And what's the plan? It will only confuse you.
Listen, I can't be any more confused than I already am.
Steve, I would rather be prosecuting than defending you.
Why? Because I think you're guilty as hell.
Well, maybe I should get another lawyer then.
Well, I'm not looking forward to twisting the Navy's arm.
Why? What, are you scared of the brass? Worse.
Respectful.
You know, sometimes I think the Navy's a master plan
designed by geniuses for execution by idiots.
Where did you hear that? I couldn't have just made that up myself?
Could have made up the Gettysburg Address too. Where'd you hear it?
That's one of Tom Keefer's wisecracks. Oh.
Thomas Keefer, your novelist friend. Yeah.
He's got the sharpest mind on the ship. He's sharp, all right.
He knows everything Queeg did.
I'm sure he does.
The trial counsel will state the charge and specification.
Charge one, mutiny.
Violation of Article 94, Uniform Code of Military Justice.
Specification: In that Lieutenant Stephen Maryk,
while serving as executive officer aboard the USS Caine,
did on December 18th, 2022, commit an act of mutiny.
Lieutenant Maryk willfully, and without proper authority,
and without justifiable cause
did relieve from duty Lieutenant Commander Philip Francis Queeg,
then serving as the duly appointed commanding officer
of the USS Caine,
who was then in lawful exercise of his command.
How do you plead?
Not guilty.
Defense will stipulate that Lieutenant Maryk
was serving as executive officer aboard the USS Caine,
18 December, 2022.
Trial counsel, you may call your first witness.
Call Lieutenant Commander Queeg.
Do you solemnly swear that the evidence you give shall be the truth,
the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?
I do.
Be seated.
[prosecutor] State your name, rank and present position.
Philip Francis Queeg, Lieutenant Commander, United States Navy,
currently attached to Headquarters, Fifth Fleet, awaiting reassignment.
Do you recognize the accused?
[Queeg] Yes.
Lieutenant Maryk, US Navy.
Commander Queeg, on December 18th, 2022,
were you in command of the USS Caine?
Yes, I was.
What type of vessel is the Caine?
Well, her official designation is an MCM-- mine countermeasures ship.
And what is her primary mission?
Well, the Caine is designed to detect and neutralize sea-based mines.
We conduct minesweeping operations
as directed anywhere in the Persian Gulf,
with an emphasis on the Straits of Hormuz.
Commander, on December 18th, 2022,
were you relieved of command of the Caine?
Yes.
By whom?
The accused, Lieutenant Maryk.
[prosecutor] Was this a standard watch change?
No, it was totally irregular.
How would you describe it? [scoffs]
Well, the most charitable description would be that it was an incident,
a regrettable incident of the temporary
and total collapse of military discipline.
Commander, please relate all the facts that bear on this unauthorized relief.
Okay, well,
the Caine sortied from Bahrain on December 16th.
Our mission was to sweep for mines from the Persian Gulf through the Straits of Hormuz.
When a cyclone came along the operation was canceled,
and the boat started to maneuver to evade the storm.
The storm was traveling due west.
[prosecutor] What was the date and time of that course change?
Well, that would be early morning of the 18th, ma'am.
And as I say, the storm was pretty bad at that point.
Visibility was almost zero.
Couldn't see any of the other ships in the detachment.
We were sailing blind through the rain and the spray,
and with the wind and the sea and all,
we had to maneuver using engines and rudders
to hold the evasion course that had been ordered.
But w-we were doing fine.
My executive officer, however, pretty early in the game,
began to show unusual symptoms of nervousness.
What were these symptoms?
Well, for example, he started talking pretty early--
Couldn't have been more than half an hour after the ship started running south--
that we needed to operate independently and come around to the north.
Why did he want to do that?
Well, to give you the picture, the cyclone was coming at us from the east.
We were on the western edge of it,
which means where we were, the wind was from due north.
to get out of the storm's path, Commodore, of course, was running south with the wind
which was in accordance with all existing storm doctrine.
My exec, however, insisted that our ship was on the verge of foundering
and that we had better turn into the wind,
wh-which was the north, if we were to survive.
Now... [chuckles] ...of course, we weren't in that bad of shape.
And that's what I mean by nervousness.
What was your objection to coming north,
as your executive officer suggested?
Well, everything was wrong with that idea that could be wrong with it.
I mean, in the first place, my orders were to proceed south.
My ship wasn't in danger. It--
It was functioning normally.
Uh, to drop out of station and act independently under those circumstances
is out of the question.
And to come around north
would be to head the ship directly into the heart of the cyclone.
It was a senseless suggestion and, under the circumstances, almost suicidal.
I have since checked all of my decisions of December 18th
with the finest ship handlers I know,
ranking all the way up to rear admiral,
and unanimously they agree that the only course in that situation was south.
[prosecutor] Commander, your last remark was hearsay.
Oh, I'm-- I'm sorry.
I'm not up on these legal distinctions
as well as I should be, I guess.
[prosecutor] It's perfectly all right.
Will defense counsel move to strike out the part of the testimony which was hearsay?
All right, so move.
[prosecutor] Please continue.
Well, i-it's just that Maryk's insistence on us coming around
became more and more strident as the weather deteriorated.
I finally became concerned about him
when suddenly he moved towards me
and out of the blue said I was on the sick list and that he was relieving me.
I-I-- To be honest, I couldn't believe my ears.
Took me a moment to catch on.
It wasn't until he started shouting orders at the officer of the deck
and started countermanding my instructions
that I-I did begin to realize what was going on.
Commander, can you recall anything
that could have provoked your executive officer's act?
Truthfully, no.
I don't think my bearing or manner had anything to do with it.
Look... it was a pretty scary situation in that wheelhouse.
Winds were force ten to 12, screeching and all,
and the waves were mountainous.
The barometer had dropped about as low as it's ever been in US Navy history,
and we took a very bad roll.
And I mean a very bad one.
I've done a lot of North Atlantic rolling too.
I just think that Maryk simply went into a panic.
[prosecutor] Mmm.
Was the Caine in grave danger at that time?
Well, I-I wouldn't say that, no, ma'am.
I-I thought we righted ourselves very nicely out of that bad roll.
He repeatedly tried to order me off the bridge, but I stayed right where I was
and gave him orders only as I thought necessary for the safety of the ship.
I-In the situation, I thought that the chief hazard
would be any further act of frenzy on his part.
that storm safely, the Caine did come through
despite the unprecedented... [chuckles] ...running amok of my executive officer,
I believe that my handling of the emergency was the correct one.
Did Maryk cite any authority at all when he relieved you?
Oh, he mumbled something about our Article 1108.
I didn't even catch it at the time.
It wasn't till later that he said his authority
was Article 1108 of Navy Regulations.
And were you familiar with these articles? Certainly.
In substance, what do they provide?
Well, it's my understanding that they make it possible
for the executive officer to relieve the captain i-in an emergency,
a highly unusual emergency where-- where the captain is...
[chuckles]
Well, frankly, where the captain is absolutely unhinged.
Were these articles properly invoked in your situation?
Well, I'm sort of an interested party here.
But you don't have to take my word for it.
I was successfully conning my ship through that cyclone,
and fortunately for me, I have 130 witnesses of that fact.
Everybody aboard that ship.
Uh, Commander, sorry, there again, sir,
you're testifying to the conclusions of others.
Well, obviously I'm not a legal expert. Sorry.
Strike the witness's last sentence from the record.
Have you ever been mentally ill, sir?
No.
Were you ill in any way when Mr. Maryk relieved you?
I was not.
Did you warn your executive officer of the consequences of his act?
I told him he was performing a mutinous act.
[prosecutor] And what was his reply?
He expected to be court-martialed.
He was going to retain command anyway.
What was the attitude of Lieutenant Junior Grade Keith, the officer of the deck?
Keith was in a state of panic as bad as Maryk's.
[prosecutor] What was the attitude of the helmsman?
Stilwell was emotionally unbalanced and for some reason
very devoted to Mr. Keith.
They both backed Maryk.
Is there anything else, Commander Queeg, that you would care to state
in connection with the events of December 18th aboard the Caine?
[exhales] Well, I just...
I've thought a lot about all of this, obviously.
It's the gravest occurrence in my career.
The only questionable one I-I'm aware of.
I-I just think that if the officer of the deck
had been anyone other than this immature Mr. Keith
and the helmsman anyone other than Stilwell,
then none of this would have happened.
I mean, a competent officer would have repudiated Maryk's orders
and a normal sailor at the helm
would have disregarded both of those officers and obeyed me.
It was just bad luck that these three men,
Maryk, Keith and Stilwell,
combined against me at such a crucial time.
Bad luck for me
and I'm afraid even worse luck for them.
[officer] The court would like to question the witness.
Commander Queeg,
you've taken all the prescribed physical and mental examinations
incident to entrance to the academy, graduation,
commissioning, promotion and so forth?
Yes, sir, for 21 years.
Does your medical record contain any history of illness, mental or physical?
No, sir, it does not.
Have you ever had an unsatisfactory fitness report, Commander Queeg?
Negative, sir.
Commander, can you account for Lieutenant Maryk's opinion that you were mentally ill?
[chuckles] All I can say, sir,
is that I assumed command over an extremely... disorganized and dirty ship,
and that's not a reflection on the officer that I relieved.
of arduous duty Caine had gone through a year and a half
a-and it was understandable.
But still, for the safety of that ship and its crew, it demanded to be shaped up,
and I took a lot of strong measures,
a-and Lieutenant Maryk did not see eye to eye with me at all
on this idea of making the Caine a tight ship again.
[chuckles] Well, maybe--
maybe he thought I was crazy to keep trying.
Anyway, that's the picture of it, sir.
[officer] Thank you. [prosecutor] Your witness.
Commander Queeg, I would like to ask you
whether you have ever heard the expression "Old Yellowstain."
In which connection?
Old Yellowstain, sir.
No, I have not.
You weren't aware that all the officers of the Caine
habitually referred to you as Old Yellowstain?
I object to the question. Impertinent badgering of the witness.
How does Defense Counsel Greenwald justify this line of questioning?
Please the court, the nickname Old Yellowstain,
used by the officers of the Caine,
will be relevant to the issue of mental competence.
Before ruling, the court wishes to caution defense counsel.
This is a most unusual and delicate case.
The honor and career of an officer
with an unblemished military record of 21 years standing is involved.
The defense counsel will have to bear full responsibility
for the conduct of this case.
Subject to the foregoing comment,
the trial counsel's objection is overruled.
Court stenographer will repeat the question.
"You aren't aware, then, that all the officers of the Caine
have habitually referred to you as Old Yellowstain?"
I was not aware of that.
No further questions.
For now.
Commander Queeg will be called as a witness for the defense.
For the defense?
Yes, sir.
