Congratulations, gentlemen.
All hands may go ashore
if you please.
You're on your own. Be careful.
Buzzer's gone off, Dean.
We had traveled over 6,000 miles...
and slipped past the equator
to the very edge of the earth.
Like Darwin before us,
we would see the bliss of nature...
in the absence of man.
It was as if the Albatross
had taken us to another time.
Today I finally understand Homer.
The journey's the thing.
Should be a pencil in there.
Hold that.
"Where we go one,
we go all.
Brigantine Albatross.
Nineteen hundred and sixty-one."
That about says it all, huh?
- Get in there, guys.
- Chuck Gieg.
Tod Johnstone.
Gil Martin.
Dean Preston.
Tracy Lapchick.
What are they doing?
Claiming their place
in the world.
Why didn't you go?
- I couldn't. It's my watch.
- Uh-uh. I could've stayed.
- Listen. You hear that?
- What?
The sound of an empty ship.
How you doing?
Okay. How'd you do?
Congratulations.
What about you?
It's 1100!
- Dean, you got an 1100! That's great!
- I know.
- You know?
- I just can't believe it, you know?
I couldn't have done it
without you guys, though.
- I really couldn't.
- You did.
This is you, Dean.
All you. Nobody else.
Thank you.
You're welcome, stupid.
I'm just testing.
When are you gonna learn,
you little wise ass?
- Here. Thanks.
- Feels different, doesn't it?
What?
Goin' back.
I don't want it to end. I don't...
wanna be what I was
when I left.
What was that?
Anonymous.
I've been acing tests
my whole life...
and I still haven't
figured it out.
Figured what out?
- Who I am.
- Are you kidding?
I'll tell you who you are.
Glue. You're the glue...
that holds everyone around you
together.
Think I'm gonna choke on
the "feel good."
...on the pilot. He needs help.
There goes the umbilical cord
from the Redstone rocket.
We're into countdown.
How are you, Robert?
We're into the two-minute point,
and at this point in the spacecraft...
all the interior cameras
are started.
Two minutes and counting.
Everything is working fine
at the moment.
The radio mikes are now on
in the space capsules.
- Shepard can talk to control.
- Here we go.
- Good luck, huh?
- One minute
and 30 seconds to blastoff...
if no further holds
bother us at this point.
The Mercury Control count,
at the last minute you will hear...
Just a moment. I notice that the
cherry picker is being moved through,
- and we are coming up to...
- The morning watch?
- Below.
- ... countdown,
which you will hear...
in ten-second breaks.
We have just passed
the 92nd mark.
The cherry picker,
the safety device...
"If you can keep your head while all about
you are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
if you can trust yourself
when all men doubt you,
but make allowance
for their doubting too."
Morning watch is on!
"Yours is the earth
and everything in it,
which is more,
you'll be a man, my son."
Okay!
- You have fun.
- Fifty seconds and counting.
Sweet dreams, Martin.
...has been cut off.
It is now automatically isolated
from the rest of the atmosphere.
It has its own.
The test conductor in the Space
Control Center has taken over.
Bill, Bob, Tim, Charlie, go aloft!
Get those latches closed!
Morning, Shay.
Hey, Tracy.
- Would you trim the main, please?
- Trimming the main!
- North by west.
- North by west.
Get out of here, Bob.
Let the real men take over.
- Looks like we're gonna get wet.
- Yeah, we need it. I'm gonna take a nice long bath.
- Catch some water for my laundry.
- Save some for me, buddy, huh?
Yeah. Yeah, you got it.
Goin' below!
Everybody okay?
All hands, keep out of the rigging.
Stay clear of the masts.
All right, gentlemen.
Thor's had his fun.
Let's keep a sharp eye.
We're coming up to countdown...
which goes in five seconds.
No, Shay! Dog her down!
- Stay out of the rigging!
- Dog her down!
Batten down all hatches!
Skipper!
White squall. Hold tight!
Hold tight!
Shay!
- We're losin' it!
- Turn it over!
Look out!
...agonizingly slowly.
Get outta here!
Get outta here!
Help!
Tod!
Tod! Tod!
Turn to port!
Turn to port!
Turn to port!
- No! Starboard! Starboard!
- Port, Tod! Port!
Port! Port, damn it!
Turn to port!
Look out!
Leave it, Tod! Get out!
Back! Back!
Come on, Tod. Grab on!
Grab on!
Come on!
Gil, come on. Let's go.
Let's get outta here.
Now, Gil! Come on!
Come on, let's go.
Everybody out!
Keep moving.
We've lost her!
- Free the staysail.
- Yes, sir!
Free the staysail!
Grab a lifeboat.
Skipper!
Right here. Come on, out.
Out this way.
Get out. Anybody in here?
Anybody in here?
Hey!
Get 'em outta there.
Shay!
Sahler!
Girard!
Girard!
- America's
fastest traveling man...
Shay!
Shay!
Girard!
Oh!
Alice!
Get back, guys!
Get back! She's gonna roll!
- Get in the lifeboat, now!
- Hold on.
Girard!
- Dean!
- Yeah. Yeah. Over here.
Sahler! Marsh! Gil!
- Gil!
- Where's Gil?
Help!
One, two, three. Wake up.
One, two, three. Wake up.
- Where's Alice?
- I think they're inside.
Come on!
No! Stay back!
She's rolling!
She's down there!
Gil!
Skipper, I'll try forward.
Gil! Gil!
Gil, you gotta get outta here.
She's goin' down!
There's something down there
blocking the door!
Get me outta here, Chuck.
Get me out, please!
Come on, Chuck. I want out.
Gil, I can't move it.
You gotta push harder.
Push from your side! Gil!
- Push harder from your side!
- I don't wanna die!
Chuck! Chuck! Chuck!
We gotta go, Chuck!
Come on!
She's goin' down.
Come on, Chuck! Let's go!
Gil,
you've gotta push
from your side.
No, Gil!
- Chuck, we've gotta go!
- Help me with this door! He's drowning!
It's too late!
It's going over!
Skipper, it's too late!
- We can't stay on...
- Get off the ship! Get 'em in the boat!
- Do it!
- All right, Skipper.
Oh, please!
No, Dean!
Dean!
Girard, Alice,
Dean, Gil.
Today I hate the sea.
It will never look the same again.
Look.
Shepard.
Skipper! Skipper!
Skipper, look! Look!
McCrea!
Captain Sheldon,
can you give us a statement?
What the hell went on out there?
Get away from me.
Do you have anything to say
to these parents?
Yes, and it's private.
- Son!
- Dad?
Thought we'd find
a store. Get you fixed up...
and get you something to eat.
Sound good?
Hey! Your size
right on top. Here.
Why don't you take these in the back
there and see how they fit?
Ma'am, do you have boxer shorts?
- Right over there, sir.
- Okay.
Come on! Chuck, grab my arm!
Grab my arm!
Chuck, you okay in there?
Uh, I-I'm sorry.
We'll be right back
for the clothes.
- They're gonna
try to take his license.
- Why?
Because they need it to be simple.
They need a reason.
- Who?
- All of them.
- Everyone on that dock.
- What are we supposed to do?
Tell 'em what we know.
The truth.
- I mean, that's what he'd want.
- The truth.
We went over in a squall.
What's wrong with that?
Everybody knows
why we went over, Tod.
It wasn't from the squall.
You jibed the boat.
I was trying to get her upwind.
That's what you're supposed to do!
That's not what
the Skipper thought.
Not when you got the squares up.
He was trying to spill out the air from the main.
It was comin' four points off the bow,
Tracy. It never would've...
Were you on the deck?
Because I was standing right there!
- All I know is that Tod
disobeyed an order twice.
- Look, it didn't...
- That's when the boat went over.
- It didn't go over until I turned her port!
Man, you're all missing the point,
anyway. This is because of Frank.
- Frank and dear old Dad.
- What are you talking about?
I'm talking about,
they're here...
staying at
the damn Rhett House.
How do you think this thing
got put together so fast?
The old man's been out
for Skipper since day one.
The Skipper booted his kid
off the boat! What did you expect?
I told you he was a turncoat
the day we kicked him off, man.
Damn kid.
Frank?
- Frank!
- Can we talk?
Yeah, I guess.
What are you doing here?
Frank, who are you talking to?
Yeah, it's all right.
I'll be in in a minute.
What do you want?
Everyone's saying that...
that this whole tribunal is happening
because of your old man.
And because of you.
- Is that true?
- It's just typical, isn't it?
- Is it true, Frank?
- I gotta go.
