The Caine Mutiny (66 page)

Blakely, his face all wrinkled, said to Greenwald, “Are you going to pursue this topic?”

“No, sir.”

“Very well. Go ahead.”

“Commander Queeg, during the period when the
Caine
was towing targets at Pearl Harbor did you ever steam over your own towline and cut it?”

“Objection!” Challee was on his feet again. Blakely gave him a frankly irritated look and ordered the court cleared, motioning to the two lawyers to remain behind.

The skin of Challee’s face was leaden gray. “I beg the court’s indulgence. I must object. This towline business is the last straw. The tactics of the defense counsel are an outrage on the dignity of these proceedings. He’s systematically turning this trial into a court-martial of Commander Queeg. He’s not bringing out any evidence bearing on the issue. He’s trying to smear and defame Queeg and nothing else.”

Greenwald said, “Sir, the judge advocate has made it perfectly clear that he thinks he has a prima facie case in the report of the three psychiatrists. Maybe he wants the defense to switch to a guilty plea. But I say it’s still up to the court, not to shore-bound doctors, however brilliant, to judge whether the captain of the
Caine
was mentally well enough to retain his self-control and his post during a typhoon. This is a direct argument to the issue. I have no way to conduct it except to review the witness’s performance of duty in critical situations prior to the typhoon.”

“Counsel will step outside,” said Blakely.

“I must respectfully state,” said the judge advocate, “that in my opinion, if my objection is overruled, and the reviewing authority disapproves the court’s ruling, it will be a fatal error invalidating the entire proceedings, and a miscarriage of justice will result.”

“Very well, clear the court.”

There was a fifteen-minute wait. Blakely and the other court members looked grim when the parties returned. “The objection is overruled. The witness will answer the question.” Challee appeared stunned, sitting down slowly. The stenographer read the question about the towline from the record.

Queeg answered promptly, “Well, here’s the story on that particular slander. I saw some AA bursts close aboard to starboard. I was gravely concerned that my ship might be within range of somebody’s firing. We were in a gunnery area. I was watching the bursts. This same sailor Stilwell, a very dreamy and unreliable man, was at the helm. He failed to warn me that we were coming around the full 360 degrees. I saw what was happening, finally, and instantly reversed course, and I avoided passing over the towline, to my best knowledge. However, the line parted during the turn. There was a lot of vicious gossip, circulated mainly by Stilwell and Keith, to the effect that I’d cut the towline. I ascribed the mishap to a defective line in my written report to ComServPac. And he was cognizant of all this vicious gossip. And he knew all the circumstances. And he still accepted my report. It’s on file. So I say it’s conceivable that this vicious gossip was correct, but I consider it much more likely that the judgment of ComServPac in the matter can be relied on.”

Greenwald nodded. “You were distracted, you say, by AA bursts. Did anything else distract you?”

“Not that I recall.”

“Were you engaged in reprimanding a signalman named Urban at length for having his shirttail out, while your ship was turning 360 degrees?”

“Who says that-Keith again?”

“Will you answer the question, Commander?”

“It’s a malicious lie, of course.”

“Was Urban on the bridge at the time?”

“Yes.”

“Was his shirttail out?”

“Yes, and I reprimanded him. That took me about two seconds. I’m not in the habit of dwelling on those things. Then there were these AA bursts, and that was what distracted me.”

“Did you point out these AA bursts to the OOD or the exec?”

“I may have. I don’t recall. I didn’t run weeping to my OOD on every occasion. I may very well have kept my own counsel. And since this shirttail thing has been brought up-and it’s a very typical Keith distortion, the whole business-I’d like to say that Ensign Keith as morale officer was in charge of enforcing uniform regulations and completely soldiered on the job. When I took over the ship it was like the Chinese Navy. And I bore down on Keith to watch those shirttails and he kept funking it and for all I know that’s another reason he hated me and circulated all this about my cutting the towline.”

“Ensign Keith did not testify on this point, Commander. Can you name any officer who will testify that he saw those AA bursts?”

“Maybe all of them did and then again maybe none of them did. It was fifteen months ago and we’ve been fighting a war and we’ve had much more on our mind than a few AA bursts off Pearl.”

“Did you drop a yellow dye marker off Jacob Island on the first morning of the invasion of Kwajalein?”

“I may have. I don’t recall.”

“Did your orders include dropping the marker?”

“I don’t recall. There have been several other invasions since.”

“Do you recall what your first mission was during the invasion?”

“Yes. To lead a group of attack boats to the line of departure for Jacob Island.”

“Did you fulfill that mission?”

“Yes.”

“Why did you drop the dye marker?”

“I don’t know for sure that I did drop one.”

“Commander, the orders of the
Caine
on that morning are a matter of record, and there’s no mention of dropping a dye marker. This court has heard repeated testimony to the effect that you did drop one. Do you deny that testimony?”

“Well, it sounds as though I may have dropped it to mark the line of departure plainly, if I did it, but it’s all dim in my mind.”

“How far was the line of departure from the beach?”

“As I recall, a thousand yards.”

“Did you stay close to the attack boats, leading them in?”

“Well, naturally, not wanting to swamp them with my bow wave, I was a bit ahead.”

“How far ahead?”

“This all happened a year ago-”

“Fifty yards? Twenty thousand yards?”

“Well, I don’t know. A couple of hundred yards, maybe.”

“Commander, did you run a mile ahead of the attack boats, drop your marker, and retire at high speed, leaving the boats to grope to the line of departure as best they could?”

Challee leaped to his feet. “The question is abusive and flagrantly leading.”