You're excused, subject to recall.
Thank you, sir.
[prosecutor] Call Lieutenant Thomas Keefer.
State your name, rank and present station.
Thomas Keefer, Lieutenant, United States Navy,
communication officer of the USS Caine.
If you recognize the accused, state his name.
Lieutenant Steve Maryk, executive officer of the Caine.
What is your occupation in civilian life?
I'm a writer.
And has any of your work been published?
A number of short stories have been published, yes, ma'am.
Did you do any writing in your spare time while in service?
Yes, I have completed half a war novel.
[chuckles] And what's the title?
Multitudes, Multitudes.
And has this novel, though incomplete,
recently been accepted by a publisher?
Yes.
Now, Lieutenant Keefer,
were you serving aboard the Caine in your present capacity
on December 18th, 2022? Yes.
Was Captain Queeg relieved of his command on that date?
He was. By whom?
The executive officer.
Describe how you learned that the captain had been relieved.
Uh, well, Mr. Maryk passed word for all officers to come up to the wheelhouse.
When we got there, he told us that the captain was sick and he had assumed command.
Did Captain Queeg show any external signs of being sick?
Look, at the height of a cyclone--
Was he raving, or was he foaming, or-- No, no.
Did he look any worse off than, say, Lieutenant Keith? No.
Or Maryk? No.
W-We were all tired, dripping and wiped out.
Mr. Keefer, did you make any effort to persuade Mr. Maryk
to restore Queeg to command?
No, I did not.
Did you not feel the seriousness of the moment?
I certainly did.
Why did you take no remedial action?
I wasn't present when the captain was relieved.
Maryk was in full command. The entire ship was obeying his orders.
I thought that, for the safety of the ship,
my best course was to obey his orders.
Mr. Keefer, were you aboard the Caine
throughout the period that Captain Queeg was in command?
Yes, I was. Did you ever observe any evidence of insanity in him?
I don't-- I can't answer that question, not being a psychiatrist.
Did you ever think he might be insane?
Objection.
Witness is not an expert and matters of opinion are not admissible evidence.
I withdraw the question.
Mr. Keefer, at any time prior to December 18th,
were you informed that Maryk suspected Queeg of being mentally ill?
Yes, I was. Describe how you learned this.
Well, uh, let me see.
Two-- Two weeks before the cyclone,
Maryk showed me a medical log
he had kept on Captain Queeg's behavior.
He asked me to come with him to report the situation to--
to Admiral Williams, Commander Fifth Fleet.
And did you consent to go with him?
Yes, I did. Why?
He was my superior officer and also my close friend.
Did you believe that Maryk's log justified the relief of Queeg?
No. No.
As soon as we got aboard Admiral Williams's ship,
I told him as forcibly as I could that, in my opinion,
the log wouldn't justify the action.
What was his response? After a lot of arguing, he told me--
[clears throat] After a lot of arguing, he-- he followed my advice.
We returned to the Caine.
Were you surprised two weeks later when he relieved the captain?
I was stunned.
Were you good with that, Mr. Keefer?
I was badly disturbed.
I thought that, at best, he would be involved in grave difficulties.
I thought it was a terrible situation and an error on his part.
No further questions.
No questions.
Does the defense intend to recall this witness
at a later time?
No, sir.
No cross-examination of this highly material witness?
No, sir.
The court will question the witness.
Mr. Keefer-- [clears throat]
Now, as to this so-called medical log,
the facts it contained which convinced Lieutenant Maryk
that he should report the captain to Admiral Williams
didn't convince you.
Is that right? They did not, sir.
Why not?
Sir, it's not something a layman can intelligently discuss.
You've stated you're a close friend of Mr. Maryk.
Yes, sir.
Well, this court is trying to find out, among other things,
any possible extenuating circumstances for his acts.
Did this medical log merely indicate to you
that Captain Queeg was a highly normal and competent officer?
Sir, speaking from ignorance,
it's always seemed to me that mental disability was a-- a relative thing.
Captain Queeg was a very strict disciplinarian
and extremely meticulous in hunting down the smallest matters.
He wasn't the easiest person in the world to reason with.
And there were several occasions where I thought he came down too hard
and spent excessive time on small matters.
They were very unpleasant.
But to jump from them to the conclusion that the captain was a maniac,
no, no, I was compelled, in all honesty,
to warn Maryk against doing that.
[prosecutor] State your name, rank and present station.
[clears throat]
Junius Urban, Quartermaster Third Class, US Navy
of the USS Caine.
Do you recognize the accused?
Ma'am?
Do you recognize the accused?
M-Ma'am?
Do you recognize the officer at that table?
[Urban] Wh-Which one? There are two.
Name the one you recognize.
Th-That's the exec.
What's his name?
M-Mr. Maryk.
What is he the exec of?
The-- The ship.
Name the ship. The Caine.
Thank you. Sorry.
Urban, on December 18th, 2022,
were you serving aboard the Caine in your present capacity?
Is that the day it happened?
The day what happened?
I don't know.
That was the day of the cyclone, yes.
Sure. I-- I was aboard.
Were you in the wheelhouse
when Mr. Maryk relieved Captain Queeg?
Yes.
Who else was in the wheelhouse at the time?
Well, um, there was-- there was the captain and M-Mr. Maryk.
Yes?
Th-Th-The helmsman.
His name? Stilwell.
Who else?
The officer of the day. His name?
Mr. Keith.
What were you doing in the wheelhouse?
I had the watch.
Urban, describe in your own words
how Lieutenant Maryk relieved the captain.
H-He said...
"I relieve you," ma'am.
What was happening at the time?
Well, the ship was rolling very bad. It was an ass-kicker storm.
Urban, describe everything that happened
in the ten minutes before Captain Queeg was relieved.
Well, li-like I say,
the ship was rolling very bad.
That's all?
Did the captain say anything? Did the exec say anything?
Did the officer of the day say anything?
Or did the ship just roll in silence for ten minutes?
Well, ma'am, it was a cyclone.
Petty Officer Urban, you are under oath.
W-Well...
I-I think the captain wanted to come north,
and the exec wanted to come s-south.
O-Or the other way around, or something like that.
[prosecutor] Why did the captain want to come south?
I don't know. Why did the exec want to come north?
Ma'am, I'm just a third-class petty officer.
Did the captain act crazy? No.
Did the execs seem scared? N-No.
Did the captain? No.
Did anyone?
I-- I was goddamn scared.
I-I beg your pardon, sir.
But the captain did not act crazy in any way that morning, correct?
The captain was the same as always. Crazy or sane, Urban?
H-He was sane.
S-S-S-So far as I knew.
Petty Officer Urban, how old are you?
Twenty. What schooling have you had?
[stammering] High school-- High school diploma.
[officer] Have you been telling the whole truth here,
or haven't you?
Sir, a-an enlisted man o-on watch
isn't supposed to listen to arguments between the captain and the exec.
Did you like the captain?
S-Sure, I liked him, sir.
Continue your examination.
No further questions.
Petty Officer Urban, were you aboard the Caine
when she cut her own tow cable?
Y-Yes-- Yes, sir.
And what were you doing at the time? I was--
Well, that is, the captain was bawling me out on the bridge, sir.
What for? My shirttail was out.
Was the captain very strict on the subject of shirttails?
[chuckles] Yes, sir. He was very strict on shirttails, sir.
And while he was describing your shirttail,
the ship went around in a full circle
and steamed over its own tow cable.
Is that what happened? I object to this line of questioning.
Counsel has tricked the witness with leading questions
into asserting that the Caine cut its own tow line,
a material point that was not touched upon in direct examination.
Please the court, the witness has stated
that he's never seen the captain do anything crazy.
I'm simply trying to refute that statement.
Defense counsel will have the opportunity to originate evidence later.
Objection sustained.
Cross-examination thus far will be stricken from the record.
Urban, what is a paranoid personality?
Huh? A paranoid personality.
What is it? Sir?
Would you recognize a psychotic person if you saw one?
Me? It's okay.
No further questions. Thank you.
Petty Officer Urban,
you will not discuss your testimony in this courtroom with anybody, understand?
Wh-Who, sir? Me, sir?
No, sir.
Witness excused.
Thank you, sir.
[whispering]
I see that, uh, trial counsel intends to call
a dozen members of the crew of the Caine.
Yeah? Yeah, that's correct.
And the purpose is to confirm Urban's testimony
no one ever saw the captain do anything crazy.
That is the purpose. Okay, I'll concede that.
I'll concede they'll all corroborate Urban's testimony
if you concede that none of them know any more about a paranoid than Urban does.
Yeah, I'll gladly accept that concession on those terms, sir.
Okay. Lieutenant, that's a weighty concession.
And by your leave, sir, I'll make that concession.
Uh-- [exhales]
Mr. Greenwald, I understand that you were appointed as defense counsel
by the judge advocate.
Yes, sir.
When were you appointed? Four days ago, sir.
Do you feel you've had enough time to prepare your case? Yes, sir.
Did you undertake the assignment willingly?
Uh, sir, Lieutenant Greenwald accepted the assignment
at the request of the judge advocate.
[sighs] I see that you're a naval aviator. Yes, sir.
What do you fly? Primarily the F/A-18 Super Hornet, sir.
Why aren't you flying now? Medical leave, sir.
Why? Forced to eject from a damaged aircraft.
I see.
Did you have a chance to practice much law? A little, sir.
[sighs]
Lieutenant Maryk.
Yes, sir.
I need to know if you're happy with your counsel's conduct of the defense.
Sir, if he answers that question, he does on blind faith.
Can I just have a moment to speak to my client privately?
[sighs]
Two minutes.
[Greenwald] Come on.
Thank you.
So, do you want to get rid of me?
I don't know.
I think I'm screwed at this point.
Fifteen years in the brig?
Mm-hmm.
Tell me one thing. Why didn't you cross-examine Tom?
I don't have time to tell you everything.
Tom Keefer knows everything the captain did. Everything. I'm sure he does.
If he wouldn't talk, it's up to you to drag it out.
Wasn't it? You don't understand.
No, I don't understand what you're doing. That's for sure.
I want to fight this case. Why?
Because I want to win it. Why?
Is that not enough?
Before you said you'd rather be prosecuting than defending me.
So maybe this is your bizarre way of prosecuting.
Steve, listen to me very carefully.
Implicating Keefer harms you. What?
Two disgruntled bastards instead of one heroic exec.
I have a chance with one heroic exec.
Making that stick is the only chance for you to win.
For the record, the court asks the accused,
are you satisfied with your counsel?
I'm satisfied, sir.
Court will not reopen this question. I understand that, sir.
I'm satisfied with Lieutenant Greenwald.
Proceed with your case, Commander Challee.
Call Lieutenant Keith.
State your name, rank and present station.