Frank, he was not out
on that ship!
He doesn't know what happened.
You don't know what happened!
- I know enough!
- Frank, please!
Frank, get him to call it off.
I'm sorry.
Wait.
What is this?
You do what you've gotta do,
Frank.
The United States Coast Guard...
has been asked to conduct
this maritime hearing...
to consider the revocation
of Captain Christopher Sheldon's...
U.S. Master Seaman's Certificate.
All right, Captain Sanders,
you may begin.
The Albatross.
By all accounts, a sound vessel.
An experienced captain,
an able crew.
And yet it lies out there
on the bottom...
in 2,000 fathoms
with its back broken.
There are serious questions that demand
our most serious consideration...
so that we might understand,
so that perhaps...
we may prevent such a sad event
from ever taking place again.
A freak accident?
A one in a million
meteorological anomaly?
Or was it inexperience,
misjudgment?
Negligence?
We'll see.
Please.
Thank you.
Captain Sheldon, Captain
Sheldon, would you consider yourself...
- a good judge of character
when it came to the boys?
- Yes.
And it would be important, would it not,
in your position to have some sense...
- of their strengths and weaknesses?
- Yes, of course.
Do you recall an incident
involving Gil Martin?
What incident
would you be referring to?
Well, is it true that you forced
Gil Martin to climb the mast...
when it was clear
that he was acrophobic?
He climbed when he was ready.
Were you aware that his brother
was killed in a fall?
Yes, I was.
Sir, were you aware at any time
of the use of alcohol...
- among your crew?
- Yes, I was.
- You didn't do anything about it?
- No, I did not.
Had you ever seen a white squall
before this incident?
No.
And what makes you so sure
it was one?
I can't be sure.
You really felt that your crew
was up to the conditions?
We had come 12,000 miles together
through every kind of seas imaginable.
Except a white squall. Now, with all
due respect, Captain, they're only boys.
They're much more than that, sir.
Is it true that the reason
you expelled Frank Beaumont...
For killing a dolphin.
And that you invited him to strike you,
to fight it out...
on the deck of the ship?
Yes, that is true.
So, you allowed the use of alcohol,
among things, to go unpunished...
and yet you expelled this boy
for killing a fish.
A mammal.
A mammal.
It would appear to me sir,
with all due respect,
that your stewardship
as captain of the Albatross...
could be characterized
as reckless, unbalanced,
with no discipline whatsoever.
Do you find this funny?
Some kind of joke?
I don't think one second
of this is funny... sir.
The National Weather Service...
says white squalls are a meteorological
phenomenon of the imagination.
What do you say to that?
What happened to my ship
was not imagined.
It was not a dream... sir.
No, Captain Sheldon, it was not.
It was a nightmare.
Now, Shay,
I need you to help me out.
On the day of the accident,
do you remember where you were
when the lightning first struck?
I was on deck.
Mmm, midships.
During this squall that ensued,
why didn't you drop any sail?
Skipper called us
out of the rigging.
But your instinct was to lose sail?
Skipper's instinct was to not
get any... any of us electrocuted.
How old are you, son?
Fifteen.
And you were the first mate
of the Albatross. Is that correct?
I am the first mate of the Albatross.
That's correct.
And are you
a professional sailor, son?
No, I'm not
a professional sailor.
You say you turned hard
to starboard when the gust hit.
I thought we'd have a better chance
if I headed into the wind.
But the captain ordered you
hard to port.
- Twice.
- I'm sorry?
- Twice!
- Is that what you were trained to do?
No.
- Speak up, son. I can't hear you.
- I said, "No."
And what did you think
he was trying to do?
Put her off. To let the blow
drive the boat downwind.
By the "blow" you're referring to
the force of the storm. Is that right?
Let the blow drive the boat downwind,
and neutralize our canvas.
So when the captain gave you an order
contrary to your training,
you thought
he was making a mistake.
No.
Then why... son?
Why didn't you follow his order?
Because...
I panicked.
You know that's not true, Tod!
- Do you believe he panicked?
- What the hell is he doing?
Quiet, please.
Maybe you can't see what's
happening here, but I can.
Tod, I appreciate
what you're trying to do here.
Maybe you could live with it,
but I couldn't.
If you think I'm gonna let a
then you underestimate me.
The Albatross was my ship.
The Ocean Academy was my school. Her
responsibility is mine and mine alone.
I can't bring your sons back.
If you want my ticket,
if that will ease your pain,
that's the least that I can do.
- This, this is easy.
- Captain Sheldon?
- Captain?
- No.
- Order, please, order.
- This proceeding is not over.
I have further questions...
- No.
- for this witness.
Order!
Don't you walk out on us,
Skipper! You don't!
You tell me.
Was it all just a lie? Was it?
Because we listened to you,
we believed you! And we are still here.
Bad things happen sometimes, and there
is nothing that you can do about it.
It wasn't you or Tod.
It wasn't you, Tod.
It was all of us,
everyone in this room.
Because we all knew the risks
we were taking going out there.
You paid our tuition,
and you told us to go.
So why do we just have to invent
some reason now for why this happened,
just pin it on one person?
Why?
Then shame on you, Skipper.
Shame on you!
Mr. Gieg.
I was in command
of the Albatross.
And I was responsible
for precious cargo.
It was my job to get you all home safely
with my knowledge and my skill.
That's the contract
that I made with your parents.
But something happened out there.
I lost control.
Maybe just for an instant,
maybe all along. I'm not sure.
But I know this.
I never saw it coming.
It was...
like I just woke up...
and a hand came down
and pushed my sails into the sea.
It got away for me,
the whole thing.
And people died.
Now... you're young and strong.
Everything's ahead of you.
You told us,
"Where we go one, we go all."
Well, we believed you.
We lived by it, sir.
And, and now you're saying
that where you go, we can't follow.
Mr. Gieg.
The Albatross...
wasn't just a ship...
or a school.
It was something
that we made.
Something
that's inside of us.
That's who you are,
Skipper.
What you gave us.
You carried us.
Now let us carry this together.
Let us carry this together.
Let it go. Just go home.
They didn't take his ticket today.
But I wonder if he'll ever
go to sea again.
I know one thing.
If he did, we'd all go with him.
To a man. No doubt.
Not even a question.
Today he joined the circle he created
by allowing us to share his burden.
The burden of sea captains
and fathers,
the burden of men.
In the end,
it just comes down to one thing.
You can't run from the wind.
You face the music,
you trim your sails, and keep going.
She's the dark star
over the sea
Go where my true love
is waiting for me
Rode the south wind
Canvas the stars
Harness the moonlight
so she can safely go
'Round the Cape Horn
to Valpariso
Red the port light
Starboard the green
How will she know
of the devils I've seen
Cross in the sky
Star of the sea
Under the moonlight
There she can safely go
'Round the Cape Horn
to Valpariso
Valpariso
Though every road I walk
will take me down to the sea
With every breath of promise
in my sack
Every love will always send
the ship of my heart
Over the rolling sea
If I should die
Water's my grave
She'll never know
if I'm damned or I'm saved
See the ghosts fly
over the sea
Under the moonlight
there she can safely go
'Round the Cape Horn
to Valpariso
Valpariso
Valpariso
Come on. Go get your stick.
Chuck!
- Come on, Bessie.
- Chuck!
Come on. You ready?
- You all set?
- Yeah, I think so.
- It'll all be here when you get back.
- I know.
You're not having
second thoughts?
No. Why?
It's a year of your life.
And this Ocean Academy
isn't recognized as accredited.
- By Yale.
- By any lvy League school.
You can't afford two of us
at Yale or Brown or any
lvy League school, anyway, Dad.
- Your brother got a scholarship,
and you know you'd get one too.
- I'm not him!
I just don't care
about that stuff right now.
It'll be a good thing, Dad.
- Here.
- Thanks, Mom.
- You have everything?
- Yes.
- Passport?
- I'll be fine, Mom.
Why do you look so down?
This is your dream come true.
- That's not why he's letting me go.
- Of course it is.
No. It's because he hopes
it'll look good on my record.
Well.
Either way, you're going.
Besides, he would've loved
to have been able to do this.
- Then why didn't he?
- He never had the opportunity.
It hasn't been easy for him, both
his boys going off at the same time.
All right.
- This is your bus ticket to Idlewild.
- Sir? Just this one.
And, uh, this will get you from Idlewild
to Miami. This is your plane ticket...
Dad? I'll be okay.
Really.
Make us proud, son.
Okay.
Today the adventure begins.
