Lifeboat Page #2

You're safe now.

Nothing to worry about.

Best let her have it.

We'll wait till she's asleep.

Here.

Hey. That's right.

Her name's Higley. She was

bombed out in Bristol.

One of them shell shock cases sent to

America. Her child was born in New York.

Said to me on the ship, "I'm going home

to show my husband the baby."

Here, darling.

You better put this on.

Hey, look. Another customer.

- Where'd he come from?

- s he a crew member?

- never saw him before.

- Not off our boat.

Danke schn.

He's very grateful to us

for having saved his life.

Regrets very much the U-boat

was compelled to sink our ship.

Ask him why they shelled our lifeboats.

- Captain's orders.

- f you ask me, he's the captain himself.

Ask him if he's the captain.

He says he's not a captain or

officer, just a crew member.

Well, crew member

or skipper, he's German.

A guy can't help bein' German

if he's born a German, can he?

Neither can a snake help being

a rattlesnake if he's born a rattlesnake.

That don't make him a nightingale.

Get him outta here.

Don't be silly, darling. He can't very well

get off in the middle of the ocean, can he?

- Throw him off.

- Have you gone out of your mind?

- Throw the Nazi buzzard overboard!

- That's out of the question!

- t's against the law.

- Whose law? We're on our own. We can make our own law!

Now, just a minute.

He was acting under orders.

Our freighter was an enemy ship.

After all, we're at war!

Is that woman at war?

Is her baby at war?

And listen, how come

you know the lingo so well?

How come when I climbed into this

life boat you were the only one in it...

dressed up like you knew

you were going someplace?

I was going someplace.

I was going into a lifeboat.

What is this?

Are you insinuating?

- You seem pretty anxious to stand up for your friend here.

- What do you mean, my friend?

Now, children,

let's keep our shirts on.

I haven't got a shirt

or a mink coat either.

Oh, I get it.

A fellow traveler.

I thought the Comintern was dissolved.

Now, we're all sort of fellow travelers, in

a mighty small boat, on a mighty big ocean.

And the more we quarrel and criticize

and misunderstand each other...

the bigger the ocean gets,

and the smaller the boat.

The boat's too small

for me and this German.

Me, I'm perfectly willing to abide

by the decision of the majority.

That's the American way.

If we harm this man, we are guilty

of the same tactics you hate him for.

On the other hand, if we treat him

with kindness and consideration...

we might be able to convert him

to our way of thinking.

That's the, uh...

That's the Christian way.

Okay. Now, me, I'm American too.

I was born one in Chicago.

But my people are from Czechoslovakia.

Ever hear of that place?

I say let's throw him overboard

and watch him drown.

When he goes down, I'll dance a jig

like Hitler did when France went down.

Me, too.

Just for the record,

I'm an American, myself.

I'm in a kind of a spot.

My name is Schmidt,

but I changed it to Smith.

That's what I got against these guys

more than anything else.

They make me ashamed of

the name I was born with.

I got a lot of relatives in Germany.

For all I know this guy may be one of them.

I say throw him to the sharks.

No, Gus. I don't say it wouldn't be a pleasure,

mind you, but we haven't got the right.

The right?

What do you mean the right?

Well, he's a prisoner of war.

Got to be treated as such.

The way it's done is to hang on

to him till we're picked up...

then turn him over

to proper authorities.

Till such time, we represent

the authorities. That's clear, isn't it?

- You see what I mean, miss?

- don't understand any of it.

I don't understand people hurting

each other and killing each other.

I just don't understand it.

- Then what are you doing in a uniform?

- 'm doing the only thing I can.

Trying to put them together again

when they get hurt.

As far as the German's concerned, l...

I agree with Stanley.

So do I. I'll talk to the man. Maybe

I can get some information from him.

- Material for your book?

- ncidentally.

- George?

- What do you say, Joe?

- Do I get to vote too?

- Why... Why certainly!

Guess I'd rather

stay out of this.

How about you, sister?

My baby's dead.

Does anyone know the service

for burial at sea?

Well, I, uh... I suppose

any prayer would do.

Let me see, now.

The Lord is my shepherd.

Uh, I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down

in green pastures. He, uh... He, uh...

He leadeth me beside

the still waters.

He restoreth my soul.

He leadeth me in the paths

of righteousness, for His name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley

of the shadow of death...

I will fear no evil.

For thou art with me. Thy rod

and thy staff, they comfort me.

Surely goodness and mercy

shall follow me all the days of my life.

And I will dwell in

the house of the Lord...

forever.

Amen.

Well, I don't know how much

of this stuff is any use to us.

Isn't much we can do with

these food compartments.

Well, at any rate, things

are getting shipshape.

None of the buoyancy tanks

seem to have been smashed.

The water breaker's been taped up, and in

the morning we'll rig up a sail and get going.

And in the meantime, I think

we'd all better try and get some sleep.

Uh, Kovac, don't forget

to wake me for my watch.

We'd better send up

another flare soon.

How do you feel, darling?

Better, thank you.

Much better.

- Have I been asleep long?

- Not very.

- What's this?

- Mrs. Porter lent you her coat to help keep you warm.

It's a beautiful coat.

- s it real mink?

- hope so.

It's lovely.

I've always admired mink.

It's the most ladylike fur

there is, I always said.

So warm and comfortable.

Thank you so much

for letting me wear it.

Where's Johnny?

Where's my baby?

What have you done with him?

What did you do

with my baby?

Your baby's dead.

Don't you remember?

You killed him, didn't you?

Poor little thing.

The sea, so big and terrible.

Johnny, it's Mum.

Where are you?

Where are you, Johnny?

Johnny.

Let me go.

Let me go to him.

Get a rope, somebody.

We've got to tie her down.

Here you are.

Let me go to him.

Let me go.

- Good morning, sir.

- Hmm? Oh!

Good morning, Sparks. Asleep on watch. It's

a fine thing. I oughta be court-martialed.

- wonder how much we've drifted.

- Not very far with that sea-anchor out.

Oh, the sea-anchor, of course. You know,

I had no idea what those things looked like.

I thought they were big, heavy iron things

with a hook to hold us onto the sea bottom.

When you threw that thing out, I thought it

was some sort of a toy parachute or something.

They really keep the boat from drifting?

Last time I was adrift, a sea anchor

held us up 48 hours in a storm.

- You've been torpedoed before?

- That's right, twice.

- How long before you were picked up?

- Last time, it was 43 days.

Forty-three...

That must have been awful!

Yeah. We did

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