Willis Keith, US Navy Junior Grade,
assistant communications officer on the USS Caine.
Mr. Keith, were you officer of the deck of the Caine
on December 18th, 2022?
I was.
Was the captain relieved of his command on that date?
Yes, ma'am.
Do you know why the executive officer
relieved the captain? Yes.
Captain Queeg had lost control of himself
and the ship was in grave danger of foundering.
How many years have you served at sea, Lieutenant?
One year, three months.
Do you know how many years Commander Queeg has served at sea?
I guess about 17 years.
Which one of you is better qualified to judge
whether a ship is foundering or not?
Myself, ma'am,
if I'm in possession of my faculties and Commander Queeg isn't.
Well, what makes you think he wasn't in possession of his faculties?
He wasn't on the morning of December 18th.
Oh. Have you studied medicine or psychiatry? No.
Did the captain foam or rave or make insane gestures?
No. No. What he did do was just as bad.
Clarify that, will you?
His orders were vague.
He insisted on going south when we had a north wind of 90 miles an hour behind us.
With a stern wind that strong, the ship couldn't be controlled.
In your expert opinion as ship handler, that is.
Well, Steve Maryk thought so, and he's an expert ship handler.
Were you completely loyal to your captain or not, prior to 18 December?
I was, uh, antagonistic to Captain Queeg at certain isolated times.
At what isolated times were you antagonistic?
When the captain mistreated his men, I opposed him.
When did the captain ever mistreat his men?
Well, for one thing, he systematically persecuted
Gunners Mate Second Class Stilwell.
In what way?
First, he restricted him to the ship for six months for reading on watch.
Refused to grant him leave when we were back in the States in December 2021.
The man was getting anonymous messages about his wife's infidelity.
[stammers, sighs] Maryk gave Stilwell a 72-hour emergency leave.
He returned a few hours over leave--
Hold on. Hold on. You say that Maryk gave Stilwell leave.
Did Maryk know that the captain had denied Stilwell leave?
Yes.
Did Maryk check with the captain before authorizing this leave?
No, um...
Are you testifying, Mr. Keith,
that Maryk deliberately violated his captain's orders?
Uh...
I-- I mean, i-it was my fault, actually.
'Cause I begged him to. He was--
Mr. Keith, we now have your testimony
that you and Stilwell and Maryk
conspired to circumvent an express order by your commanding officer
a whole year before the cyclone of 18 December.
Now, please tell the court
any other instances of mistreatment that occur to you.
He cut off Internet access for six months
'cause he wasn't invited to a screening by mistake.
Uh, he restricted water use in the middle of a heat wave
'cause he said the men were using too much, they had to be taught a lesson.
Did the captain ever issue any rules or punishments not permitted by regulations?
He never did anything not allowed by regulations.
You don't like the captain, do you, Lieutenant?
Oh, I did. I did at first.
Very much. Mm-hmm.
But I gradually came to realize
that he was a petty tyrant and utterly incompetent.
Did you think he was insane, too?
Not until the day of the cyclone.
Very well. Come to the day of the storm.
Was your decision to obey Maryk
based on your judgment that the captain had gone mad?
Or was it based on your hatred of Captain Queeg?
I-- I just-- I don't remember my state of mind at that time.
No further questions.
Mr. Keith, you stated you disliked Captain Queeg, yes?
I did dislike him.
And did you state all your reasons for disliking him? Not at all.
Okay, well, please, state the rest of those reasons now.
Well, for one thing, he extorted a thousand bucks from me.
Objection.
The issue in this case is not whether Captain Queeg was a model officer,
but whether he was insane on 18 December.
Defense counsel hasn't even touched that issue.
Well, please the court, this bears directly on the fitness
of Captain Queeg to command a naval vessel.
And as evidence, it is nothing but clarification
of Keith's dislike for his commanding officer,
a fact brought out by trial counsel, at great pains, I might add,
under direct examination.
The objection is overruled.
Mr. Keith, could you please describe this so-called extortion?
Well, this was back last December in Port Doha, Qatar.
Uh, the captain had this crate,
this big crate full of duty-free whiskey that he wanted to sneak aboard.
He appointed me boat officer,
and a working party started to load the crate in the gig.
It was incredibly heavy,
and Captain Queeg... got excited
and started screaming out a whole bunch of contradictory orders.
Sailors got rattled, they dropped the crate in the water,
it sank like a stone, I was out a thousand bucks.
No, you mean the captain was out a thousand bucks.
No, no, no, sir. I was.
Captain informed me it was my responsibility,
'cause I was boat officer in charge of loading,
and he asked me what I wanted to do about it.
I was supposed to go on leave the next day.
My girlfriend had flown out from New York to be with me,
so I went to the captain,
I apologized for my stupidity,
and I offered to pay for the crate.
He took my money and signed my leave papers.
What other reasons do you have for disliking Captain Queeg?
Well, my chief reason for disliking Captain Queeg
was his cowardice in dangerous situations.
Objection!
Counsel is originating evidence
beyond the scope of direct examination.
He is leading the witness to irresponsible libel of an officer of the Navy.
Please the court, the witness's dislike of Captain Queeg
was not only in the scope of direct examination,
it was the key fact brought out.
Now, the witness has confessed an ignorance of psychiatry.
Things Captain Queeg did
which forced the witness in his ignorance to dislike him
may in fact have been the helpless acts of a sick man.
I respectfully urge my objection, sir.
Let me remind everyone
of the serious nature of the issues in this line of questioning
and the implications involved.
From the earliest days of our service,
the worst charge that can be leveled against a naval service officer,
especially the commanding officer of a vessel,
is that he displays cowardice or negligence in the face of danger to his ship or crew.
Counsel and the witness are herewith cautioned
that they are treading on dangerous and unprecedented grounds here.
Court offers defense counsel the opportunity
to withdraw his question from the record.
My question stands, sir.
Lieutenant Keith,
you have the opportunity to withdraw or amend your answers.
I stand by what I said, sir.
Very well.
Court finds that the question is within the scope of direct examination
and that the answer is material.
The objection of the trial counsel is overruled.
Mr. Keith, can you describe when and where
the captain displayed this aversion to danger?
Uh, well, I guess the worst time was a mine-sweeping operation
in the Straits of Hormuz.
That's where he got the nickname Old Yellowstain.
And this nickname, Old Yellowstain, what does it imply?
Well, cowardice, of course.
It refers to a yellow dye marker he dropped over the side.
Describe. Describe this Yellowstain incident for us, please.
I wasn't on the bridge at the time.
I only heard about it afterwards-- Oh! Objection.
Does defense counsel seriously expect to enter these hearsay libels on the record?
I withdraw the question, okay?
Defense will introduce direct evidence on the Yellowstain incident.
Strike the question and the answer from the record.
Describe incidents of cowardice
to which you were an eyewitness, Mr. Keith.
Any time there was a difficult situation,
Captain Queeg was always to be found on the side of the bridge away from it all.
I saw that a dozen times when I was officer of the day. Thank you.
No further questions.
Mr. Keith, has Lieutenant Commander Queeg
ever been investigated or charged by higher authority
for any of this alleged unprofessional behavior that you describe?
No.
Can you cite any official records
that'll substantiate any of these fantastic
and libelous stories that you've been telling
under the guidance of defense counsel?
Official records, no.
Mr. Keith, do you know for a fact
that the crate that was lost contained smuggled liquor?
It's common knowledge.
Common knowledge.
Did you see the liquor in the crate? No.
Can you name one person who will testify that they saw liquor in the crate?
Naturally, he was pretty careful about that. Okay, not one person.
I just-- I don't-- I don't know who would have actually seen it.
Mr. Keith, you've testified
that you don't like Captain Queeg.
You're reporting as fact every evil rumor about him
and you're making wildly irresponsible charges under oath.
Isn't that the plain truth of your testimony, Mr. Keith?
I haven't lied once.
Mr. Keith, on the morning that the captain was relieved,
did you really think he'd gone crazy?
I said before,
I can't say for sure what my state of mind was, or his.
No more questions.
Call Captain Southard.
State your name, rank and present station.
Randolph Southard,
Captain, US Navy operations officer, Fifth Fleet.
You understand that you've been called as an expert witness
on Avenger-class ship handling?
I do.
State your qualifications.
Some 20 years on smaller combatants,
ten years of commanding all types,
including ships ranging up to guided missile destroyers.
To clarify for the members, will you use the map marked "Exhibit A"
to illustrate the position of the Caine when she encountered the storm?
The Caine was approximately here.
The storm hit from the northeast, heading southwest.
Vessels of the task force steered south
in an attempt to outrun the weather.
of the sweep pattern, Caine, in her spot on the right flank
caught the worst of it.
Rather than steering with the wind aft,
she turned north into the wind and seized.
That was the situation in the strait on the day in question.
Thank you, Captain. You may be seated.
Trial counsel, you may proceed.
Thank you.
Captain, let's say that, hypothetically,
you're the one who's in command of the vessel.
A cyclone blows up without warning traveling west
and you're directly in the path of it.
The wind keeps increasing,
its direction holding steady from the north.
Soon your wind is force ten to 12 and your seas are mountainous.
Under the circumstances, what would you do?
Well, I'd execute the classic Navy maneuver
known as getting the hell out of there.
And how would you go about that, Captain?
Well, it's almost rule of thumb.
You say the winds from the north are 90 knots,
center of the cyclone coming at you from the west.
The best course is south.
You might have to head a couple of points one way or the other,
depending on your seas,
but there's only one way out of that mess-- south.
But then you have a terribly strong stern wind, don't you?
What about it?
Well, can a small vessel ride safely going downwind in such conditions?
She'll ride just as well going downwind as upwind.
In fact, with your high freeboard going forward,
a smaller vessel tends to back in the wind.
Other things being equal, she'll do slightly better going downwind.
How about turning north in those circumstances and heading into the wind?
Well, that would be dubious and dangerous, not to mention idiotic.
Why, sir?
Well, you're heading yourself right back into the path of the cyclone.
Unless you're interested in sinking, that's not smart.
That's all, sir.
Captain, have you ever conned a ship at the center of a cyclone?
Negative.
Been on the fringes often, but always managed to avoid the center.
And have you ever commanded a mine countermeasures ship? Negative.
Okay, this trial, sir, concerns an Avenger-class MCM
at the center of a very dangerous storm.
I'm aware of that.
I've had MCMs under my command, and I've read the book on them.
They don't differ from smaller-class vessels
in terms of characteristics and handling in rough weather.
I only ask these questions, sir,
because you are the only expert ship-handling witness,
and I believe the extent of your expert knowledge should be clear to the court.
Well, I've handled these ships
in almost every conceivable situation for the last ten years.