I've given up my last year
of high school to join the crew...
of the Brigantine school ship
Albatross...
to sail halfway around the world
and back.
Dad's made me promise
to keep a journal.
It's like a chore, but it's part
of the deal I had to make.
Because today, I leave the path
that he had chosen for me...
and instead, take my own.
Albatross?
Yeah.
Robert March.
Who the hell are you?
Ah, Gieg, Chuck.
Gieg Chuck? What are you,
a native or something?
No, it's just Chuck.
Hey, Johnstone, I'm surprised to see you
here after the old bowsprit affair.
- Yeah, well I'm back for some more.
- Listen to this, man.
Romeo here was going at it with
some local girl in the jibsheet.
After the deed was done.
- Whoa, hey, he says they did the deed.
- Trust me. We did the deed.
All right, man. After the alleged deed
was done, they fell asleep.
Mr. McCrea walks on deck
and hears Casanova sawing logs.
He calls the whole crew on deck,
up goes the jib and out roll
Tod-o and the girl...
naked as goddamn Adam and Eve,
I swear.
Whoa, here we are, guys.
Home, sweet hell on water.
Whoo-hoo!
Smoked fish, smoked fish.
Let's go.
- I give you one dollar for every fish.
- No, no.
What happened to it?
She cleans up. We'll have her
shipshape before she shoves off.
Come on.
"Now would I give a thousand
furlongs of sea...
- for an acre of barren ground.
- Oh, shit.
Long heath, brown furze, anything.
Will above be done.
But I would fain die
a dry death."
Remember? Hello, Robert.
Excuse me, sir, but what's
that supposed to mean?
It's Shakespeare, Tod.
The Tempest, act one, scene one.
- I suggest you read it.
- Yeah, and why is that?
Because it's the song you'll all
be singing when we put out to sea.
Arbedar!
Arbedar.
Oh, geez, man.
I forgot about him.
- Where are you from, Robert?
- California, man. Here, have a smoke.
- How you doin'? Robert March.
- Dean Preston.
Hi, my name is Gil Martin.
Hi. Chuck Gieg.
That's my brother.
He's dead.
I'm going to take this one.
Well, in case you haven't noticed,
it's already been taken.
- What's wrong with that one?
- What?
I'm sure it's just as comfortable as
this one is, but I get nosebleeds, so...
Does anyone have a problem
with that? Do you?
Absolutely not!
Guys, listen up. Shay Jennings,
first mate of the Albatross.
This here is Dr. Alice Sheldon.
I'm ship's surgeon.
I'm in charge of your aches and pains.
And I teach biology,
math and science.
Girard Pascal here
is the ship's cook.
You want to keep
all your fingers, huh?
Stay the hell out of my galley unless
you're invited and you have clean hands.
Some of you already met
Mr. McCrea.
In case you haven't figured it out,
he teaches English.
So when the heck do we get
to meet El Capitan, huh?
Maybe he's gettin'
his wooden leg waxed.
- Skipper on deck!
- Hello.
On your feet, gentlemen.
Come on, let's go!
Martin.
Preston.
Johnstone.
Lapchick.
Get rid of it, March.
Dowd.
Flamberg.
Burrows.
Gieg.
You're gonna wanna lose that.
- Who'd I miss?
- Beaumont, sir. He's not here yet.
The ship beneath you
is not a toy...
and sailing's not a game.
The Albatross will take us far,
gentlemen,
but she demands
constant attention.
Respect that,
and we'll do fine.
One more thing.
Nothing happens on this ship
that I don't know about.
She speaks to me in the night,
so... don't test me.
Not even a little.
"No man is an island,
entire of itself.
And therefore never send to know
for whom the bell tolls.
It tolls for thee."
John Donne.
I'll see you on deck.
Let's go!
All right! Come on,
roll out, sailors. All hands on deck.
Sixty seconds.
That's one minute, Johnstone.
Go, go, go! Okay, let's run.
Run! Come on, run, run, run.
Guys, line up single file, please.
Single file. Okay, everybody, swim!
- Whoo!
- Guys, I'm not joking. Into the water.
I'm not joking, boys.
Come on, into the water. Let's go!
Let's go! Everyone.
Go, go, go!
Hey, Preston, what's the matter now?
Come on, everyone swims.
I don't.
You will if you want to eat.
You gonna swim for your breakfast,
you little weasel?
Go for it, man!
All right.
Come on, you sissy, go!
Let's go, you little monkey.
- Come on, Shay!
- Move it, you maggot!
Show 'em what you're made of!
Yeah!
Nice dive!
Whoo! Not too bad.
All right. I've been in twice.
So, what's it gonna be?
I've got five bucks
that says he doesn't.
- I got ten says he doesn't live.
- I'll take a dollar of that.
- Jesus.
- I can't watch this.
Shh.
Ay.
Skipper on deck!
You know what's out there?
Wind and rain
and some damn big waves.
Reefs and rocks and sandbars,
and enough fog and night
to hide it all.
So why the hell do it, then?
Builds character, Mr. Preston,
of which you are in
desperately short supply.
The kind you only find
on mountaintops and deserts,
on battlefields...
and across oceans.
Nice dive, Preston.
If we don't have order,
we have nothing.
"Where we go one, we go all."
Some of us are here
for discipline, some for escape.
And the rest
don't even know why.
I'm not sure where I fit in,
but I can see a small piece
of myself in each of them.
I think I'll have friends here,
and I hope this will be home.
What are you looking at?
Hmm?
Why'd you jump?
'Cause I felt like it.
It was so high, you know.
Let me tell you something. As soon
as you grow some balls, doughnut,
let me know and
I'll tell you all about it.
I thought it was a pretty
stupid stunt myself too.
What was that?
You heard what I said.
Don't ever call me stupid.
He didn't mean it.
Let me tell you girls something. I do
what I want to do when I want to do it,
and I don't give a damn what some Ahab
up there says otherwise.
Well, if it ain't Howard Hughes
come to fly me home, boys.
There you go. That's it.
No, use your,
use your whole hand, whole hand.
What's the matter with you?
The other way.
Ahoy there!
Good afternoon!
Albatross, huh?
Doesn't inspire
a lot of confidence, does it?
On the contrary, the albatross
is considered a very good omen.
Legend has it they embody
the spirits of lost sailors.
Only bad luck if you kill one.
I'm not interested in legends.
Francis Beaumont.
That's my son behind you. Frank.
Frank.
Sir.
You're a day late. We keep a schedule
aboard ship. Lives depend on it.
Your cable said you would not
be putting out until late October.
As you can see,
there's a lot of work to do.
Mm-hmm.
Indentured servitude is not
what my son had in mind.
This is a working ship.
Promptness is not a luxury,
it's a necessity,
as is the work to maintain her.
Your son will do his part
if he wants to stay on board.
I'll be honest with you.
This was his mother's idea.
A romp through the Caribbean sounds more
like a holiday than an education.
It will be more than that,
I can promise you.
All right.
You take good care of my son.
He'll need
a hand with that. It's heavy.
Well, Frank.
We'll do our best.
All right, take him below,
Shay.
Sing along. Go!
Me way, hey, hey, ya
Me way, hey, hey, ya
You got it. He's got it.
Atta boy!
Head up, eyes up.
Then the leg.
Keep moving up. Look up when you're
going up. Not so fast, Frank.
That's it! Keep your arms straight,
shoulder length.
Okay, now I want you
out on these spars...
but I don't want you to release
the gaskets until I tell you.
That's good. Just keep your back
inside the backrope.
Okay. Now remember these are the sails.
They can shift. They're not locked.
- Avast hauling.
- Over.
Stop!
Gentlemen, when you hear
an order, shout it out!
I want to know you've heard
and understand.
- Set the main.
- Set the main!
- Set the main!
- Set the main!
Main!
Heave! Heave!
Shay!
Skipper! Skipper!
Get him!
Get him!
Somebody, get to him!
Excuse me!
Come here! Aah.
Put your feet on here.
All right, come on.
Watch yourself now.
- Okay, take it easy.
- Are you all right?
- Yeah.
- Huh?
It was my fault.
I was reaching for the...
Why didn't you
climb up there, son?
Speak up.
'Cause he's afraid to climb.
Is that true?
Shay, why wasn't
I made aware of this?
It's your job to know!
If something goes wrong up there,
the other 16 people on board...
can't be wondering if
he's going to do his job or not.
- Swing up, son.
- What?
Up you go right now.
You got something to say?
- No.
- Then keep your mouth shut!
It takes discipline to make it out here.
There are no special cases.
- Now, what's it gonna be?
