 Family Theatre presents Gene Lockhart and Dorothy Warren-Scholes. From Hollywood, the Mutual Network in Cooperation with Family Theatre presents Clippership, starring Gene Lockhart. And now, here is your hostess, Dorothy Warren-Scholes. Thank you, Tony Lafranco. Family Theatre's only purpose is to bring to everyone's attention a practice that must become an important part of our lives. To win peace for ourselves, peace for our families, and peace for the world. Family Theatre urges you to pray. Pray together as a family. And now to our transcribed drama, Clippership, starring Gene Lockhart as Captain Bolan. May 1849, aboard the Clippership Sally M. Bound out of New York for San Francisco via the Cape. A fine mist dampens the leathery faces of two men standing on the quarter-deck, staring across the choppy waters at the gathering darkness. For a moment, neither of them speaks. Then the shorter and more thick set of the two lobs his hand across his face and turns to the other. I'd say we're heading right into it, Captain. Aye, Mr. McDougaloo, we're in for a blow, no doubt of that. Lucky it's not a cargo or tea we're carrying this time. Over a passage like this I'll take running tea back from Hong Kong till there's no more of it. A ship full of gold Russian loonies with their picks and shubbles and packs of flour. Aye, there's no denying though, Captain, the Sally M will make a very pretty penny for the passage. On this one trip she'll pay for herself. Aye, but it's a great mistake the line is making, Mr. McDougaloo, using half our Clipperships to feed this gold fever. You mark my words, in six months the bubble will burst. Then where will we be? We had a chance to run the British match and fleet off the seas with these Clippers. Oh, dinner fascists, old Captain, we will yet. No, not tooling them back and forth from New York to San Francisco, we won't. And all the while England tying up all the trade in the new Chinese treaty ports. Captain Bowlin. Aye, Mr. Lechwell. Mr. Spelvin, one of the passengers sends his compliments, sir, and would like permission to speak to you in your cabin. And who's Mr. Spelvin? Oh, you know him, Captain, I pointed him out at mess, that tall, light-haired man. He's the one that put up so much of their money for chartering the Sally M. He probably wants to tell me she's pitching a bit, and will I do something to calm the waters? Mr. Blackwell, my compliments to Mr. Spelvin, I'll see him below directly. Aye, aye, sir. Take over, Mr. McDougaloo. Aye, Captain. Steady as she goes. Aye, well, and who are you, laddie? My name's Billy Downs, Captain. I'm one of the passengers. My father's Enic Downs. He's taken me to San Francisco with him. Downs? Oh, yes, yes, yes. I've met him. This is the first time I've ever been to sea. Then you're to be excused for not knowing that it's against the rules for passengers to be topside. I didn't know. I'll get right below Captain. You needn't break out all your sail getting there, laddie. I'm bound below myself. Come along with me. I didn't know there were any rules about being on deck. I wouldn't have done it. I just wanted to look around. Well, now, there's no real harm in that, my lad. But well... Well, now, look. Look off to the east there. Do you see how dark the sky is? Oh, it is dark. Aye. Then it could be blown on us in a trice. It could be water and wind like you never dreamed of. I didn't even notice how dark it was over there. Oh, and a man topside who wasn't braced and ready for weather like that. Well, he might be over the rail before he knew it. I'll sure enough stay below from now on, Captain. Remind the steps there, lad. This hatchways as dark as a pocket. Yes, sir. I'll be careful. Well, now, that's my cabin, lad, right there. Now, you just keep along this way for it and you'll get where you're going to. Sounds like someone's arguing. Well, I'm watching if it doesn't. And the sound's coming from me own cabin. Oh, well, we'll soon stop that. Be lay there now. What's going on here? Captain Bowland, I want to apologize. Well, I should hope you would, Mr. Spelvin. Go to your cabin, Billy. Mr. Spelvin and I have some business to discuss with the captain. Is anything wrong? Nothing at all, Billy. Go to your cabin. Your best do is your father says, my lad. Sorry. I'll wait there for you, father. I want to add my apologies to those of Mr. Spelvin, captain. And I find neither his nor yours acceptable just yet. Now, what's this all about? Now, say here, Bowland, you can save that tone of voice for your dealings with the crew. We've paid your line of fancy price for this passage. Mr. Spelvin, you listen to me carefully and you too, Mr. Downes. I'm master to this ship and without my say so, your privileges as a passenger don't amount to a pot of smoke. No matter how much money you throw around, how is that clear? I'm sure Mr. Spelvin had no intention of questioning your authority, captain. I'm perfectly able to state my intentions without your help, Downes. And just what are they, Mr. Spelvin? And why did you want to see me? To inform you, captain, that a majority of the members of the company aboard have decided not to leave the ship at the isthmus of Panama. They say they're going all the way around the horn with you. Captain, that isn't true. The majority of the company wants to cross at Panama. All up now a minute. Both of you. There's no argument here. The agreement, Mr. Spelvin, is that all passengers