Haven't handled a mine countermeasures at the center of a cyclone,
but I don't know who the hell has besides the skipper of the Caine.
That's a thousand-to-one shot.
Then would you state, without reservation,
that the same rules hold for an MCM at the center of a cyclone?
At the center of a cyclone, there are no hard and fast rules.
That's one situation where it's all up to the commanding officer.
Too many things happen too fast.
Mmm.
You remember the hypothetical question put to you by trial counsel
about the storm, yes?
I do.
I want you to assume in that situation
that the wind and the seas become bigger.
They become bigger than anything-- anything you have ever experienced.
You have lost control of your ship, sir.
You actually believe she could sink.
You are in the worst-case scenario.
Do you bring around north into the wind,
or do you continue south, stern to the wind?
You're getting very extreme.
Yes, sir, I am. Would you prefer not to answer the question?
I'll answer it. Please.
In the worst-case scenario,
I'd come around the north, into the wind, if I could.
But only in the worst-case scenario. Why?
Because the engines in your rudder have the best chance that way.
That's why. It's your last chance to keep control of your ship.
But aren't you heading back into the center of the storm? First things first.
If you're on the verge of sinking,
you about as bad off as you can get.
Mind you, you said worst-case scenario.
I did, sir. Thank you very much. No further questions.
Captain, who, in your opinion, is the best judge
as to whether a ship is in the worst-case scenario?
There's only one judge. The commanding officer.
Why, sir?
The Navy made him captain 'cause his knowledge of the sea and of ships
is better than anyone else's on the ship.
It's very common for some subordinate officers to think the ship is sinking
when all that's happening is a little weather.
Well, don't you think, sir, that when his subordinates
all agree that the ship is going down
that the captain ought to listen to them?
Negative.
Panic is a common hazard at sea.
The highest function of command is to override
and listen to nothing but the voice of his own professional judgment.
Call Dr. Joan Lundeen.
State your name, rank and present station.
Lieutenant Commander Joan Lundeen,
Medical Corps, US Navy, Head of Psychiatry,
US Naval Hospital, San Francisco.
Were you the head of the medical board that examined Lieutenant Commander Queeg?
I was.
And how long did your examination last, Doctor?
We had the commander under constant observation and testing for three weeks.
[Challee] And what was the finding of the board?
Commander Queeg was discharged with a clean bill of health.
Doctor, is it possible that two months ago, on December 18th,
he was in such a state of psychotic collapse
that relieving him from naval command would be justified?
No.
Is it possible for a sane man
to perform offensive, disagreeable, foolish acts?
It happens every day.
We didn't find that the commander was a perfect officer.
Yet, you still say that to relieve him from naval command
because of mental illness would be unjustified?
Completely unjustified.
Thank you.
Dr. Lundeen,
my background is legal, not medical,
so I hope you'll bear with me as I try to clarify some technical terms.
Of course.
I'm going to ask some pretty elementary questions. All right.
Would you say Commander Queeg is absolutely normal?
[chuckles]
Well, normality, you know, is a fiction in psychiatry. Mmm.
No adult is without problems except a happy imbecile.
What are Commander Queeg's problems?
You might say his overall problem is one of an inferiority complex
generated by an unhappy childhood
and aggravated by certain adult experiences.
Unhappy childhood in what way?
Divorced parents, financial trouble,
problems at school.
And the aggravating factors in adult life?
In his adult life,
the commander is troubled by his low standing
in his academy class and other such factors,
but he has become well-adjusted.
Mmm. Can you describe the nature of that adjustment?
His identity as a naval officer is the essential factor.
It's the key to his personal security.
Therefore, he has a fixed anxiety about protecting his standing.
That would account for his harshness.
Would he be slow to admit mistakes?
Yes, of course. There's nothing unbalanced in that.
Oh, really? I mean, would he be a perfectionist?
Such a personality would be.
Inclined to hound his subordinates
over the smallest little details.
Any mistake of a subordinate is intolerable
because it might cause him harm.
Yet he will not admit mistakes that he makes himself.
You might say that he revises reality in his own mind
so he comes out blameless.
Doctor, isn't distortion of reality a symptom of mental illness?
It's a question of degree.
Each one of us has our own reality.
Yes, Doctor, but doesn't Commander Queeg distort reality more, say, than you do?
Yes, that's his weakness.
Other people have other weaknesses.
It's definitely not disabling.
Well, if he's criticized, would he think he was being unjustly persecuted?
It's all one pattern,
all stemming from one basic premise that he must try to be perfect.
Inclined to stubbornness, then.
Well, you'll have a certain rigidity of personality
in such an individual.
His inner insecurity stops him from admitting
that those who differ from him may be right.
Doctor, you just testified that the following symptoms exist in Commander Queeg's behavior.
We have rigidity of personality.
We have feelings of persecution.
We have unreasonable suspicion.
We have withdrawal from reality.
We have performance anxiety.
We have an unreal basic premise
and an obsessive sense of self-righteousness.
All mild, sir. All well-compensated.
Yes, Doctor, yes.
But is there an inclusive psychiatric term, one label for this syndrome?
Syndrome? Who said anything about a syndrome?
You're misusing a term. There's no syndrome because there's no disease.
I'll rephrase it.
Do these symptoms fall into
a single pattern of neurotic disturbance, a common psychiatric class?
I know what you're getting at. Well?
It's a paranoid personality, but that is not a disabling affliction.
Doctor-- A what personality, Doctor?
Paranoid.
A paranoid? Yes, paranoid.
Um, Doctor, in a--
in a paranoid personality, like Commander Queeg's,
would he-- I'm--
I'm gonna put this to you hypothetically.
Can a man have a paranoid personality
that would not disable him for subordinate duties,
but would disable him for command?
It's conceivable.
And is the disabling factor likely to be detected in a personal interview?
With a skilled psychiatrist, yes.
Why? I mean, why is a psychiatrist needed?
Can't an educated, intelligent person detect a paranoid?
Well, you evidently aren't too well acquainted with the pattern.
The distinguishing mark of this neurosis
is the extreme plausibility and a most convincing normal manner on the surface,
particularly in self-justification.
Self-justification.
Thank you, Doctor.
No further questions.
[officer] The court wishes to clear up one point.
Doctor, is... is such a thing possible--
Well, let me put it this way.
Let's say that a man with a mild condition
is not disabled for all the usual stresses of command.
Now let's say those stresses are multiplied manifold by an extreme emergency.
Would there then be a tendency to make erroneous judgments?
There might be, sir.
Of course, extreme stress does that to almost anybody.
It's not supposed to do it to commanding officers.
No, but practically speaking, sir, they're human.
State your name, rank and present station.
Allen Bird, MD, US Navy Reserve.
I was called to serve on the psychiatric evaluation team.
Was this the board that was headed by Dr. Lundeen
which recently inquired into the mental health of Lieutenant Commander Queeg?
Yes. And what was the finding of the board?
We found that the commander is mentally fit for command now
and has never been unfit.
Did you find any indication that Commander Queeg
had what is known as a paranoid personality?
Well, I prefer to call it obsessive personality with paranoid features.
Right, but this did not indicate mental unfitness. No.
You agree, Doctor, that Commander Queeg is mentally fit now
and must have been mentally fit on December 18th
when he was relieved on the grounds of mental illness?
That was our unanimous conclusion.
Thank you, Doctor.
[Greenwald] Dr. Bird,
do you have any special training in psychoanalysis?
Yes.
Okay, and in psychoanalysis, is there such a thing as mental illness?
There are disturbed people and adjusted people.
But those terms, "disturbed" and "adjusted,"
they correspond roughly in layman's terms
to "sick" and "well," as we use them.
Very roughly, yes.
Would you say Commander Queeg suffers from an inferiority complex?
Yes, but it's... well-compensated.
Is there a difference between "compensated" and "adjusted"?
Most definitely.
Okay, could you please describe that for us?
Well, let's say a man is suffering
from some deep-seated psychological disturbance.
He can compensate by finding outlets for his peculiar drives.
Okay. So, has Commander Queeg ever been psychoanalyzed?
No. He's in your terms, then, a disturbed person?
Yes, he is. Not disabled, however, by the disturbance.
Okay, how is he compensated?
Mainly two ways.
The paranoid pattern, which is useless and not desirable,
and his naval career, which is extremely useful and desirable.
Yes, Doctor, have you noticed that little thing he does with his hands?
You mean rolling the steel balls? Yes.
Could you describe that for us, please?
It's an incessant rolling of two marbles in his hand.
Mm-hmm. Why does he do it?
Oh, uh, his hands tremble.
He does it to still his hands and conceal the trembling.
Why do his hands tremble?
Inner tension. It's a surface symptom.
Doctor, you've testified that Commander Queeg
is a disturbed, not an adjusted person, yes?
Yes. So he is, in layman's terms, sick.
Yes?
I remember agreeing to the rough resemblance of the terms "disturbed" and "sick,"
but by those terms an awful lot of people are sick.
Yes, Doctor, but this court only has Commander Queeg's sickness at issue.
If he is sick, how could your board have given him a clean bill of health?
Y-You're playing on words. We found no disability.
Doctor, just suppose for an instant
that the requirements of command are way more severe than you believe them to be.
Wouldn't even this mild sickness be enough to disable him?
That's absurdly hypothetical, because-- Oh, is it?
Have you ever had sea duty, Doctor? No.
No? How long have you been in the service of the Navy?
Five months. Five months?
Five-- Six months. Six, I guess now.
Six months in the service of the Navy.
Have you ever had any dealings with ships' captains prior to this case?
No. No?
Then on what do you base
your estimate of the requirements of command?
My general knowledge.
Would you say it takes somebody, a person of exceptional ability,
highly gifted, highly skilled to be a commander of a naval vessel?
No. No. Really?
Not highly gifted, no. Then what?
Uh, reasonable responses. "Reasonable"?
Uh, fairly good intelligence. "Fairly good"?
Sufficient training and experience, but--
Is this enough equipment, say, for a highly skilled psychiatrist?
Not exactly.
So in other words, it takes more ability to be a psychiatrist
than it does to be the commander of a US naval vessel.
It takes-- That is, uh, different abilities are required.
You're making the comparison, not I.
No, Doctor, you're the one that said you don't think Commander Queeg's sickness
should disable him for command.
I am suggesting that since you evidently know little about the requirements of command,
that you may be wrong in your conclusion.
Well, I reject your suggestion. Oh, you do? Why?
Because you've deliberately substituted the word "sick,"
which is a loose-- a polarizing-- Have I?
A what word, Doctor? Polarizing.
A polarizing word. I never said "sick."
My grasp of the requirements of command is adequate,
or I would have disqualified myself from serving on the board.
Maybe you should have disqualified yourself.
Objection! The witness is being badgered!
I withdraw my last statement.
No further questions.