- I'm sorry.
Sorry's not gonna cut it.
Now, get up there!
Get goin'!
That's it.
One hand in front
of the other, son.
We'll do it together.
And don't look down.
You look in my eyes.
Look in my eyes!
Climb.
- Come on. We'll do it together.
- I can't.
You climb, damn it!
That's it.
Are you hating this?
Huh, are you?
I hate you,
you son of a bitch.
Good! Good!
Hate your way up another rung.
Do it right now!
All right, all right.
All right, come down.
- Oh, God.
- Stay there.
You're all right.
That's it.
Come on.
That's it.
It's all right.
- It's all right.
- I'm sorry.
I'm only going to say this
one time.
I'm not here to wipe your noses
and your asses.
I'm not your mother.
He can take care of himself.
Are there any other phobias
I need to know about?
No, sir.
Excellent!
Shay, find Mr. Martin a position
to suit his condition.
And remember something.
Sooner or later
we all have to face it.
Hey.
We're awfully quiet tonight.
Something on your mind, Girard?
I think you were
too tough on Martin.
- You do, huh?
- Yes, I do.
They're green, all of 'em,
and full of themselves.
That's a dangerous combination.
- He pissed on his pants.
- Mmm, and all over me.
Wh-What do you call that?
Humiliation training?
Because I'm pretty familiar
with psychological theory.
There's nothing I've read...
- What you do, you traumatize the kid.
- The point is!
We're as strong
as our weakest link.
I don't want to find that out
the hard way.
So I will challenge them
as will you.
And they will come together.
And I don't care
if they like me or not.
Does that apply
to the staff too, sir?
I'll tell you what, Girard.
I'll stay out of your galley,
you stay off my poop deck.
We'll get along fine that way.
Otherwise it's going to be
a long ride.
I want a head count
when they're in the racks.
We're putting out in the morning.
- Good night.
- Good night, Skipper. Good night, Alice.
Good night.
I've seen him snatch
the tail of a tempest...
and stuff it screaming
into a bottle.
- The bilges are full of 'em.
- McCrea, what do you mean by that?
He's been beyond the reach.
He'll do well by us all, Girard.
He's a real salt.
Got one for me?
No. These I paid
two dollars for. Havana.
Oh!
How you doin'?
Look, I appreciate, you know,
your concern and all.
But, ah, like Skipper said,
I can take care of myself.
I know.
Just brought you a Coke.
I feel like I got you into this.
Forget it.
My own brother and I
used to climb to the top...
of this old beech tree in the backyard
and watch the sun go down like this.
My, um, parents, they'd, uh,
they'd fight a lot,
so we'd sneak out there
where we couldn't hear 'em.
Do you believe I miss it?
I mean, all the crap I had to put up
with at home and I'm still homesick.
Well, I wouldn't worry.
I'm sure they'll have some fight
left in 'em by the time we get back.
That's a fact.
And so it was
that after weeks of training...
with the hurricane season
behind us,
the Albatross
took to the open sea.
In each of us were feelings
of excitement and hesitation...
for the man at the helm...
and the unfamiliar world
he would be leading us into.
Gieg.
Come here. Take the wheel.
C'mere.
- Hold her steady into the wind.
Southwest by west.
- Yes, sir.
Ah, holding her steady
southwest by west... sir.
In South Australia
'round Cape Horn
What's wrong, Mr. McCrea?
Seems like we're short
on singers, Skipper.
Everyone sings
aboard a windjammer, gentlemen.
Lets everyone know
you're in sync.
It shows unity, that all thoughts
are one. Besides, I like it.
Heave away, you rolling kings
Heave away, haul away
Haul away
You'll hear me sing
We'll bear off to port
and run downwind.
Okay, Mr. McCrea, stand by
to ease the main sheet.
Robert, get on the jibsheet.
Fall off to port. Ease her around
to a heading of northeast.
- Sing out when you're there.
- Yes, sir.
All right,
stand by to loose the squares.
- Northeast, sir.
- Speak up, boy!
- Northeast, sir!
- Loose the squares!
- Loose the squares!
- Loose the squares!
All right,
loosen those gaskets.
All the other sails up.
What's taking so long, huh?
Keep your eye on the pennant,
Chuck.
If you jib now
we'll have people in the water.
Yes, sir!
Storm at sea!
All stop on the engine.
Behold the power of the wind.
Skipper, the crew is doing
group boot over the side.
All right, keep it
over the side. That's it.
Come on. Okay.
Whoa, boy. Watch your step.
- Should we turn away?
- You can't run from the wind, son.
You trim your sails,
face the music and keep going.
This guy's certifiable.
- No, he's suicidal, man.
- We won't have any crew left, Skipper.
Excellent point!
How'd you like to have to bet
on Tracy here getting us home today?
Each one of you
is responsible for the rest.
It's up to you.
Nothing like a little experience
to put things in perspective, huh?
I want you all to make sure
your gear is stowed.
McCrea, your team will stand watch.
Everyone else hit the rack.
Hey, Skipper?
Listen, I'm not staying
out here, okay?
Robert, take his place.
Robert, I got an idea.
Why don't you help me swab the decks?
Stand by to go about.
- Oh, God.
- Watch yourself. Get in your bunk.
Checked out.
- Harden up the main staysail.
- Aye, Skipper.
Harden up the main staysail.
Whoa!
Jesus! Skipper!
Skipper, the jib's blown out!
Bring it in and run up the storm jib.
Stay out of reach of the blocks!
Haul on the down haul.
Let go of your sheets.
Hold on to your clews and blocks.
Well, we're in it now.
- Look out!
- Whoa!
- What do we do?
- Get block and tackle!
- I'll go to block and tackle.
Robert, here. Hold on, Dean.
- I'm going in.
Get him. Easy over, Alice.
- Hold her steady!
- Holding her steady, sir!
You all right?
Hang on, Dean!
More line!
Hold on!
Grab the line!
Now the ladder.
All right, take it. Come on in, Dean.
Swing around, all right?
Come on. You all right?
There you go.
There you go, all right.
You all right?
Nice dive, Preston.
You all right?
Now you got something
to write home about.
Leave my wife alone
and go in and get warm.
All right, let's bring her in
and run up the storm jib.
Let's bring the storm jib up.
Let's go.
Nicely done.
Thank you, sir.
You're enjoying this.
Yes, sir.
The seas lasted 16 hours...
and when we weren't throwing up,
it scared the hell out of us.
Skipper never left the deck.
Not once.
I think he loved every minute
out there.
He's strong, tough,
and he won't take no for an answer.
But he makes you want
to please him.
I wonder if we'll ever
live up to his expectations.
Help me!
Gil, hey. Gil, wake up!
- Wake up, wake up!
Hey, hey, easy, easy.
It's okay.
You're okay.
- I was falling.
- It was just a bad dream.
- It was so real.
- Here's the thing.
Whenever you're having a nightmare
like that and you can't get out of it,
all you have to do is say,
"One, two, three, wake up."
One, two, three, wake up.
That's it,
and you just come out of it.
- Who told you that?
- My dad.
It's the only good advice
he ever gave me.
Is that how he died?
He fell...
out of the beech tree in the backyard,
and, um, broke his neck.
I was on a camp out
away from home.
l...
They must've been going at it,
you know,
throwing things, pushing.
A real knockdown.
They didn't find him
until the next morning.
They didn't even know why
he was up there.
You never told them
why he was there?
I couldn't.
I couldn't.
Remember,
be back by 7:00 p.m.
We got a shallow reef to cross,
and I'm not going to wait.
I could go for that
in a heartbeat.
Yeah, man, that was
a matched set for sure.
- You're gonna be paying for it,
because she's a professional.
- Yeah? How do you know?
'Cause I know, man. I know.
Now believe me, I know.
- I'll tell you who's got some nice ones.
- Who?
Dr. Alice Sheldon, that's who.
Oh, yeah? How the...
How do you know that?
Dogwatch, night after the storm,
I'm looking in the Skipper's skylight.
And there they were
doing the nasty dance.
- You just happened
to be standing there?
- What'd they look like?
- What?
- You know, her, uh, her hooters.
Come on, man, you sound like
you never even seen a pair.
Shut up. I've seen 'em.
Well, even considering that she's 30,
Boner City, fellas.
No foolin', man? But seriously,
what'd they look like for real?
- You're a damn virgin, aren't you?
- No.
- Come on, give me what you got.
What you got there?
- Here you go. That's a dollar.
- Tod? A dollar from Robert. Let's go.
- Yeah, all right.