disembark at Panama and go by mule back to the Pacific side and then ship from there up to San Francisco on the shuttle. Only the crew and the cargo go round the horn. Let us say that was the agreement, captain. It's no longer possible. Captain Bowlin, I assure you that... Just a moment, Mr. Downes. Now, Mr. Spelvin, I take you for a man whose word is much to be respected. Oh, look here, Bowlin. Maybe I'm sure your double-tongued ways haven't caught up with you. But they won't work here. I'm telling you that the passengers can't meet the cost of crossing at Panama and taking the shuttle. That's a lie. You were given charge of the money. There was more than enough. Originally, yes. But we've had to pay nearly double for everything. I can show you the manifests. The manifests? And I have little doubt of that, Mr. Spelvin. But if that was the case, why didn't you make this known before we sailed from New York? And have you leave us high and dry or force us to sell you our cargo at a loss? No reputable line would do such a thing. And you know it. Well, if it's the reputation of your line, you pride yourself so much, aren't you, captain? How do you think it's going to look to the rest of the firms back on South Street? When the story comes out in the New York papers that you stranded a whole ship full of passengers in Panama? What? What? Are you Thieve and Waston? And that's how it will look, captain. I can take my word for it. Get out. Get out of this cabin before I break you in two. Think it over, captain. Think it over carefully. Of all the slick-fisted scuds. How did any of you come to trust a man like that, Mr. Downs? I can't say about the others, captain, but for myself, going to California seemed a chance for Billy and me to make a new life. You're called Chasin' After Gold a new life. Oh, we're not going to prospect, captain. I'm a master carpenter. There'll be lots of work building. I've put my whole savans into tools and timber. Even so. It would have been better if you'd sent for Billy and the rest of your family after you'd got there and got yourself established. Billy's... all there is to my family, captain. Oh. His mother passed on more than a year ago. Oh, hey, and it... it must be hard for the boy. It was, at first. But planning this voyage to San Francisco seemed to take his mind. Both our minds off it. Now I don't know what we're going to do. Well, it... Mr. Downs, you must understand. It's not out of meanness that I refuse to take you and the others around the horn. It's a gruelling voyage to begin with. And then there's the matter of stores and even on short rations. There's not near enough food aboard to feed 20 extra people for that long. Oh, I'm not blaming you, captain. You know what I think. The more I turn it over in my mind, the more I'm convinced Spelvin's still got that passage money of ours with him. Hey, and I'll go far enough along with you on that to wager that those manifests he wanted to show you are forgeries. His likely bacon and seainess all stranded in Panama, flat broke, and him the only person with enough money was Francisco. That way he could be there first to claim all the cargo when it arrived and strip us clean. From what I've seen of him, Spelvin's not above try and such a scheme. But to prove it, mister, huh? To prove it, you'd have to lay hands on the money. You've still got a few days to Panama, captain. If Spelvin has the money, I'll know by then. I'd like to take over from the first mate. I won't keep you step inside a minute. Pretty nasty night, huh? I've seen worse. What's on your mind? Did the captain say anything to you about what happened in his captain's afternoon? I'm just a second mate, Spelvin. Bolin doesn't tell me anything, except orders. You heard about it, though. I heard you riled him fair enough. Would have done my art good to see that. He threatened to put us off at Panama no matter what. Do you think he meant it? You can lay to that. If the captain says something, he means it. Good. Maybe not so good for you. The rest of the passengers in this company are yours. I hear a fair boiling over the rumor that their money's gone. There's no more rumor to it. I told them the money's all spent. We all had a meeting tonight at the insistence of that meddler down's. I showed him those manifests you had made for me. You never heard such nashing and weeping. They swallowed it. They swallowed it whole. You're a brassy one, Spelvin. I'll say that for you. Speaking of brass, Mr. Blackwell, do you want your share now or would you prefer to wait until we meet in San Francisco? Come in. Captain Bolin. Ah, Mr. McDougal. Come in. It's more than a wee bit of a blow. We're bursting out there, sir. I know. Well, there's no need to write now, sir. Blackwell just took over. Ah. Eh, sir, if... if it's not edit ton... Eh? There's trouble among the passengers, the gold rushes. Yes, eh. I know, Mr. McDougal. Eh, it's a pretty mess right enough. They've been taken, swindled, most of them out of their life savings. Eh, by that Spelvin fella, eh? I'm afraid so. Is there not they can do? Not without proof, Mr. McDougal. Men like that Spelvin ought to be keel-hauled proper. Mr. McDougal, I've been wondering, you know, there's no doubt that we cannot take all of these passengers around the horn with us. But if... Well, it seems to me that if they were to delegate one of their numbered to stay aboard with us in the company of the cargo