Doctor, the defense counsel has managed to put words into your mouth
that I'm certain you don't mean.
I'm not aware that he succeeded in putting any words into my mouth.
Doctor, he drew the implication from you that Captain Queeg is sick.
Surely you don't-- I'm careful in my use of terminology.
I did not use the term "sick."
Captain Queeg is definitely not disabled for command, which is the only issue here.
Prosecution rests.
Defense, present your case.
I call the accused.
Does the accused request that he be permitted to testify? Yes, sir.
You have the right not to take the stand.
If you don't take the stand, that fact won't be to your prejudice.
If you take the stand, you may be subjected to a rigorous cross-examination.
I understand that, sir.
You may take the stand.
State your name, rank and present position.
Steven Maryk, Lieutenant, US Navy,
executive officer of the USS Caine.
Are you the accused in this court-martial? Yes, I am.
What was your occupation in civilian life?
Helping my father in his fishing business. We own a couple boats.
Where? San Francisco.
Then you were familiar with the problems of ocean-going ship handling
prior to joining the Navy?
Yes, I've been on boats since I was 14.
Did you relieve the commander of the USS Caine 18th December, 2022?
Yes, I did.
Yes, it was. Caine in trouble when you relieved its captain?
And on what facts do you base that judgment? Well, several things.
We couldn't hold course.
We broached three times in an hour. "Broached"?
Yes, wind and sea took charge and tossed us sideways ten minutes at a time.
We were rolling too steeply for the inclinometer to record.
We were shipping water out of the wheelhouse. The generators were cutting out.
The ship was not responding to emergency rudder and engine settings.
We were lost and out of control.
And did you inform your captain of this? Yes.
Repeatedly for an hour. I begged him to come north into the wind.
What was his reply?
Well, mostly just a glazed look and no answer.
Mr. Maryk,
when did you start keeping your medical log on Commander Queeg?
Shortly after the incident with the mines in the Straits of Hormuz.
And why did you start it? I began to think the captain might be mentally ill.
Why? Because of the yellow dye marker business.
You mean the incident where the commander acquired the nickname Old Yellowstain?
Yes.
Were you an eyewitness to this occurrence?
I was navigator. I was right there on the bridge.
Please describe this Yellowstain incident.
It was the third day of an assigned sweep with two other MCMs.
Mm-hmm.
We had detected a field of acoustic mines.
[speaking louder] It was the third day
of an assigned sweep with two other MCMs.
We detected a field of acoustic mines
in the narrowest part of the strait
and we'd been ordered to destroy them in place using high explosives.
And that's delicate business. It's gotta be done just right.
We milled around out there for a while.
Then the captain decided not to set the charges.
He gave us some excuse about faulty equipment.
I checked the gear. It was in perfect working order.
And the captain wouldn't hear it.
He said the tech was incompetent and he knew better.
So we dropped a yellow dye marker over the side,
radioed to the other MCM to destroy the mines.
They radioed back to slow down, but we just-- we steamed right out of there.
[Greenwald] "Steamed." Now, Mr. Maryk--
The court wishes to question the witness.
Lieutenant, you say the gear was in working order. Did you check it personally?
Yes, sir, along with the chief electronic tech and the sonar men.
It was fine. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the gear.
And after you steamed away, was there any danger due to shock waves
from the underwater detonations?
No. No, there was not.
MCMs are designed to withstand that kind of thing. We do this all the time.
Now, you say these boats signaled to you to slow down.
Yes, sir. Was the signal reported to your captain?
I reported it to him myself.
Was he aware that he was steaming away
from his assigned spot in the sweep formation?
It was obvious to everyone on the bridge. I pointed it out.
I said we were breaking the sweep pattern,
that the other vessels would not know where we'd found the mines.
And that is when he said, "We'll drop a yellow dye marker over the side then."
You may continue.
Mr. Maryk, why didn't you go immediately to a higher authority
with your doubts about Captain Queeg's mental health?
I felt if I had a record, I'd be on stronger ground.
That's when I decided to keep the medical log.
If I was wrong, I'd just burn it. I kept it under lock and key.
And what, in your opinion,
made an incident worthy of keeping a record in the medical log?
Any act that seemed abnormal or strange.
Like what? Like the coffee machine.
The coffee machine business? Yes.
Well, please describe the coffee machine thing.
We had a new coffee machine in the wardroom.
And, uh, Captain really liked his coffee. But you had to be careful.
You couldn't leave it plugged in too long or the thing would burn out.
That's exactly what happened.
One of the guys assigned to the wardroom mess duty forgot to unplug it
and the thing was-- it was just fried.
And none of them would admit which one had done it.
So the captain ordered all the officers of the ship to sit as a trial of inquiry
to find out who'd burned out the coffee machine.
Which-- Look, in itself, it's a silly thing.
But this went on for 36 hours.
[Greenwald whistles]
[Maryk] All ship's work suspended.
And there we are, all of us, we're in the wardroom.
We're dying for sleep, we need showers,
and we're trying to figure out which one of these poor bastards burned out the coffee machine.
And they're so scared, they think whoever did it is gonna get shot.
They'd have sooner died before they told us.
And so, finally, I go to the captain
and I say all the officers will admit that they're incompetent investigators
and take the hit on their fitness reports,
but we can't find out who left the coffee machine plugged in for too long.
And so he makes a mark in his black book and he calls off the inquiry.
It's things like that. Or the water business.
The water business. Yes.
Please describe that water business.
Look, it's all in the log. I know, but please describe the water business.
The captain restricted water use from the entire crew
for two days in the middle of a dust storm
because he caught one of the deck gang taking a shower.
Or it's plain crazy things. Cheese business.
The cheese business. The strawberry-- Yes.
Cheese business? I don't recall any cheese business.
This was on the first ship the captain was assigned to, sir, as an ensign.
Cheese was going missing from the ship's stores.
And the captain investigated and he caught a sailor
who'd made a duplicate key to the padlock to the refrigerator.
Now, for catching this cheese thief,
he was given a letter of commendation.
This is during peacetime, so naturally he's pretty proud of the thing.
So when the strawberry stuff started, he insisted it was the same thing.
And all we had to do was find the guy
who had made a duplicate key to the wardroom fridge.
But of course that's ridiculous.
It was one of the guys assigned to the wardroom mess again.
We all knew that they'd eaten this quart of strawberries.
It was left over from the wardroom mess.
They were entitled to it. That was the custom.
But when the captain started to freak out about those strawberries,
they froze up, said they didn't know who'd eaten them.
And the captain's so hot on his theory he believes them.
So he ordered the search for the key. Yes, sir.
We have never seen Captain Queeg so happy before or since.
He's living the cheese business all over again.
He organized the search himself.
We collected every key on that ship.
We had just boxes-- barrels of keys.
That's about 2,800 of them all told,
each tagged with the owner's name.
And just to be safe, we searched that ship from stem to stern,
from the radar mast to the bilge.
We stripped the crew naked.
[Greenwald] Naked? Yes, sir. Naked.
Each one of them lined up, stark naked,
and we shook out their clothes.
We searched their lockers. We searched every hole, every place on that ship.
We crawled under the bilge and pulled out the lead ballast blocks
that are 200 pounds apiece.
This went on for three days.
[Greenwald] Three days? [Maryk] Yes, sir.
All in the name of a key that never existed.
So, when I saw the captain sitting by the fridge,
pulling keys one by one from a barrel
and trying them in a padlock for hours on end with a gleam in his eye,
I gave up.
And that is when I showed the medical log to Lieutenant Keefer.
Mr. Maryk,
when Lieutenant Keefer finished reading your medical log,
what was his first comment?
Sir, I don't remember.
Did he encourage you to go to Admiral Williams?
No, sir, I did that on my own.
But he went with you to the flagship.
Yes, sir. So, at first, he didn't discourage you?
Once we were aboard the flagship, he discouraged me
and said we shouldn't go through it and we didn't.
Would you say his testimony on the subject was substantially correct?
Yes, sir. This was all my doing, sir.
Continue your examination.
Mr. Maryk, when the cyclone was over,
did Commander Queeg make an attempt to regain command?
Yes.
On the morning of the 19th, after the storm had blown out.
What happened?
Well, I was in the chart house writing up a dispatch.
And? I was reporting the relief to Admiral Williams.
And?
Captain Queeg came and asked if I would go to his cabin and speak to him
before I sent the dispatch.
So I went below and we talked.
And what happened?
It was the same as before, uh, at first.
He said I'd be court-martialed for mutiny.
And then he went on this long thing about how much he loved the Navy,
that he has no other interests,
and even if he was cleared of this that his record would be ruined.
And I told him I felt sorry for him.
And I-- I really did.
And that's when he came out with his proposal.
Which?
He said he wouldn't write me up and report me,
that he would resume command of the ship
and that the whole thing would be written off and forgotten.
And what was your reply to his proposal?
I was amazed.
I said, Captain, the whole ship knows about it. [Greenwald] Yes.
It's written up in the quartermaster's log.
It's written up in the officer of the deck's log.
And, uh-- And he hemmed and hawed.
[Greenwald] And?
What happened next?
Finally, he said it wouldn't be the first time
that a rough log had been corrected and fixed up after the fact.
Did you remind him that the alteration of logs is strictly forbidden?
Yes, I did. And he kind of laughed.
He said it was either that or a court-martial for mutiny for me
and a black mark on his record which he felt he did not deserve.
And what followed?
He begged and he pleaded.
And, uh, at one point he cried and eventually got very angry
and he ordered me out of his cabin.
That is when I sent the dispatch.
Then you had the opportunity, less than 24 hours later,
to expunge this whole event from the official records
with your captain's knowledge and approval.
Yes, sir.
Mr. Maryk, were you panicky at all during the storm?
No, I was not.
Lieutenant, you are charged with relieving your captain willfully,
without authority and without justifiable cause.
Did you relieve Commander Queeg willfully?
Yes. I knew what I was doing.
Did you relieve him without authority?
No, my authority is Chapter 11 of Navy Regulations.
Did you relieve without justifiable cause? No.
My justifiable cause was the captain's mental breakdown
at a time when the ship was in danger.
Thank you. No further questions.
Mr. Maryk, this amazing interview
in which the captain offered to falsify official records,
were there any witnesses to it?
We were alone in his cabin. No.
This incident with the mines. Did anyone else see these records?
Which, according to you, indicated that the Caine
had departed her assigned sweep formation?
Was there anything in the records of the ship's movements
that would verify that departure?
Well, about an hour after it happened,
the captain asked to see the chart, he took it to his cabin,
and when I got the log back, there was no mention of the incident.
Right. Then you have no corroboration of this story.
No. [clears throat]
Mr. Maryk, who coined the nickname Old Yellowstain?
That just sprung into existence.