This isn't enough. This is
pathetic. You got something, Beaumont?
I'm not gonna spend my money
so Gil can get his cherry broken.
Daddy's money. All right, Daddy's boy,
Daddy's boy. Hold that, Gieg.
We're gonna spin for it then
just to make Mr. Daddy's boy happy.
All right? Here you go.
The winner gets a 15 minute honeymoon.
Gather 'round.
All right, go get 'em, Tiger!
Hey, man.
- I got seven dollars.
- You must be in a hurry. Come on.
Come on.
- Money?
- Oh, right.
Wait here.
Okay.
Okay.
Hey, Frank,
what's taking you so long?
We're waiting on you, bro.
Let's get outta here.
Hey, Frank!
Hi, baby.
- Um...
- What you waiting for?
Whoa! Whoa!
Hey, what happened?
Nothing, nothing happened. All right?
Why not? Oh, I don't know.
Let's see. Perhaps because
she was older than Moses?
You owe us seven bucks.
You set me up.
All right? You set me up.
Don't look at me, buddy.
You're the one with the...
See you later, limpdick!
I ran outta there. I turned
and ran and slammed the door behind me.
My parents don't do it anymore.
They don't. I swear.
My parents don't do it anymore.
They tell you that?
No. I figured it out.
What time is it?
What time is it? Oh, shit, man!
- Where is it?
- Jesus H. Christ.
You guys, we're screwed.
I knew we shouldn't have gone.
I knew it.
Shut up!
You sound like my sister.
How the hell do you idiots suppose
we're going to get out of here?
- We'll think of something. Don't worry.
- Oh, yeah?
I feel so much better
now that you're here...
because lughead over here's
going to think...
No, no, no, no!
Get off him!
Dean!
Dean!
Yes, Chuck, nice.
Up! Up! Come on!
Get up! Let's go!
Come on, get up.
Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!
Skipper?
You know what
a loose cannon is?
A couple of thousand pounds of pig iron
crashing around the deck in a storm.
Maybe take out a mast,
punch a hole right through the hull.
Send a man-of-war
straight to the bottom.
People are like that sometimes.
Before you know it,
they're punching holes in everything.
I'm thinking of shutting
this whole thing down.
I can fly you all home
from Grenada.
It's gonna be New Years by the time
we hit port. I want a tight ship.
I want them all shaved and
in clean clothes when we get there.
We have an obligation to host a cruise
for some Dutch students there.
Each one of you is going
to be responsible for a student.
I expect you to be courteous
and thoughtful.
If everything goes well
and your test scores are acceptable,
I might reconsider.
All right. That's it.
Get 'em on board, McCrea.
Right, Skipper. All right, come on,
shake it off. What happened, huh?
...unlike that of the Soviets...
since the end of World War II,
demonstrates that we have no desire
to dominate or conquer any other nation.
Johnstone, what do you say
I have a crack at the wheel there?
Negative, twerp.
And you still owe me two bucks.
...and become adjusted to living
daily on the bull's-eye...
of Soviet missiles...
Iocated inside the U.S.S.R.
or in submarines.
In that sense,
missiles in Cuba...
add to an already
clear and present danger,
although it should be noted
the nations of Latin America...
have never previously been subjected
to a potential nuclear threat.
But this secret, swift...
extraordinary buildup
of Communist missiles...
in an area well-known to have
a special and historical relationship...
to the Unites States and the nations
of the western hemisphere...
in violation
of Soviet assurances,
and in defiance with American
and hemispheric policy...
Fifteen minutes, gentlemen.
Fifteen minutes.
Where're you going?
- To take a piss.
- Oh, really?
Yeah. You wanna come in
and shake it for me?
What are you doin'?
You were cheating.
- I don't want to listen to this.
- Yes, you do, stupid!
You get caught cheating, your ass is
on the first plane back to Idiotville.
Cut it out!
Cut it out, Dean!
Cut it out!
If Frank had caught you, he would
have ratted you out in a second.
Listen to us. You get caught cheating
and you're off the boat!
I cheated to get on the boat, damn it!
I doctored the grades
so I could make the cut.
I'm a moron, all right?
Are you satisfied now?
You're not a moron, Dean.
Bet?
It takes me half a day to get
through one chapter of McCrea...
and I still don't have any idea
what he's talking about.
Know why it takes me so long
to write all those papers?
Because I can't spell.
They even kicked me out of vo-tech
because I couldn't read a slide rule.
That's right.
I could show you how
to read a slide rule.
Oh, what the fuck?
How long have you
been standing there?
Long enough.
I'm never gonna pass the boards.
I'm never gonna pass the boards.
I'll tell you what.
You don't cheat anymore,
and we'll make sure you get the grades.
We'll start our own private study group.
Nobody else knows. You'll ace that test.
I'm in.
Me too.
Why would you guys do that?
You guys don't have to do that.
'Cause, man. We, um...
We got a hard-on for you, pansy.
- Whoa!
- Oh, no, wait.
- What do you got?
- Whoa!
- Wait, wait, wait.
- All right, fellas.
We got women.
Yes!
Hold your head line!
Slack your spring!
Midships.
Take a turn on the stern line.
Get the heavin' lines ready.
Stand by the fenders!
Go on, get up there.
Ready to launch on the port side.
All right, all right,
all right.
Be calm, gentlemen.
Be calm.
Slack your spring!
Goddamn...
- Ah, good morning, ladies.
- Good morning.
All secure alongside.
Finish with engines.
Finish all engines.
One thing, though.
What are we supposed to say to 'em?
- Are you serious, man? Come on, get in the game.
- They don't speak English.
Well, there are some things
everybody does in the same language.
How are you supposed
to make the first move?
Well... be bold.
How you doin', ladies?
Dean Preston. Here you go.
- Mrs. Jensen?
- Jensen.
The girls have been
looking forward to this for some time.
- Hello, this is my wife Alice.
- How do you do?
Shay, help these ladies on board.
I think we're going to have
a wonderful sail tomorrow.
You might have your girls dress,
you know, uh, casual.
Thank you, Captain.
They will.
This is Girard, our chef.
Welcome.
Ladies, this area of the ship
is the bow.
This is the foremast
and the foremast fife rail with pins,
holding lines we use to control
the sails along the foremast.
There are sheets used to set the sails,
and there are clew lines...
used to haul the sails back in.
Every line along the fife rail
serves a specific purpose.
The ship beneath you
is not a toy, ladies.
Respect that,
and we'll all do fine.
If you'll follow me this way.
So one full turn of the wheel is indicated
by the kingspoke, which is this right here with...
Um, ladies.
The wheel, all right?
Um, then, uh... That's... -
We were walking around
and somebody's clever idea.
I guess we saw this brothel.
...this really pretty woman.
And she was a woman!
Keep it up, Frankie.
Come on.
Ahoy there!
Surprise! Surprise!
Frank! Ooh!
Oh, Frank!
Well, well. What do we have here?
Good afternoon, Captain.
This is my wife, Mrs. Beaumont.
- Hello.
- Hello. Pleasure to meet you.
We thought we would drop by and see
if you were all still in one piece.
And of course we are.
Well, you never can tell, can you?
What can we do for you today?
We just thought we'd give our little boy
a break from the monotony.
It's not monotonous.
Nevertheless.
Come on! Hop to, boy.
We haven't got all day.
What's this?
All right, gentlemen.
Best behavior, please.
We sail with the tide.
That's 6:00 a. m... sharp.
Are you listening to me?
Tracy, what time are we leaving?
- 6:00.
- All right, have a good time but don't be late.
Thanks, Dad.
- Please come in.
- Thank you.
It's magnificent.
It's got lots of rum in it.
Frank. Frank!
Hey. What's wrong?
You don't like steak? Hmm?
I should be eating with the crew.
Well, you're not. You're eating with us.
So, sit up, humor me and eat your steak.
- Why did you come here?
- Why am I here?
We missed you, sweetheart.
Why in the Sam Hill
do you think I'm here?
- We just wanted to check
on you. That's all. - Stay out of this.
I don't need you spying on me.
- Spying?
- Frank!
Thanks a lot, son.
- I can take care of myself.
- Oh, really? Huh.
I can't wait for that, son.
You put me on this stupid boat
in the first place.
I didn't want to go, but I did.
Why do you have to embarrass me?
Why can't you just leave me alone?
You come outside with me.
- But, Francis...
- Stay here.
It's all right.
Frank. Frank!
- Get your hands off me!
- Francis, stop it!
- Settle down.
- Let go of him.
- Let go of me!
- Francis, just... Take your hands off of him!
