The Caine Mutiny

The Caine Mutiny is a 1951 novel by Herman Wouk. The novel grew out of Wouk's personal experiences aboard two destroyer-minesweepers in the Pacific Theater in World War II. Among its themes, it deals with the moral and ethical decisions made at sea by ship captains and other officers. The mutiny of the title is legalistic, not violent, and takes place during Typhoon Cobra, in December 1944. The court-martial that results provides the dramatic climax to the plot.

The novel won the 1952 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Wouk adapted his novel into a stage play, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, in 1953. The Caine Mutiny was later adapted into a 1954 movie of the same name, a similarly named play in 1953; an American TV film in 1955 and an Australian TV film in 1959, both based on the play; and a similarly named 2023 film reboot.

The story is told through the eyes of Willis Seward "Willie" Keith, a callow young graduate of Princeton University. Following a mediocre living as a nightclub piano player, he signs up for midshipman school at Columbia University with the United States Navy to avoid being drafted into the United States Army during World War II. He endures inner conflicts over his relationships with his domineering mother and with May Wynn, a beautiful red-haired nightclub singer, the daughter of Italian immigrants, whom he accompanies on piano in their nightclub performances. After barely surviving a series of misadventures that earn him the highest number of demerits in his class, Keith is commissioned as an ensign in the Naval Reserve and assigned to the destroyer minesweeper U.S.S. Caine, an obsolete warship converted from a post-World War I-era destroyer.

Arriving late to Hawaii, Keith misses his ship when it leaves on a combat assignment. While waiting for transportation to catch up with it, he plays piano in the evenings for an admiral who takes a shine to him. Finally galvanized after reading a last letter from his father, who has died of melanoma, Keith reports aboard the Caine. The ensign immediately disapproves of the ship's decaying condition and slovenly crew. He attributes these conditions to a slackness of discipline by the ship's longtime captain, Lieutenant Commander William De Vriess.

Keith and another ensign are consigned to a miserably small and overheated shack on deck, and stumble through their early days on board. Keith's lackadaisical attitude toward what he considers menial duties brings about a humiliating clash with De Vriess when Keith forgets to decode a time-sensitive communiqué. Shortly thereafter, De Vriess is relieved, after over five years at the helm of the Caine, by Lieutenant Commander Philip Francis Queeg, a strong, by-the-book figure, whom Keith at first believes to be just what the rusty Caine and its rough-necked crew needs. Queeg, though, has never handled a ship like this before, and he soon makes errors of judgement that he is unwilling to admit, finding ways to lay blame on others. The Caine is sent to San Francisco for an overhaul, which is interrupted by orders to return to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, for further assignment. Before the ship departs, Queeg browbeats his officers into selling their liquor rations to him, and in a breach of regulations, smuggles the liquor off the ship. When the crate is inadvertently lost overboard during the transition, Queeg blackmails Keith into paying for it. While on leave, Keith sees May Wynn, who is now working on achieving her degree at Hunter College, in addition to continuing to perform as a singer, and they spend a romantic weekend together in Yosemite. Keith is still divided between his love for her and her lower social class. He resolves to let the relationship die when his leave is over by not replying to her letters.

As the Caine begins its missions in the Pacific under his command, Queeg begins to lose the respect of the crew and the loyalty of the wardroom through a series of increasingly unusual incidents, including running over and severing the cable to a valuable towed gunnery target, which he blames on John Stilwell, the helmsman; this reveals his cowardice, paranoia, and inability to accept responsibility. Queeg becomes increasingly isolated from the other officers, who come to dread his rages and unreasonable demands, which often entail loss of leave privileges, and at one low point, a 48-hour moratorium on drinking water while the ship is sweltering near the equator. Keith realizes that De Vriess was a far more competent, effective, and fair-minded leader, and inwardly regrets his original, naive judgements of both captains. During the following invasion of Kwajalein, Queeg is ordered to escort low-lying landing craft to their line of departure. Instead, Queeg orders the crew to throw over a yellow dye marker to mark the spot, and hastily directs the Caine away from the battle area. The officers nickname him "Old Yellowstain."

Queeg's next act of paranoia begins when over half of a prized container of strawberries is discovered to be empty. He concocts elaborate and time-consuming procedures in which to catch the thief. These occupy all of the officers and crew for long hours and further erode confidence in and respect for the captain. When Queeg's pet theory is finally decisively flouted, he disappears into his cabin, leaving the ship in executive officer Lieutenant Stephen Maryk's hands for days.

The intellectual communications officer, Lieutenant Tom Keefer, who coined the "Yellowstain" nickname, suggests to Maryk that Queeg might be mentally ill. Keefer directs Maryk to "Section 184" of the Navy Regulations, under which a subordinate can relieve a commanding officer in extraordinary circumstances. Maryk, a dutiful and dependable executive officer who brooks no public criticisms of Queeg, nevertheless begins to keep a secret log of Queeg's actions, and ultimately decides to bring them to the attention of Admiral Halsey, commanding the Third Fleet, when Halsey's flagship and the Caine are anchored at the Ulithi atoll. Keefer agrees to accompany Maryk, but then gets cold feet and backs out, and both men return to their ship without ever meeting the admiral.