Throughout the ship or just among the officers?
Just among the officers.
You sure you didn't coin it yourself?
I didn't.
What kind of rating would you give yourself for loyalty to your captain?
I'd say I was a loyal officer.
Did you issue a 72-hour liberty
to Petty Officer Stilwell in December
against your captain's express instructions?
Yes. You call that a loyal act?
No.
Then you admit to a disloyal act
in your first days as executive officer.
Yes.
Mr. Maryk, where did you get your schooling?
Public schools, San Francisco. Okay.
And San Francisco State University.
And how were your grades in elementary school?
[scoffs] They were okay.
Average? Above average? Below average?
Average.
How about your high school grades?
Well, I didn't do so good there. Uh, below average.
What kind of courses did you take in college?
Business courses.
Any pre-medical courses? No.
Any psychology? Any psychiatry courses? No.
How were your grades in college? They--
I got by. Below average?
[Maryk] Yes.
[Challee] Where did you get these ideas about paranoia?
Prob-- Well, books. And, uh... [clears throat] ...a lot of research online.
Books? What books? Name the titles. Which websites?
They're medical type books about mental illness,
and I-I don't remember the exact names of the sites.
Oh. Was this your intellectual hobby, reading about psychiatry?
No. Well, then where did you get these books?
Fr-- I borrowed them from, uh, ships' doctors here and there.
[chuckles] And with your background, your scholastic record,
you imagine that you understood these highly technical and scientific works?
I got something out of them.
What is a conditioned reflex?
I don't know.
What is schizophrenia?
Uh, I think it's-- it's a mental illness.
You think so? Yes.
What are its symptoms? I don't know.
In fact, you don't know what you're talking about when you discuss mental illness.
Is that right? Well, you know, I never said I knew much about it.
[chuckles]
Have you ever heard the expression
that a little learning is a dangerous thing?
Yes.
You had a head full of terms you didn't understand,
and on that basis felt you had the right
to depose a commanding officer
on the grounds of mental illness.
Is that right? I didn't relieve Captain Queeg because what the book said.
I relieved him because the ship was in danger of sinking. No, never mind the ship.
We are discussing your grasp of psychiatry. Mm-hmm.
Did you hear the diagnosis of the qualified psychiatrist who examined your captain?
Yes. And what was their diagnosis?
Was he crazy or wasn't he on December 18th?
They say he wasn't.
But you, with your whining gripes of strawberries
and coffee makers, know better.
Mr. Maryk, who was the third ranking officer on your ship?
Lieutenant Keefer.
Was he a good officer? Yes.
Do you consider his mind as good as yours?
Yes. Uh, better. Better.
Did you show your medical log to him? Yes.
Was he convinced by it that the captain was mentally ill?
No.
He talked to you out of trying to have the captain relieved.
Yes.
And yet two weeks later,
despite the whole weight of naval discipline,
despite the arguments of the next officer in rank to you,
a superior intellect,
despite all this,
you went ahead and seized command of your ship?
I relieved Captain Queeg
because he definitely seemed sick
on the morning of the cyclone.
You still believe that your diagnosis of Captain Queeg
is superior to the doctors'?
J-- O-Only about Queeg on the morning of the cyclone.
No more questions.
No re-examination.
You may step down, Lieutenant.
Call Lieutenant Commander Queeg.
Commander, you are reminded that you are still under oath.
Yes, sir. Be seated.
Commander, on the morning of the 19th December,
did you have an interview in your room with Lieutenant Maryk?
Well, let's see.
The 19th, the day after the storm.
Yes. Yes, I did.
Was the interview at your request? Yes.
What was the substance of the interview?
Well, as I say, I felt sorry for him.
Hated to see him ruining his life
over one panicky mistake,
particularly knowing that it was his ambition to make the Navy a career.
I tried as hard as I could to show him what a mistake he had made,
suggested he relinquish command back to me
and offered to be as lenient as possible
when reporting what had happened.
You never offered not to report the incident? How could I?
It had already been recorded in the logs. Yes.
Those logs, were they handwritten, typed, or what?
It wouldn't have made a difference.
Were they handwritten, Commander? Well, probably.
Quartermasters log, OOD.
Rough logs are usually handwritten.
I can't imagine that the yeoman had time to type out smooth logs,
given all the excitement.
Did you offer to alter the logs and not report the incident?
No, I did not. Alterations are not permitted.
Lieutenant Maryk testified under oath, Commander,
that you made such an offer.
Not only that, but you begged and pleaded with him to alter the logs,
in return for which you promised to hush up the story completely
and make no report.
Well, that's just not the truth.
There isn't any truth in it at all?
It's a complete distortion of what I've said. My version is the exact truth.
You deny the proposal to alter the logs and hush up the story.
Yes. I deny it completely.
Th-That's the part that he's made up, the crying and the pleading.
It's fantastic.
You're accusing Mr. Maryk of perjury.
I-I'm not accusing him--
[laughs]
He's accused of enough as it stands.
I'm just saying you'll hear a lot of strange things about me from Maryk.
Th-That's all I'm saying.
Isn't it obvious, Commander, that one of you is not telling the truth about this meeting?
Well, it appears so. Can you prove that it isn't you?
Only by citing a clean record of 21 years as a naval officer
over the word of a man standing trial for a mutinous act.
Commander, did you ever receive $1,000 from Lieutenant Junior Grade Keith?
Uh, I don't recall offhand.
He testified you did. I did? On what occasion?
On the occasion of the loss of a crate of yours in the Port of Oman.
Oh, y-yes. Okay. [chuckling] I remember that.
That's over a year ago, December thereabouts.
He was responsible for the loss.
Well, insisted on paying for it, a-a-and so he did.
And what was in this crate that cost $1,000?
Well, uniforms, books,
n-navigating instruments, the usual things.
How was Keith responsible?
Well, he was the boat officer. He was responsible for loading.
He issued foolish, contradictory orders that rattled the men.
They dropped the crate into the water and it sank.
A wooden crate, full of clothes, sank.
It had other things in it.
Souvenir coral rocks, for example. [chuckles]
Commander, wasn't the-- the crate entirely full of bottles of booze?
Certainly not.
Lieutenant Keith testified that he paid you $1,000 for a crate full of liquor.
Well, you'll hear a lot of strange distortions from Keith. A-And from Maryk.
They're the two culprits here. They're apt to make all kinds of strange statements.
You make this crate yourself?
No, a man from the engine room did. What's his name?
I don't recall. It'll be in the personnel records.
He's been gone from the ship for quite some time. Okay, where is he now?
Uh, I-I don't know.
Because you don't know what his name is? No.
Was it Engineman Second Class Otis F. Langhorn, sir?
L... Langhorn?
Yes.
Langhorn, yeah.
Well, th-that sounds about right.
There's an Otis F. Langhorn, engineman first class, in transit right now.
Defense has arranged to subpoena him if necessary.
Are you sure it's the same one?
Well, it says 20 months aboard the Caine. It's got your signature upon it.
Would it be useful to have him called, sir?
Objection to this entire irrelevancy about the crate
and request it be stricken from the record.
The witness's credibility is being established.
I put it to the court, sir, that nothing could be more relevant to this trial.
Overruled.
Court stenographer will repeat the question.
[stenographer] "Would it be useful to have him subpoenaed, sir?"
Well, the real question is, which crate did Langhorn nail up?
I-I now recall having two crates.
Oh, well, this is new information not mentioned by Keith.
Did Langhorn nail up both crates, sir?
I-I can't-- I can't recall if I had two crates on th-that occasion
or two crates on two separate occasions.
It's been a long time and I've had a strenuous year of command from ports of storm.
I-- I just-- I can't be clear.
Commander, there are a number of issues in this trial
which turn on the issue of credibility
between yourself and other officers.
If you wish, I can request a quick little five-minute recess
while you clear your mind as best you can about the matter of this crate.
No, no, that won't be necessary. Just give me some time to think.
Please. Please.
Uh...
Um...
Uh...
Ah, o-okay. I-I've got it straight now.
Mm-hmm. I misspoke.
Uh, San Diego, 2014, I lost a crate in similar circumstances.
That was the crate with the clothes in it
and the crate that Keith lost did contain liquor.
Entirely full of liquor. Well, I suppose so.
You transported this on your ship.
You are aware of Navy Regulations, sir.
Of course I'm aware of regulations.
Th-The crate was sealed before I got under way.
I gave it the same locked stowage that I did
the medicinal brandy, three years' steady duty.
I gave myself this leeway as the captain of the Caine, which was a common practice.
I do believe that rank has its privileges, as they say, and, well, uh--
I-I didn't mean to conceal it from the court.
It's not something I'm ashamed of.
I just got the two crates mixed up in my mind.
Lieutenant Maryk also testified, sir,
that you gave all the orders to the boat crew
which resulted in the loss of the crate.
[chuckles] Well, that's a lie.
And that you refused to sign his leave papers until he paid you for that loss.
[Queeg] And that is another lie.
Commander, during the period when the Caine was sweeping for mines
off the Straits of Hormuz,
did you steam over and cut your own tow line?
[Challee] Objection!
This tow line business is the last straw.
The tactics of the defense counsel are an outrage
on the dignity of these proceedings.
He is systematically turning this trial
into a court-martial of Commander Queeg.
[Greenwald] Please the court,
the trial counsel believes she has a prima facie case
based on the report of two psychiatrists.
Now, I believe it is up to the court
and not two shore-bound doctors, however brilliant,
to decide whether the captain of the Caine was mentally well enough
to retain his self-control and his post during a cyclone.
The objection is overruled.
The witness will answer the question.
Okay, well, here's the story on that particular slander.
Stilwell was a-a-at the helm,
a dreamy, unreliable man
who failed to warn me that we were coming around the full 360 degrees.
I was the one who recognized what was happening, reversed course immediately.
We did not go over the tow line. I-It parted in the tight turn.
Weren't you reprimanding a petty officer named Urban at length
for having his shirttail out while your ship was turning 360 degrees, sir?
Who told you that? Keith again? Answer the question, please.
It's a malicious lie, of course.
Was Urban on the bridge? Yes.
Was his shirttail out? Yes, and I reprimanded him. Took all of two seconds.
It's not like I dwell on these sort of things.
But now that you've brought the shirttail thing up,
I'd like to point out that Ensign Keith, a department head,
was responsible for enforcing uniform regulations
and completely screwed the whole job up.
When I took over the ship, it was like some third-world navy,
and I bored down on Keith to look out for things like shirttails.
And, well, maybe that's one of the reasons that he hates me so much
and insists on circulating this nonsense about me cutting the tow line.
Did you drop a yellow dye marker off the Straits of Hormuz?
No, I, uh-- Maybe. I-I don't recall.
Do you recall what your first mission was?