- Listen to me, you little...
- Francis, you're hurting him! Now, stop it!
You hear me? Don't you dare
ever talk to me like that.
Francis! My God!
My God!
Now, Frank.
Frank!
Oh, Christ!
What is the matter with you?
Do you want to dance?
Yeah, yeah.
I can't ever remember
feeling this way about myself,
or a place,
or someone like you.
We've come such a long way
and we've seen so many things, but...
This is...
What?
I'm not, um, I'm not so great
at expressing myself.
And maybe the only reason
I can do it right now...
is because I know you don't
understand a word I'm saying.
Right.
Roger Maris
steps up to the plate!
It's a corker down the pipe!
It's outta here!
Frank, put it down! Frank!
Come on!
- It's a corker down the pipe!
- Frank, what's goin' on?
Frank, what the hell are you doing?
- It's outta here!
- Talk to me. Tell me what happened.
I just don't cut the mustard.
Come on. Let's go.
I don't hold up under scrutiny.
Chuck!
Chuck!
- Gieg!
- What?
Oh, you...
Double-time it, man.
Frank's in trouble.
I gotta go. I'm sorry.
I'll see you.
Come on.
Tod, dance.
One, two, three, four.
Hey, buddy, how ya doin'? You know
you're gonna work for me someday.
Frank? Why don't we go?
Why don't we go?
Let me go. I was invited too!
Look at these guys. They're homos.
- Frank, we're gonna go.
- Get off me!
I'm fine, all right?
- Frank?
- Stop doing that. What are you guys, homos?
Hey, hey, hey, hey!
Calm down.
Shh. If you don't calm down,
I'm gonna have to hurt you.
It's okay. We got you.
Get him up.
Get him outta here.
Get him outta here.
Do you remember the last time
you and I danced?
You're gonna tell me again anyway.
It was on the deck
of the Yankee...
the night you asked me
to marry you.
I wasn't much older
than they are.
- Shall we?
- I don't wanna.
Okay.
May I?
Don't slip, Captain.
Your students are watching.
Gotta get my sea legs here.
- Coming about. You ready?
- I'm ready.
You know, Sheldon, sometimes,
not often, you act almost half human.
I am halfway human.
Look at those two over there.
"Much have I traveled
in realms of gold.
And many goodly states
and kingdoms seen.
'Round western islands
I've been,
which bards in fealty
to Apollo hold."
- Do you know what
he's talking about here?
Aw, humility.
He's saying he has traveled the seas
as Homer did, as Ulysses before him.
"That deep-browed Homer."
Brilliant, seasoned,
wise of the mind.
He commands the voyage
of the imagination...
like a god.
Piss on Homer, sir.
We're livin' it.
That's the spirit, Dean.
- Dolphins off the stern!
- Aw, dolphins. Okay. Come on.
Come on! Look!
There's one over there!
Beautiful!
- Oh, wow! This is incredible!
- Oh, she's beautiful.
Lower him down.
Come on! Yes!
What the hell, guys?
- What happened?
- What's going on?
Guide her alongside.
That's it.
All right, ease her away.
- Bring the nose up onto the sled.
- Okay.
- Dean, watch the spear.
- All right.
Haul away.
Easy. Easy.
Tighten it off, Tim.
That's it.
Whoa!
All right, ease away.
Easy.
Keep it coming.
What do you think?
He's punctured her lung.
Nice shot.
Finish it.
Man, I'm n-not gonna kill it.
You already have.
Go on, do it.
No way.
- What the hell's wrong with you?
- Back off, man!
- You wanna kill somethin' so bad?
- It's just a fish.
- It's just a fish!
- Come on! Let's see what you've got!
That's what I thought.
You're done here.
You're going home.
The guy's gone ballistic, all right?
I'm telling you, he's gone mentally
insane. It's like cabin fever.
All right, man. Enough.
It's still not right.
They shouldn't be puttin' him
off the boat.
- The guy's outta control.
- We've all been out of control.
But we're a crew.
No, wait, wait.
That's what this whole thing
is supposed to be about.
You're the last person that should be
whining about us being a crew right now.
- Yeah? How do you figure that?
- I'd love to go into the subject...
of vertigo and everything, but I
wouldn't want you to piss your pants.
- You know what I'm sayin'?
- Oh, yeah, Tracy?
Come on!
- Get... Stop it!
- You're a real jerk. You know that?
Tell it to the dolphin, Preston.
He deserves another chance.
We'd do the same for you.
You know that.
You do whatever you want, Gil.
All right?
It's not gonna make
any difference anyway.
- The dolphin was a symptom.
- Of what?
Of a fight he can't win out here.
- But, sir, it's his father.
- It's his father, sir.
- Oh, it's his father. Mm-hmm.
- H-He, he sent him down here.
All of them.
They sent us down here because...
they want us to change or grow up or something,
and all they do is try and keep us the same.
I mean, h-he has
all these expectations...
about who his son should be,
and he doesn't even know who Frank is.
How do you think you got here?
Do you think they owe you something?
Do you think they enjoy riding
subways and commuter trains?
The same repetition day in and day out
just to keep you in tennis shoes...
and private school?
You know, there are ground rules
in families just like on this ship.
You can understand that.
Does Frank know
how you guys feel?
I don't know.
Well, somebody should tell him.
That's it.
Well, I'm all ears.
- You may not like what you hear.
- Oh, I can take it.
Chris, they've become
what we wanted.
They're a crew.
That's why they came.
Do you remember why
we began this?
Self-reliance and discipline
through the community of sailing.
- I haven't forgotten.
- Mmm. Community.
That boy doesn't know
the meaning of the word.
So, the best thing you can do
is to keep him right here.
- He has a lot of problems.
- He better start to learn to deal with them.
Oh, Captain Compassionate speaks.
It's not about compassion.
It's not about what happens here.
- It's about what they take away with them.
- He was coming around.
He was coming apart!
He lost control out there!
And what is so important
about being in control?
- He's just gonna have to figure that out, isn't he?
- I'm not talking about him.
We watched in silent protest.
Aboard ship, the low morale
was matched only by the feeling...
that maybe Skipper was no different
than our own fathers back home.
We'll miss Frank.
Jesus!
Yeah, I'm... I'm sorry.
Frankie!
Bye, bye!
Bye, Frankie!
Whoo-oo-oo!
Bye, buddy!
They never gave up on you,
you know.
Bye, Frankie!
I got a problem, man.
- We all have problems.
- No. A big problem.
I'm pissing fire.
Fire?
Fire.
Hmm.
Had a good time in Grenada,
did you, Tod?
Yeah. I did, actually.
Thanks for askin'.
Turn around.
Ow! Ow.
Ow.
Hold that.
Next!
Robert! Drop your pants.
Way to go, Valentino.
I never even copped a feel
in Grenada.
Well, your sexual orientation
is not my problem.
What do you make of it, Skipper?
"Venceremos."
Cubans.
I'll get the horn.
Jesus! She's got guns.
Get down! Everybody down!
Run up the colors.
We're Americans, damn it! Shay!
Run up the colors!
Jesus Christ!
Are they gonna sink us?
- Take in all sail! Do it now.
- Sails down! Get going! Go on!
- Here's the horn, Skipper.
- Who the hell do they think they are?
They want us
to identify ourselves.
Tell them we're the American
school ship Albatross.
Use your best
Puerto Rican accent.
They think we're
carrying Cuban refugees, Captain.
I don't think they're going to take it
lightly that I'm a Cuban national.
Nothing's going to happen. Remind them
that according to the Geneva Convention...
firing on citizens on the high seas
is an act of war.
They say they're acting
on the direct order of Fidel Castro.
Tell them to come aboard.
Do it! Come on!
Give me your passport.
Give it to me. Come on, do it.
I don't think...
You've come a long way,
gentlemen,
but this is no time
for heroes.
I need you to be boys right now.
That's an order.
Get below.
Find your passports.
- Bring 'em on deck.
- All right, let's go.
- On the double!
- Let's go find those little bits.
On deck right now! Come on,
get your stuff. Go, go, go, go!
Don't worry.
Nothing's gonna happen.
Preston, got it? Let's go. Let's get
outta here. Trace! Trace, come on!
- Damn it!
- What?
I can't find my passport.
Oh, no!
Is this your stuff here?
Jesus, what a... Come on, we gotta go.
- I can't find my passport!
- Don't worry about it. Let's go! Now, damn it!
He's Puerto Rican.
You know, Captain,
playing cat and mouse
is not very smart.