“I am willing to withdraw the question,” said Greenwald wearily, “in view of the commander’s dim memory, and proceed to more recent events.”

“Court desires to question the witness,” said Blakely. Greenwald retreated to his desk, watching the president’s face. “Commander Queeg,” Blakely said, “in view of the implications in this line of testimony, I urge you to search your memory for correct answers.”

“I am certainly trying to do that, sir, but as I say these are very small points and I’ve been through several campaigns since Kwajalein and the typhoon and now all this business-”

“I appreciate that. If necessary the court can call a recess for several days to obtain depositions from officers and men of that attack group. It will facilitate justice if you can remember enough to give a few definite answers on points of fact. First of all, can you recall whether your orders contained instructions to drop a dye marker?”

“Well, to the best of my recollection they didn’t. That can be checked against the record. But I believe I can say definitely that they didn’t, as I recall now.”

“Very well. Will you please repeat your explanation of why you dropped it?”

“Well, I guess to mark the line of departure plainly.”

“Were those boats on the line of departure when you turned away from the beach?”

“As near as I could calculate, yes. This was all a matter of tangent bearings and radar ranges of course, but I brought them as close to the line as was humanly possible.”

“In that case, Commander, if they were already on the line, what purpose did the dye marker serve?”

Queeg hesitated. “Well, you might say a safety factor. Just another added mark. Maybe I erred in being overcautious and making sure they knew where they were but then again I’ve always believed you can’t err on the side of safety.”

“From the time you made rendezvous with the boats, Commander, until the time you dropped the marker, what was the widest gap between you and the boats?”

“Well, distances are deceptive over water, particularly with those low-lying boats.”

“Did you stay within hailing distance of them?” Blakely said with a slight acrid impatient note.

“Hailing distance? No. We communicated by semaphore. I might have swamped them if I’d stayed within hailing distance.”

Blakely pointed at the redheaded officer at the far left of the bench. “Lieutenant Murphy informs the court that he was a boat officer in similar situations in three invasions. He says the common practice was to stay within hailing distance, never more than a hundred or a hundred fifty yards apart.”

Queeg, slumped in his seat, looked out from under his eyebrows at the lieutenant. “Well, that may be. It was a windy day and the bow wave made a lot of wash. It was simpler to semaphore than to go screaming through megaphones.”

“Did you have the conn?”

Queeg paused. “As I recall now Lieutenant Maryk did, and I now recall I had to caution him for opening the gap too wide.”

“How wide?”

“I can’t say, but at one point there was definitely too much open water and I called him aside and admonished him not to run away from the boats.”

“Why did your executive officer have the conn?”

“Well, he was navigator and for split-second precision instead of repeating a lot of orders back and forth- And it’s all coming back to me now. As I recall I dropped the marker because Maryk had opened the gap so wide and I wanted to be sure the boats knew exactly where the line of departure was.”

“Didn’t you direct him to slow down when you saw the gap widening?”

“Well, but it was all happening very fast and I may have been watching the beach for a few seconds and then I saw we were running away. And so that’s why I dropped the marker, to compensate for Maryk’s running away from the boats.”

“These are your factual recollections, Commander?” Blakely’s face was grave.

“Those are the facts, sir.”

Blakely said to Greenwald, “You may resume your examination.”

The lawyer, leaning against his desk, said at once, “Commander Queeg, did you make it a practice, during invasions, to station yourself on the side of the bridge that was sheltered from the beach?”

Queeg said angrily, “That’s an insulting question, and the answer is no, I had to be on all sides of the bridge at once, constantly running from one side to the other because Maryk was navigator and Keith was my OOD at general quarters and both of them were invariably scurrying to the safe side of the bridge so I was captain and navigator and OOD all rolled in one and that’s why I had to move constantly from one side of the bridge to the other. And that’s the truth, whatever lies may have been said about me in this court.”

Greenwald, slack-mouthed, his face expressionless, kept his eyes on the court members, who stirred in their chairs. “Commander,” he said, as soon as Queeg subsided, “do you recall an incident during the Saipan invasion when the U.S.S.
Stanfield
was fired on by a shore battery?”

“I most certainly do.” The ex-captain glowered at Greenwald, breathing heavily. “I don’t know what lies have been sworn to in this court about that little matter, but I’ll be glad to set the record straight on that, too. This same Mr. Keith we’re talking about went hollering and screaming all over the bridge making a big grandstand play about wanting to fire on the shore battery when the Stan field was in my line of fire and it was absolutely impossible to fire. And so I returned to my patrol station because that was my assigned duty, patrolling, not interdicting fire on shore batteries, and the plane was sunk without a trace and as for the
Stanfield
it was taking mighty good care of itself.”

“What is the turning circle of the
Caine
, sir?”

“A thousand yards, but-”

“Sir, in swinging a thousand yards didn’t the
Stanfield
move out of your line of fire to give a clear shot at the shore battery?”

“For all I know the Stan field paralleled my course. I never had a clear shot, that’s all I know.”

“Court desires to question the witness,” said Blakely.

Challee stood. “Sir, the witness is obviously and understandably agitated by this ordeal, and I request a recess to give him a breathing space-”

“I am not in the least agitated,” exclaimed Queeg, “and I’m glad to answer any and all questions here and in fact I demand a chance to set the record straight on anything derogatory to me in the testimony that’s gone before. I did not make a single mistake in fifteen months aboard the
Caine
and I can prove it and my record has been spotless until now and I don’t want it smirched by a whole lot of lies and distortions by disloyal officers.”