to San Francisco to see it wasn't sold from under them before they got there. If you ask me, sir, that's a spanking good idea. Huh? Eh, who would you think would be the proper choice? Well, eh, the... that carpenter, he knocked down. He seems to have a firm enough head on his shoulders. Aye, sir, he does indeed. Eh, but there's that young boy of his, you... you couldn't very well be leaving him behind. Oh, no, no, no. We couldn't do that, of course. But it's no task signing on a little tyke of his age for a few weeks. He'll eat less food than Cookie's parrot. Oh, you're taking quite a shine to that lad, haven't you, Captain? Not a bit of it now. Not a bit of it. But he's brighter than most. Say that for the boy. Aye, and when he looks aloft to the spars and a-rigging his eyes are a fire with one in them. But I don't suppose you've noticed that. Ah, you old sea serpent. Yes, yes. I've seen the look of him. When I know that look, I'd know it anywhere. He's fallen in love with the sea like the rest of us. Eh, would you want me to pass a word to Mr. Downes that he's welcome to stay aboard, sir? It might calm the others down a bit if they knew you decided to help them this way. Oh, no. No, you get some rest, Mr. McGoogle. I'll do it myself. I-I feel a bit like stretching my legs anyhow. Spelvin, is that you? Who's that? He knocked Downes. I want to talk to you. I think we've said all there is to say to each other Downes. I came up on deck for some air. I'd like to enjoy it by myself. Like you're going to enjoy that passage money of ours? Don't be a fool. I'm not going to be one any longer, Spelvin. I examined those manifests very carefully tonight. They're forged. I don't suppose you'd be so foolish just to make that accusation publicly Downes? I would, and I will. With no proof? With proof enough to warrant an investigation? I've been wondering ever since this voyage began where it was I'd seen that second mate before, Blackwell. And have you remembered? With your help, yes. I was standing down on the companion way when he came out of your cabin tonight, counting a handful of silver. Well, there's no law against the ship's officer, counting his money. His money? No. But my money, the money of the other passengers, money you claim has already been spent, that's something else. You mean you're going to report Mr. Blackwell to the captain? That's exactly what I mean. In our wager, an examination of those coins will prove that... Did you hear all of what he was saying, Blackwell? Enough of it. I told you there was someone watching down the companion way when I came out of your cabin. What do we do with him? Well, there's a heavy sea running tonight. Man, he was standing too close to the rail. The way this ship is rolling and pitching. Aye. Give me a hand. Is that you, Mr. Billy? Captain Bolling! If your father's still awake, I'd like to talk to him for a moment. He's not here, Captain Bolling. He hadn't come back since all the passengers had that meeting. Not since then? Why, lad, that's been hours ago. I know. He was all excited when he came back from sea and knew this afternoon. He had every reason to be, lad. Is there anything wrong, Captain? Father said that... Well, I missed your spill, but it's stolen our passage money, but... Now, now, Billy, ease off, now. There's no sense heisting your sheets till you know where you're bound. Did your father say that he had talked to Spelvin about the passage money yet? Nobody meant to. I know that. Most likely after the meeting below decks. Captain, are you going to make us all get off at Panama? What, lad? Panama? Oh, no, no, no, not all of you. I told father you wouldn't. I knew you wouldn't. Spelvin's cabin is this way, isn't it? Oh, yeah, it's down toward the front. I mean, it's forward, sir. Forward? You're learning the lingo, aren't you, lad? Come along, now. Don't worry, Spelvin. I won't let you forget it. My price jumps about 200% for helping get rid of meddlers. Hush, lad, hush. What was that? I didn't hear anything. Have you so jumped before? I tell you, I heard something. It's lovely. The ship's crawling with him. Now, maybe you'll need some sleep. I'll see you in the morning. Good night, lad. Now, laddie, now, get a hold of yourself. Oh, my God. Now, Billy, hold on to yourself, laddie. Lad, I give you my oath. If it's true, if it's true... Captain, there's no sign of downs. Oh, I didn't expect there would be, Mr. McDougal. I told the boy yet. He suspects the worst already. I sat with him in his cabin until finally he fell asleep. Do you think the boy's father was murdered and then thrown overboard? There's no doubt in my mind. I found this on the afterdeck, next to the rail. The Williampin. Bloodstained. I've been trying to decide... To decide what, Captain? To decide whether to let the authorities take care of Mr. Spelvin or to do it myself. Well, oh, come in, come in, Captain Boland. Oh, this is quite an honour. If a bit early in the morning for a social call... Won't you sit down? What can I do for you? Mr. Spelvin? I've just been having a little talk with him a second mate, Mr. Blackwell. Yes? Yes. Is that something that should concern me? He tells me that you are willing and able to pay for cooperation. What sort of cooperation do you mean, Captain? Oh, come, come now, Mr. Spelvin. You and I are men of the world. Even the master of a clipper ship likes to turn an extra dollar now and then. I can appreciate