Not for the mouse. Do you know
you're violating international law...
- by boarding my ship?
- But, you invited us.
- That's bullshit, man.
- Shh.
Your cannons made
a compelling argument.
It's okay. He's got one.
- I've got a passport. I swear to God.
- A stowaway?
He left his passport in Grenada.
It's being mailed to him in Panama.
- I left it last time we boarded.
- That is unfortunate.
We'll have to take him with us.
No! No!
All right, all right, all right.
If he's Cuban,
Castro wears a dress!
All right. Now we've seen
what you can do with a boy.
How would you like to go
a few rounds with a grown-up?
None of my crew
is leaving this ship.
Seventh cavalry.
What are you looking at?
You want to take a souvenir,
you take me.
All right, that's it.
Let's move, gentlemen.
Now you will really have something
to teach your students, Captain.
Las estrellas...
es lo unico que un marinero
necessita para navegar.
What'd he say?
He says a real sailor only needs
the stars to navigate with.
And so he guided us
silently through the convoy of warships.
And we later learned they were bound
for a little known destination...
called the Bay of Pigs.
As we rode the trades,
he shared the ancient secrets...
of how to read the waves
and follow the stars.
Panama and the Americas
rose and fell away again.
With the locks of Miraflores
and a continent behind us,
we entered into a new ocean
and a new world...
- that we would stake
and claim as our own.
All right, pens down.
Time's up.
Leave your papers.
Congratulations, gentlemen.
All hands may go ashore
if you please.
You're on your own. Be careful.
Buzzer's gone off, Dean.
We had traveled over 6,000 miles...
and slipped past the equator
to the very edge of the earth.
Like Darwin before us,
we would see the bliss of nature...
in the absence of man.
It was as if the Albatross
had taken us to another time.
Today I finally understand Homer.
The journey's the thing.
Should be a pencil in there.
Hold that.
"Where we go one,
we go all.
Brigantine Albatross.
Nineteen hundred and sixty-one."
That about says it all, huh?
- Get in there, guys.
- Chuck Gieg.
Tod Johnstone.
Gil Martin.
Dean Preston.
Tracy Lapchick.
What are they doing?
Claiming their place
in the world.
Why didn't you go?
- I couldn't. It's my watch.
- Uh-uh. I could've stayed.
- Listen. You hear that?
- What?
The sound of an empty ship.
How you doing?
Okay. How'd you do?
Congratulations.
What about you?
It's 1100!
- Dean, you got an 1100! That's great!
- I know.
- You know?
- I just can't believe it, you know?
I couldn't have done it
without you guys, though.
- I really couldn't.
- You did.
This is you, Dean.
All you. Nobody else.
Thank you.
You're welcome, stupid.
I'm just testing.
When are you gonna learn,
you little wise ass?
- Here. Thanks.
- Feels different, doesn't it?
What?
Goin' back.
I don't want it to end. I don't...
wanna be what I was
when I left.
What was that?
Anonymous.
I've been acing tests
my whole life...
and I still haven't
figured it out.
Figured what out?
- Who I am.
- Are you kidding?
I'll tell you who you are.
Glue. You're the glue...
that holds everyone around you
together.
Think I'm gonna choke on
the "feel good."
...on the pilot. He needs help.
There goes the umbilical cord
from the Redstone rocket.
We're into countdown.
How are you, Robert?
We're into the two-minute point,
and at this point in the spacecraft...
all the interior cameras
are started.
Two minutes and counting.
Everything is working fine
at the moment.
The radio mikes are now on
in the space capsules.
- Shepard can talk to control.
- Here we go.
- Good luck, huh?
- One minute
and 30 seconds to blastoff...
if no further holds
bother us at this point.
The Mercury Control count,
at the last minute you will hear...
Just a moment. I notice that the
cherry picker is being moved through,
- and we are coming up to...
- The morning watch?
- Below.
- ... countdown,
which you will hear...
in ten-second breaks.
We have just passed
the 92nd mark.
The cherry picker,
the safety device...
"If you can keep your head while all about
you are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
if you can trust yourself
when all men doubt you,
but make allowance
for their doubting too."
Morning watch is on!
"Yours is the earth
and everything in it,
which is more,
you'll be a man, my son."
Okay!
- You have fun.
- Fifty seconds and counting.
Sweet dreams, Martin.
...has been cut off.
It is now automatically isolated
from the rest of the atmosphere.
It has its own.
The test conductor in the Space
Control Center has taken over.
Bill, Bob, Tim, Charlie, go aloft!
Get those latches closed!
Morning, Shay.
Hey, Tracy.
- Would you trim the main, please?
- Trimming the main!
- North by west.
- North by west.
Get out of here, Bob.
Let the real men take over.
- Looks like we're gonna get wet.
- Yeah, we need it. I'm gonna take a nice long bath.
- Catch some water for my laundry.
- Save some for me, buddy, huh?
Yeah. Yeah, you got it.
Goin' below!
Everybody okay?
All hands, keep out of the rigging.
Stay clear of the masts.
All right, gentlemen.
Thor's had his fun.
Let's keep a sharp eye.
We're coming up to countdown...
which goes in five seconds.
No, Shay! Dog her down!
- Stay out of the rigging!
- Dog her down!
Batten down all hatches!
Skipper!
White squall. Hold tight!
Hold tight!
Shay!
- We're losin' it!
- Turn it over!
Look out!
...agonizingly slowly.
Get outta here!
Get outta here!
Help!
Tod!
Tod! Tod!
Turn to port!
Turn to port!
Turn to port!
- No! Starboard! Starboard!
- Port, Tod! Port!
Port! Port, damn it!
Turn to port!
Look out!
Leave it, Tod! Get out!
Back! Back!
Come on, Tod. Grab on!
Grab on!
Come on!
Gil, come on. Let's go.
Let's get outta here.
Now, Gil! Come on!
Come on, let's go.
Everybody out!
Keep moving.
We've lost her!
- Free the staysail.
- Yes, sir!
Free the staysail!
Grab a lifeboat.
Skipper!
Right here. Come on, out.
Out this way.
Get out. Anybody in here?
Anybody in here?
Hey!
Get 'em outta there.
Shay!
Sahler!
Girard!
Girard!
- America's
fastest traveling man...
Shay!
Shay!
Girard!
Oh!
Alice!
Get back, guys!
Get back! She's gonna roll!
- Get in the lifeboat, now!
- Hold on.
Girard!
- Dean!
- Yeah. Yeah. Over here.
Sahler! Marsh! Gil!
- Gil!
- Where's Gil?
Help!
One, two, three. Wake up.
One, two, three. Wake up.
- Where's Alice?
- I think they're inside.
Come on!
No! Stay back!
She's rolling!
She's down there!
Gil!
Skipper, I'll try forward.
Gil! Gil!
Gil, you gotta get outta here.
She's goin' down!
There's something down there
blocking the door!
Get me outta here, Chuck.
Get me out, please!
Come on, Chuck. I want out.
Gil, I can't move it.
You gotta push harder.
Push from your side! Gil!
- Push harder from your side!
- I don't wanna die!
Chuck! Chuck! Chuck!
We gotta go, Chuck!
Come on!
She's goin' down.
Come on, Chuck! Let's go!
Gil,
you've gotta push
from your side.
No, Gil!
- Chuck, we've gotta go!
- Help me with this door! He's drowning!
It's too late!
It's going over!
Skipper, it's too late!
- We can't stay on...
- Get off the ship! Get 'em in the boat!
- Do it!
- All right, Skipper.
Oh, please!
No, Dean!
Dean!
Girard, Alice,
Dean, Gil.
Today I hate the sea.
It will never look the same again.
Look.
Shepard.
Skipper! Skipper!
Skipper, look! Look!
McCrea!
Captain Sheldon,
can you give us a statement?
What the hell went on out there?
Get away from me.
Do you have anything to say
to these parents?
Yes, and it's private.
- Son!
- Dad?
Thought we'd find
a store. Get you fixed up...
and get you something to eat.
Sound good?
Hey! Your size
right on top. Here.
Why don't you take these in the back
there and see how they fit?
Ma'am, do you have boxer shorts?
- Right over there, sir.
- Okay.
Come on! Chuck, grab my arm!
Grab my arm!
Chuck, you okay in there?
Uh, I-I'm sorry.
We'll be right back
for the clothes.
- They're gonna
try to take his license.
- Why?
Because they need it to be simple.
They need a reason.
- Who?
- All of them.
- Everyone on that dock.
- What are we supposed to do?
Tell 'em what we know.
The truth.