Well, uh, to detect and destroy mines in the Straits of Hormuz.
And did you fulfill that mission? Yes.
So why did you drop the dye marker? I'm not saying that I did.
But if I had, it would have been to mark a mine that we had detected.
Commander, didn't you drop the marker and retire at high speed,
taking the Caine out of its assigned sweep pattern?
Now, didn't you do this to avoid contact with a dangerous underwater mine
and leave it for another ship to handle?
The question is abusive and flagrantly leading.
I withdraw my last question on account of the witness's dim memory.
I'll proceed to more recent events.
[officer] Court desires to question the witness.
Commander Queeg,
in view of the implications in this line of testimony,
I urge you to search your memory for correct answers.
Well, I certainly am trying, sir.
These are very fine points, and I've had a number of arduous missions since that storm.
And th-then there's, well, all of this business.
I appreciate that.
But it will facilitate justice if you can remember enough
to give a few definite answers on points of fact.
First of all, did you depart your assigned sector due to equipment problems?
Yes. Yes. Okay-- Okay, I-I remember.
Yes, that was the case here.
So you departed the pattern rather than try to repair or troubleshoot the equipment?
But... [scoffs] ...an active mine had been detected.
Is that why you dropped the dye marker? There was a safety factor.
Uh, it didn't make sense to me to try and detonate mines using defective gear.
But I wanted every vessel in the area to know exactly where that mine was,
s-so I marked it.
Now, if I erred on the side of being overcautious, well, I-I'm sorry.
But then again, sir, I don't think you can err on the side of safety.
Did you have the conn? Well, no.
A-As I recall, Maryk was on the conn.
And I also recall warning him not to stray too far out of formation.
But we did need to leave room for other ships to come in and deal with that mine.
Well, how much room? I don't remember exactly.
I-I just know that we had strayed outside of our assigned sector,
and then, well, I pulled him aside and admonished him.
Didn't you direct him to return to station immediately?
Sir, everything was happening very fast.
We had to mark the area and then get out of there
and make room for other ships to come into the area, as I said.
These are your factual recollections, Commander?
Those are the facts, sir.
Resume your examination.
Commander, did you make it a practice
to retire to your room during minesweeping operations?
Well, that's an insulting question. The answer is no.
I had to be on every side of that bridge at all times.
I-I had Maryk as a navigator and Keith as an officer of the deck at general quarters.
Invariably, they'd squirrel over to the same side of the bridge
and I'd have to be captain, navigator and officer of the deck all rolled up into one.
That's why I had to go from one side of the bridge to the other all the time.
And that's the truth.
I don't care how many damn lies have been told about me in this courtroom.
The court will question the witness.
Sir, the witness is obviously and understandably agitated by this ordeal
and I request a recess to give him a breathing space.
I'm not agitated in the least.
I'm glad to answer any and all questions.
[marbles clacking]
In fact, I-I demand the opportunity to set the record straight
for any derogatory statements made about me in testimony that's gone before.
I didn't make a single mistake in the 15 months I was aboard the Caine,
and I-I can prove it.
I've had a spotless record up until now
and I don't want it being discredited
by these lies and distortions told by these disloyal officers.
Commander, would you like a recess?
Certainly not.
In fact, if I had any say in this,
I would ask there be no recess.
[marbles continue clacking] [officer] Very well.
I simply want to ask,
if the performance of these two officers was so unspeakably bad,
why did you tolerate it?
Why didn't you beach them or rotate them out of your command?
Well, this is gonna sound strange to you, sir, but,
well, the truth is I'm-I'm a softhearted man
and not many people know that.
But I wanted to keep them under-- under eye
to try and train them up, make them good officers.
L-Last thing I wanted to do was wreck their careers.
A concern they certainly didn't share for me. E-Either one of them.
Commander, on the morning of the 18th of December,
the exact moment you were relieved of command,
was the Caine in the last extremity?
Certainly not. Was it in grave danger at that moment?
Absolutely not. I was in complete control of the ship.
And did you inform any of your other officers of your intention
to change course, come north at ten o'clock,
15 minutes after Lieutenant Maryk relieved you of command?
Yes, yes. I made that statement and that was my intention.
Then Lieutenant Maryk's decision to come north was not a panicky, irrational blunder.
His panicky blunder was relieving me.
I kept him from making any disastrous mistakes thereafter.
I wasn't trying to vindicate myself.
Commander, have you seen Lieutenant Maryk's medical log?
Yes. [chuckles]
Yes, I've read that interesting document. Yes, sir, I have.
Biggest conglomeration of lies and distortions and half-truths
I've ever seen.
But I'm extremely glad that you've asked
'cause I wanna get my side of it all on the record.
Please.
Please give us your version of any comments
factually related to episodes in the log.
Okay, well, starting right with that strawberry business.
The real truth is that I was betrayed,
d-double-crossed by my executive officer
and this precious gentleman, Mr. Keith,
who between them corrupted my wardroom
so I was one man against the whole ship.
No support from my officers, okay?
[chuckles] Now, you take that strawberry business.
Why, if that wasn't a case of outright conspiracy to protect a malefactor from justice.
Maryk carefully leaves out the little fact
that I had conclusively proved by a process of elimination
that someone had a key to the fridge.
Now, he says the messmen ate the strawberries.
But if I wanted to take the trouble,
I could prove to this court categorically that they couldn't have.
I-It's the water business all over again.
Like when the crew was taking showers seven times a day
and I tried to initiate the simplest principles of water conservation.
But, oh, no, Mr. Maryk, the hero of the crew,
wanted to go right on coddling them.
Well, you take that coffee business.
Well-- No.
[laughs] No. Excuse me.
Sorry, sir.
Strawberry thing first. Okay.
Everything hinged on a thorough search for the key,
and that's when Maryk and, as usual, with help from Mr. Keith, fudged it.
Went through a lot of phony motions, didn't prove anything.
Like thinking that the burning out of the coffee makers,
which were government property,
was some kind of joke.
And that was the attitude of everybody from Maryk on down.
No-- No sense of responsibility.
And I kept emphasizing over and over
that all of these things were gonna have to be accounted for.
[groans] It was a constant battle.
Always-- Always the same thing.
Maryk and Keith undermining my authority, always arguing.
Now, I wanted-- I wanted to train Keith up to be a good officer,
but I was stabbed in the back by--
Well...
[chuckles]
Well, I-- I think I've covered that strawberry business.
And, oh, yes, the mess account business.
Well, I had to watch them like a hawk, and believe me, I did.
[chuckles] Didn't sneak any fast ones by me.
It wasn't for a lack of trying.
Instead of paying attention to their accounts and their inventories,
which I would have to go over again and again--
Always a few pennies short or a couple dollars over.
But what do they care about keeping accurate records? Let the captain worry about it.
Well, by God, I did.
I-I defy anyone to find a single wardroom mess statement or ship service inventory
filed aboard the USS Caine while I was captain
that had a mistake of a single, solitary cent.
And by that, I mean, I defy a certified public accountant to do it. Okay?
Well, what else?
[muttering] There's so much bullshit
in that precious log of Mr. Maryk's.
Oh, yes! [laughs] Th-The movie business.
Okay, no respect for command.
Th-That was the whole trouble with that ship.
The movie operator, who had a disrespectful manner anyways,
started the movie without waiting for the arrival of the commanding officer.
Out of that whole ship's crew, officers and men,
did one person stand up and call a halt or even notice that the captain wasn't present?
I missed those movies more than they did.
I banned them, and, by God, I'd do it again.
Wh-What was I supposed to do, start issuing them all letters of commendation
for this gratuitous insult to the commanding officer?
[laughs]
It's not like I took it personal.
Uh, it's the principle. The principle of respect for the command.
That principle was dead when I came aboard that ship and I brought it to life.
And I nagged and I bitched and I hollered,
and, by God, I made it stick while I was captain!
Uh, and as I-- as I say,
it wasn't just the coffee makers.
It was a matter of respect.
When I ask a sailor a question, I want a straight answer.
Nobody's gonna get away with this shifty evasion,
if I have to hold a court of inquiry for a week.
What do I care about strawberries? It's a question of principle.
Stealing is stealing.
And on my ship--
Well, it's not like we got a lot of nice treats anyway.
Uh... if we ever did get something pleasant once in a blue moon,
like-- like strawberries, well,
it was outrageous that I couldn't have a second helping if I felt like it.
I wasn't gonna let them get away with it, and I didn't.
By God, I never let anything like that happen on that ship again!
[mutters]
As I say, I--
Okay, um...
H-How many of these things have I covered?
I-- I can only roughly do this by memory.
If you ask me specific questions, I'll--
I'll tackle those one by one by one.
That won't be necessary, sir.
That was very thorough.
Thank you.
I draw the court's attention to Exhibit 12.
Commander, I show you an authenticated copy
of a fitness report that you wrote for Lieutenant Maryk
July 1, 2022.
Do you recognize it as such?
Y-Yes.
And by this time had the following events occurred--
the water shortage, the coffee maker investigation,
the banning of the movies, the Internet
and other events?
Yes, I believe so.
Please read your comments on Lieutenant Maryk, July 1.
Well, n-not being vindictive,
I-I don't write down every single, solitary instance.
A fitness report goes into a man's record,
and, well, I've always tried to go easy on them.
A-Always have, always will.
I appreciate that, sir.
Please read the comments.
"This officer has, if anything,
improved in his performance of duty
since the last fitness report.
He is consistently loyal, unflagging,
thorough, courageous and efficient.
He is considered at present
fully qualified for command of a 1,200-ton MCM.
His professional determination and integrity set him apart
as an outstanding example for other officers,
reserve and regular alike.
He cannot be too highly commended."
Thank you.
No further questions.
No cross-examination.
You're excused, Commander.
Yes, sir.
Defense rests.
Is the trial counsel ready for summation?
No summary, sir. Prosecution rests.
No argument at all?
If it please the court,
I'm-- I'm at a loss
to discuss the case the defense has presented.
I have nothing to refute.
It's no case at all.
It has nothing to do
with the charge or the specification.
The defense counsel's very first question in this trial
was, "Commander, have you ever heard the expression,
Old Yellowstain?"
That was the key to his entire strategy,
which was simply to twist the proceedings around
so that the accused would become not Maryk, but Commander Queeg.
He has dragged out every possible vicious
and malicious criticism of the commander from the other witnesses
and forced Captain Queeg to defend himself against them in open court,
on the spur of the moment,
without advice of counsel,
without any of the normal privileges and safeguards
of an accused man under naval law.
Can this court possibly endorse the precedent
that a captain who doesn't please his underlings can be deposed by them?
And then that the captain's only recourse afterward
is to be placed at a witness stand in a general court-martial
to answer every petty gripe
and justify all his command decisions
to a hostile lawyer taking the part of his insubordinate inferiors?
