1:29:01
I ask you to remember
that a man is on trial here...
1:29:04
for the gravest offense
known to the sea.
1:29:07
Except that no loss
of life is shown,
1:29:10
this man, if guilty,
might well hang. Proceed.
1:29:14
I thank Your Honor.
We admit the defendant's error,
1:29:17
- but you cannot convict
a captain for bad seamanship.
- Your Honor,
1:29:20
we will show that behind the bad
seamanship lay a criminal conspiracy.
1:29:24
And will you also show
why you were waiting beside the reef...
1:29:27
when the Southern Cross
went down?
1:29:31
Your Honor, if this man
is to go on as prosecutor,
1:29:34
the strange part which he has played
in this disaster cannot be ignored.
1:29:38
Why were you waiting beside the reef
that sank the Southern Cross?
1:29:43
[Crowd Muttering]
1:29:45
It's in the testimony that
Mr. Tolliver's vessel fell becalmed.
1:29:47
Becalmed when the wind
held till dawn?
1:29:50
He tells us he sailed all night,
yet he was only 15 miles on his course.
1:29:54
Why?
1:29:56
He dares not answer.
1:29:58
Because the only living man who
could have foretold that wreck
is the man who planned it!
1:30:03
Cap'n Phil.
1:30:05
[Cutler]
Gentlemen.
1:30:10
There are a thousand ways
by which conniving men may profit...
1:30:13
by the wrecking
of their own ships.
1:30:15
And there stands a Charleston sea lawyer
who knows them all.
1:30:21
He swindled
his underwriters!
1:30:23
He swindled you...
1:30:25
as he lay at Satan Shoal to
gut the cargo of a ship...
1:30:28
he himself
had wrecked!
1:30:30
- That cargo ain't been touched.
- Only because no diver will go down.
1:30:35
That ship hangs
on the reef by a hair.
1:30:39
Your Honor,
I demand an answer.
1:30:41
Why was Stephen Tolliver
at that reef?
1:30:43
Mr. Tolliver,
will you answer?
1:30:46
I will not.
1:30:48
[Cutler]
Of course he won't answer!
1:30:50
He can't!
1:30:54
If you please,
Judge Marvin.
1:30:57
I can tell you why
Mr. Tolliver won't answer that question.