- I mean, that's what he'd want.
- The truth.
We went over in a squall.
What's wrong with that?
Everybody knows
why we went over, Tod.
It wasn't from the squall.
You jibed the boat.
I was trying to get her upwind.
That's what you're supposed to do!
That's not what
the Skipper thought.
Not when you got the squares up.
He was trying to spill out the air from the main.
It was comin' four points off the bow,
Tracy. It never would've...
Were you on the deck?
Because I was standing right there!
- All I know is that Tod
disobeyed an order twice.
- Look, it didn't...
- That's when the boat went over.
- It didn't go over until I turned her port!
Man, you're all missing the point,
anyway. This is because of Frank.
- Frank and dear old Dad.
- What are you talking about?
I'm talking about,
they're here...
staying at
the damn Rhett House.
How do you think this thing
got put together so fast?
The old man's been out
for Skipper since day one.
The Skipper booted his kid
off the boat! What did you expect?
I told you he was a turncoat
the day we kicked him off, man.
Damn kid.
Frank?
- Frank!
- Can we talk?
Yeah, I guess.
What are you doing here?
Frank, who are you talking to?
Yeah, it's all right.
I'll be in in a minute.
What do you want?
Everyone's saying that...
that this whole tribunal is happening
because of your old man.
And because of you.
- Is that true?
- It's just typical, isn't it?
- Is it true, Frank?
- I gotta go.
Frank, he was not out
on that ship!
He doesn't know what happened.
You don't know what happened!
- I know enough!
- Frank, please!
Frank, get him to call it off.
I'm sorry.
Wait.
What is this?
You do what you've gotta do,
Frank.
The United States Coast Guard...
has been asked to conduct
this maritime hearing...
to consider the revocation
of Captain Christopher Sheldon's...
U.S. Master Seaman's Certificate.
All right, Captain Sanders,
you may begin.
The Albatross.
By all accounts, a sound vessel.
An experienced captain,
an able crew.
And yet it lies out there
on the bottom...
in 2,000 fathoms
with its back broken.
There are serious questions that demand
our most serious consideration...
so that we might understand,
so that perhaps...
we may prevent such a sad event
from ever taking place again.
A freak accident?
A one in a million
meteorological anomaly?
Or was it inexperience,
misjudgment?
Negligence?
We'll see.
Please.
Thank you.
Captain Sheldon, Captain
Sheldon, would you consider yourself...
- a good judge of character
when it came to the boys?
- Yes.
And it would be important, would it not,
in your position to have some sense...
- of their strengths and weaknesses?
- Yes, of course.
Do you recall an incident
involving Gil Martin?
What incident
would you be referring to?
Well, is it true that you forced
Gil Martin to climb the mast...
when it was clear
that he was acrophobic?
He climbed when he was ready.
Were you aware that his brother
was killed in a fall?
Yes, I was.
Sir, were you aware at any time
of the use of alcohol...
- among your crew?
- Yes, I was.
- You didn't do anything about it?
- No, I did not.
Had you ever seen a white squall
before this incident?
No.
And what makes you so sure
it was one?
I can't be sure.
You really felt that your crew
was up to the conditions?
We had come 12,000 miles together
through every kind of seas imaginable.
Except a white squall. Now, with all
due respect, Captain, they're only boys.
They're much more than that, sir.
Is it true that the reason
you expelled Frank Beaumont...
For killing a dolphin.
And that you invited him to strike you,
to fight it out...
on the deck of the ship?
Yes, that is true.
So, you allowed the use of alcohol,
among things, to go unpunished...
and yet you expelled this boy
for killing a fish.
A mammal.
A mammal.
It would appear to me sir,
with all due respect,
that your stewardship
as captain of the Albatross...
could be characterized
as reckless, unbalanced,
with no discipline whatsoever.
Do you find this funny?
Some kind of joke?
I don't think one second
of this is funny... sir.
The National Weather Service...
says white squalls are a meteorological
phenomenon of the imagination.
What do you say to that?
What happened to my ship
was not imagined.
It was not a dream... sir.
No, Captain Sheldon, it was not.
It was a nightmare.
Now, Shay,
I need you to help me out.
On the day of the accident,
do you remember where you were
when the lightning first struck?
I was on deck.
Mmm, midships.
During this squall that ensued,
why didn't you drop any sail?
Skipper called us
out of the rigging.
But your instinct was to lose sail?
Skipper's instinct was to not
get any... any of us electrocuted.
How old are you, son?
Fifteen.
And you were the first mate
of the Albatross. Is that correct?
I am the first mate of the Albatross.
That's correct.
And are you
a professional sailor, son?
No, I'm not
a professional sailor.
You say you turned hard
to starboard when the gust hit.
I thought we'd have a better chance
if I headed into the wind.
But the captain ordered you
hard to port.
- Twice.
- I'm sorry?
- Twice!
- Is that what you were trained to do?
No.
- Speak up, son. I can't hear you.
- I said, "No."
And what did you think
he was trying to do?
Put her off. To let the blow
drive the boat downwind.
By the "blow" you're referring to
the force of the storm. Is that right?
Let the blow drive the boat downwind,
and neutralize our canvas.
So when the captain gave you an order
contrary to your training,
you thought
he was making a mistake.
No.
Then why... son?
Why didn't you follow his order?
Because...
I panicked.
You know that's not true, Tod!
- Do you believe he panicked?
- What the hell is he doing?
Quiet, please.
Maybe you can't see what's
happening here, but I can.
Tod, I appreciate
what you're trying to do here.
Maybe you could live with it,
but I couldn't.
If you think I'm gonna let a
then you underestimate me.
The Albatross was my ship.
The Ocean Academy was my school. Her
responsibility is mine and mine alone.
I can't bring your sons back.
If you want my ticket,
if that will ease your pain,
that's the least that I can do.
- This, this is easy.
- Captain Sheldon?
- Captain?
- No.
- Order, please, order.
- This proceeding is not over.
I have further questions...
- No.
- for this witness.
Order!
Don't you walk out on us,
Skipper! You don't!
You tell me.
Was it all just a lie? Was it?
Because we listened to you,
we believed you! And we are still here.
Bad things happen sometimes, and there
is nothing that you can do about it.
It wasn't you or Tod.
It wasn't you, Tod.
It was all of us,
everyone in this room.
Because we all knew the risks
we were taking going out there.
You paid our tuition,
and you told us to go.
So why do we just have to invent
some reason now for why this happened,
just pin it on one person?
Why?
Then shame on you, Skipper.
Shame on you!
Mr. Gieg.
I was in command
of the Albatross.
And I was responsible
for precious cargo.
It was my job to get you all home safely
with my knowledge and my skill.
That's the contract
that I made with your parents.
But something happened out there.
I lost control.
Maybe just for an instant,
maybe all along. I'm not sure.
But I know this.
I never saw it coming.
It was...
like I just woke up...
and a hand came down
and pushed my sails into the sea.
It got away for me,
the whole thing.
And people died.
Now... you're young and strong.
Everything's ahead of you.
You told us,
"Where we go one, we go all."
Well, we believed you.
We lived by it, sir.
And, and now you're saying
that where you go, we can't follow.
Mr. Gieg.
The Albatross...
wasn't just a ship...
or a school.
It was something
that we made.
Something
that's inside of us.
That's who you are,
Skipper.
What you gave us.
You carried us.
Now let us carry this together.
Let us carry this together.
Let it go. Just go home.
They didn't take his ticket today.
But I wonder if he'll ever
go to sea again.
I know one thing.
If he did, we'd all go with him.
To a man. No doubt.
Not even a question.
Today he joined the circle he created
by allowing us to share his burden.
The burden of sea captains
and fathers,
the burden of men.
In the end,
it just comes down to one thing.
You can't run from the wind.
You face the music,
you trim your sails, and keep going.
She's the dark star
over the sea
Go where my true love
is waiting for me
Rode the south wind
Canvas the stars
Harness the moonlight
so she can safely go
'Round the Cape Horn
to Valpariso
Red the port light
Starboard the green
How will she know
of the devils I've seen
Cross in the sky
Star of the sea
Under the moonlight
There she can safely go
'Round the Cape Horn
to Valpariso
Valpariso
Though every road I walk
will take me down to the sea
With every breath of promise
in my sack
Every love will always send
the ship of my heart
Over the rolling sea
If I should die
Water's my grave
She'll never know
if I'm damned or I'm saved
See the ghosts fly
over the sea
Under the moonlight
there she can safely go
'Round the Cape Horn
to Valpariso
Valpariso
Valpariso