that, but just what will I be paying for? Well, as a starter, I can definitely assure you that the passengers you want to have stranded at Panama will be left there. But weren't you going to do that anyhow? I might have, but this way you can be sure of it. How much? $1,500. Isn't that a little high? Hardly considering you'll have a free hand to dispose of their cargo at whatever price it'll bring. You've got a point there. I'll give you the $1,500 as soon as we've cleared port at Panama. No, you will give it to me now. How do I have any assurance that if I give... You'll give it to me now, or I'll see that the ship is interned at Panama indefinitely. In which case, you will have to sell your cargo to my line at a loss. No reputable line would do such a thing. Well, Mr. Spelvin, do you pay me now, or was Mr. Blackwell mistaken about you? You'll have to take it in silver. Silver is highly acceptable. Count it out yourself. I'm surprised that the rest of the passengers didn't realize they were being swindled. A rest? Yes, I mean, besides downs. That carpenter. He didn't have the sense to leave well enough alone. He didn't? You talk as if he weren't around anymore. He didn't, doesn't he? It all adds up to the same thing. He was a fool. Was. Was is... Oh, no, Mr. Spelvin. You said was. That's twice you slipped. Slipped? What's the matter with you? I thought we were doing business together. I have something here in my pocket, Mr. Spelvin. What do I care what you have? This is what we call a belain pin. Did you ever see one? Yes. Of course you have, Mr. Spelvin. We used them on the ship to secure the lines along the rail. And they've other uses, though. Yes? You see this straight part. It can be gripped like a club. So. And used like a club, I might add. What are you getting at? A good swipe with a belain pin. If it lands right, and a man won't know what hits him. What is this? For example, I could step around this table between us. It's not a big table. And before you knew it, lay this pin against your temple neat as you please. Oh, and what's the matter with you? Well, you know I'm about the only man aboard who could do a thing like that without running into trouble. Stay away from me. I could drop you like a log, Spelvin. And then tonight, when the darkness closes in, just slide you through the rails. Stop it, don't! And no one would say a word to me, Spelvin, because I'm the master of this ship. Get away! Just like you and Blackwood, the Queen of Downs tonight, eh? I didn't hit him. It was blackboard. And who shoved him overboard? I didn't. It was blackboard. Do you see this belain pin? Don't please! No one would say a word to me, Spelvin. I didn't! Do you understand? I just slide you through the rails. All right, all right, I... I pushed him overboard, but don't hit me with that. Don't hit me! Mr. McNugol! Yes, sir. You had him. That's what I did, Captain. So did I. Put him in irons. Steady as she goes, Mr. McNugol. Steady as she goes, Captain! Captain Boland. Oh, yes, Millie. Yes. My father would have wanted me to ship around the horn. He told me himself, Lady. It was a new life he wanted for you. That's what I got, isn't it, Captain? A new life. You know, I... I think if he hadn't been such a good carpenter that... my father would have liked to see. You know? Aye, my lad. Aye. This is Dorothy Warren-Schold again. You know, it's nice to meet people who are kind and happy. Of course, it isn't always easy to be that way. We all have our moments. Yes, and we all have the difficulties and inconveniences that sometimes get us a little riled up. But you know, that's mostly because something's been misplaced or there's something missing either around the house or in people. We kind of expect people to think of things or do things a certain way and we're upset if they don't. Isn't it true we often get grousey and annoyed and the real reason is there's something missing in ourselves? I guess we hate to admit that, but it's true. Yes, it's the things that are missing that make for unhappiness. And a lot of homes are unhappy because family prayer is missing. That's something worth thinking about for all of us because if you want a real happy home you must have a daily remembrance of God in your home. That's what family prayer is. It's God's wonderful way to bring a family close together in happiness. That's why we believe that the family that prays together stays together. More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. Lou Krugman and John Stevenson. The script was written and directed for Family Theatre by John T. Kelly with music composed and conducted by Harry Zimmerman. This series of Family Theatre broadcasts is made possible by the thousands of you who feel the need for this type of program, by the mutual network which has responded to this need, and by the hundreds of stars of state screen and radio who give so unselfishly of their time and talent to appear on our Family Theatre stage. To them and to you, our humble thanks. This is Tony Lafranco expressing the wish of Family Theatre that the blessing of God may be upon you and your home and inviting you to join us next week when Family Theatre will present Blood Will Tell starring Jean Evans. Dennis Day will be your host. Join us, won't you? Family Theatre is broadcast throughout the world and originates in the Hollywood studios of the world's largest network. This is Mutual, the radio network for all America.