When his long-suffering wife leaves him, the hard-driving captain of a whaling ship turns bitter and takes out his anger, resentment and frustrations on all those around him, leading to tensions with his crew that come up to the point of mutiny.—[email protected]

Nels Nelson, a cruel and embittered captain of a whaling vessel, who was deserted by his wife 20 years earlier, sails to San Francisco, where he takes aboard young Tom Walton, a spendthrift rejected by his guardian. A shortage of water develops, and Nelson is overpowered by a mutiny. Tom, sent ashore, discovers two castaways--an old man and a beautiful young girl--and he brings them aboard. Nelson, who sees in the girl proof of his wife's unfaithfulness, torments and humiliates her at every opportunity. Tom takes her away in a small boat, and alarmed by storm clouds, Nelson puts out to sea. During the storm, Nelson discovers in the girl's Bible a record of his wife's blameless life, and learning that she is his own daughter he returns to rescue her.—AFI