Such a precedent is nothing but a blank check for mutiny.
It is the absolute destruction of the chain of command.
However, all this doesn't worry me.
I am confident
that this court hasn't been impressed by such aggressive tactics.
I know that the court is going to reject
this cynical play on its emotions,
this... insult to its intelligence,
and find the specification proven by the facts.
I've only this to say.
Whatever the verdict on the accused, I--
I formally recommend that Defense Counsel Greenwald
be censured by this court
for conduct unbecoming an officer of the Navy
and that this reprimand be made part of his record.
Defense counsel. Closing argument?
Please the court,
I undertook the defense of the accused very reluctantly
and only at the urging of the judge advocate that no other defense counsel was available.
I was reluctant
because I knew that the only possible form of defense
was to prove the mental incompetence of an officer of the Navy.
It has been the most unpleasant duty I have ever had to perform.
However, once having undertaken it,
I have done my best to win an acquittal.
I thought this was my duty, both as defense counsel appointed by the Navy
and as a member of the bar.
Let me make one thing clear.
It is not the contention of the defense
that Commander Queeg is a coward
and that therefore, if he commits questionable acts under intense fire,
the explanation must lie elsewhere.
The court saw Commander Queeg's bearing on the stand.
The court can imagine what his bearing must have been like
at the height of the storm.
And on that basis,
the court can decide the fate of the accused.
[exhales]
Before recessing,
the court will rule on the recommendation to censure you.
Yes, sir.
This has been a strange and tragic trial.
In the 248-year history of the Navy,
there has been only one other attempted mutiny.
You have conducted your case with striking ingenuity.
But your conduct has been puzzling
and it does raise questions.
Has your conduct here been responsible,
Lieutenant Greenwald?
[sighs]
The reprimand, if there is to be one,
must come from your own conscience.
Court finds defense counsel has not been in contempt.
Recommendation to reprimand denied.
Court stands in recess until further notice.
[gavel raps]
What happens now? Well, that's the ball game.
And when do we find out?
If it's an acquittal, soon.
If not, well, they won't publish their findings for weeks.
Okay.
You were terrific.
Thanks.
You murdered Queeg up there.
Yes, I murdered him.
I'm grateful to you, win or lose.
Okay.
What's wrong? Not a thing.
Well, look, I need to ask you something.
What now? Hmm?
Tom Keefer's having a party tonight at the hotel.
This morning he got a $10,000 advance on his novel.
Well, I hope he sells a million copies,
wins the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, the Medal of Honor.
Wrap this whole thing up in a nice, pink ribbon.
We're both invited.
What?
Look, I know what you probably think.
But one way or another, it's over.
I don't know what I would have done in Tom's place.
You'd go to Keefer's party.
I'll go if you will, if you think we should.
[pop music playing on speakers]
Oh! [cheering]
All right, quiet, quiet!
[whistles]
Quiet, you drunken bums of the Caine!
Here he is, the guest of honor, our courageous hero.
Hey! Whoo!
Speech! Speech, speech, speech!
[all chanting] Speech! Speech! Speech! No, no, no, no.
No, no, no, no, no, no! Come on, Barney!
No, I-I-I'm drunker than any of you guys. [laughing]
I've been out with the trial counsel,
trying to get her to take back some of the dirty names she called me.
[all chuckle]
I finally got her to shake hands on the third bourbon and soda, maybe the fourth.
That's good. That's good. I had to talk loud and fast, Steve.
I played some pretty dirty pool in court. Well...
Poor Katherine Challee, huh? Yeah.
Mmm. So what's this?
[Maryk] Oh, it's a double celebration.
[Greenwald] A cake baked like a book.
$10,000 came in the mail today. Advance on my novel.
[all cheering]
Very nice. Very nice.
I got something in the mail today too.
What's that, Barney? Medical clearance.
Orders back to my ship. Leaving tomorrow.
[all cheering]
Good. Hey, that's great.
Ten thousand bucks, huh?
[whistles]
You know, maybe I should
return the celebrated author's toast.
Yes! A little, little speech.
All right, all right, all right. Here we go, here we go.
Okay. [chuckles]
Uh, war novel, isn't it? That's right.
I assume you gave the Navy a good screwing, yeah?
Yeah? [all laughing]
I don't think that Navy Public Affairs would approve it at any rate.
Well, somebody should show up these stupid, stuffy old pricks, huh?
Yeah! Who's the hero, you?
If there's any similarities, it is purely coincidental.
[crowd chuckles]
Okay, I'm warped and I'm drunk.
But it suddenly seems to me, if I wrote a war novel,
I would try to make a hero out of Old Yellowstain.
Mmm. Oh, come on.
That's right, I would. No. No.
No, I would. And I'll tell you why.
You see, Mr. Keefer, while I was studying law
and you were writing short stories,
and Willie Keith was playing on the fields of Princeton,
why, all that time, these--
these old birds we call regulars, these stupid, stuffy pricks,
were standing guard
on our fat, dumb and happy country.
Of course, they were doing it for dough.
Same as anybody does anything.
But the question is, in the last analysis...
I mean, what do you do for dough? You and me.
We're advancing our free little careers.
So when 9/11 happened and so many of us rushed to join up
to fight those assholes that crashed those planes into the Twin Towers...
You couldn't fight them with a law book, so I-- I went active.
I joined the Navy.
Maybe I'd fly over the Middle East
and bomb the shit out of some terrorists, right?
Whoo! [crowd chuckling]
But there were already a lot of guys ready to do that.
And it wasn't me. Not yet.
Wasn't Tom Keefer, still in school,
or Willie Keith in midshipman training,
but Old Yellowstain and guys like him.
They were already on station, ready to go.
And they're a lot smarter than any of us.
I mean, let's-- Come on. Let's not kid ourselves.
I mean, you don't get anywhere in the all-volunteer, upwardly mobile American Navy
unless you're goddamn good.
And these old-line pros, they may not be up on the latest video game,
but they know how to get a tough job done.
And they were standing by, and they were ready to do it,
while the rest of us were still trying to know shit from Shinola.
Barney. Hey, Barney. It's over.
All right? Come on. Let's just enjoy dinner.
Dinner's a sham, Steve. You're guilty.
Of course, you're only half guilty.
I mean, there was someone else standing very neatly out of the picture,
the guy who started the whole idea
that Queeg's a dangerous paranoiac,
who argued you into it for six months,
who coined the nickname Old Yellowstain,
who pointed out the psychiatry books and Article 1108 and kept hammering it at you.
All right, wait a minute here.
Oh, yeah, yeah, Mr. Keefer. That's right, yeah.
I had to drag it out of Steve.
Big dumb Polack tried to tell me it was all his own idea.
He wouldn't know a paranoid from an anthropoid. But you knew, didn't you?
You told him his medical log was a clinical picture of a paranoid.
You advised him to go to Admiral Williams. You offered to go with him.
You didn't get cold feet until you stood on Williams's quarterdeck in Bahrain.
Yeah, and then you ducked, and you've been ducking ever since.
I don't know where you're getting all this.
Biggest favor you could have done Steve,
as far as winning an acquittal went,
though I doubt you realize it.
But if there is a guilty party, it's you.
If you hadn't filled Steve Maryk's thick head
full of paranoia and Article 1108,
why, he'd have-- he'd have got Queeg to come north.
Or he'd have helped him pull through to the south.
And the Caine wouldn''t have been yanked out of action.
And that--
that is your contribution
to the good old USA, my friend--
pulling a minesweeper out of the Persian Gulf when it was most needed.
That-- That... [laughs] ...and fucking Multitudes, Multitudes.
You're drunk.
You know, excuse me, okay?
I'm all done.
You know, here's to you.
You bowled a perfect score. You went after Queeg, and you got him.
You kept your own whites all starchy,
and you wrote your novel proving the Navy sucks,
and you'll say, oh, you know, you'll make a million dollars, marry a movie star.
And so you won't mind a little verbal reprimand from me.
What does it all mean? Hmm?
You know, I-I defended Steve Maryk
because I realized the wrong guy was on trial.
And the only way I could defend him was to murder Queeg for you.
And I'm pissed off that I was put in that position. I'm ashamed of what I did.
And that's why I'm drunk.
Queeg deserved better.
He served this country for 21 years.
So I'm not gonna eat your dinner,
drink your wine.
I'll make my toast and go.
So here's to you.
Here's to Caine''s favorite author.
Here's to your book.
[all gasping]
["Lowdown" playing]
♪ Baby''s into runnin'' roud Hangin' with the crowd ♪
Puttin'' your business In the street ♪
Talkin'' out loud ♪
Sayin'' you bought her This and that ♪
And how much you done spent ♪
I swear she must believe It's all heaven sent ♪
Hey, boy ♪
You better bring Your chick around ♪
To the sad, sad truth ♪
The dirty lowdown ♪
[backup singers vocalizing]
♪ I wonder, wonder Wonder, wonder who ♪
Taught her how To talk like that ♪
I wonder, wonder Wonder, wonder who ♪
Gave her that big idea ♪
Nothin'' you can''t handle Nothin' you ain't got ♪
Put your money on the table And drive it off the lot ♪
Turn on that old love light ♪
And turn a "Maybe" To a "Yes" ♪
Same old schoolboy game Got you into this mess ♪
Hey, son ♪
Better get on back to town ♪
Face the sad old truth ♪
The dirty lowdown ♪
[backup singers vocalizing]
♪ I wonder, wonder Wonder, wonder who ♪
Put those ideas In your head ♪
I wonder, wonder Wonder, wonder who ♪
Well ♪
♪ Come on back down Little son ♪
Dig the low, low Low, low, lowdown ♪
You ain''t got to be so bad Got to be so cold ♪
This dog eat dog existence Sure is getting old ♪
Gotta have a jones for this Jones for that ♪
This runnin'' With the Joneses ♪
Boy, just ain''t Where it's at, no, no ♪
You gonna come back around ♪
To the sad, sad truth ♪
The dirty lowdown ♪
[backup singers vocalizing]
♪ I wonder, wonder Wonder, wonder who ♪
Got you thinking Like that, boy ♪
I wonder, wonder Wonder, wonder who ♪
Said I wonder, wonder Wonder, wonder who ♪
Oh, look out For that lowdown ♪
I wonder, wonder Wonder, wonder who ♪
That dirty, dirty Dirty, dirty lowdown ♪
I wonder, wonder Wonder, wonder who ♪
[vocalizing]
♪ I wonder, wonder Wonder, wonder who ♪
Got you thinkin'' like that ♪
Got you thinkin'' By yourself ♪
It''s a sad affair ♪
Lookin'' that girl In the face ♪
Ashamed of yourself ♪
I wonder, wonder Wonder, wonder who ♪