- [last lines]
- Lt. Jim Bledsoe: [presiding at a funeral on his submarine] It's thirty-eight days now since we left Pearl Harbor. I know how some of us felt then; I think I know how some of us feel now. But let no one here, no one aboard this boat, ever say we didn't have a captain.
- [as the body is buried at sea, he reads these remarks]
- Lt. Jim Bledsoe: Unto almighty God we commend the soul of our shipmate departed. And we commit his body to the deep, in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection unto eternal life, when the sea shall give up her dead in the life of the world to come.
- Commander Richardson: I see by this report that you called Mr. Cartwright an "ass."
- Yeoman 1st Class Mueller: Yes, sir.
- Commander Richardson: An officer?
- Yeoman 1st Class Mueller: [hangs his head for a moment] That's right sir.
- Commander Richardson: [shakes his head] Mueller, you're a damn fool.
- Lt. Jim Bledsoe: If you should fail, and somehow come out of this alive, there won't be a desk small enough for you this time.
- Commander Richardson: That's strange, Jim. I never even thought of failing.
- Yeoman 1st Class Mueller: Mr. Cartwright, with all due respect to your rank, may I say I think you're an ass?
- Commander Richardson: The best exec I could possibly get in the whole Navy. "The backstop" I think you said, and the first command you give as a captain is to order a retreat!
- Commander Richardson: A fleet boat of the Navy, a submarine with her fighting power still intact! And you'd take her back to Pearl? I don't believe it!
- Yeoman 1st Class Mueller: [after practicing submarine warfare tactics on Richardson's desk] You sunk him again, sir. That makes 200 times you sunk Bungo Pete
- [checks calendar]
- Yeoman 1st Class Mueller: In 200 days. He only sunk you once.
- Commander Richardson: [irritated] Just once, but it wasn't on a desk.
- Laura Richardson: [Richardson is cutting branches off his tree] Would you like some lemonade?
- Commander Richardson: Sure honey, I'll be down by the time-
- [Spots Bledsoe's cab]
- Commander Richardson: Better make enough for three.
- Laura Richardson: Three?
- Commander Richardson: We have company arriving.
- Laura Richardson: [distraught] I can't see anyone like this.
- Commander Richardson: I don't think this is a social visit,
- [Sees Bledsoe coming]
- Commander Richardson: You'd better put some gin in that lemonade.
- Lt. Jim Bledsoe: It's one thing to drill a crew for fighting. But when you duck a Jap sub, they wonder why they should break their backs on drills when the captain has no stomach for attacking. What does he want? Obedience? Efficiency? Or the best drilled cowards in the Navy?
- Commander Richardson: [after a long pause] Mr. Bledsoe, tell them I'm doubling the drills, starting tomorrow.
- Lt. Jim Bledsoe: Yes sir.
- [He starts to leave]
- Lt. Jim Bledsoe: You might as well know, sir, I don't believe it.
- Commander Richardson: Believe what?
- Lt. Jim Bledsoe: That you ran away from that sub from cowardice.
- Sonarman 1st Class Cullen: It's the craziest war patrol I ever started on.
- Petty Officer 1st Class Ruby: Who said anything about a war patrol? You're all confused, my friend. We're on a drill patrol here. First time in the annals of the Navy Department.
- Crewman: What's it all mean anyway? What's he got in mind, huh?
- Petty Officer 1st Class Ruby: Haven't you heard? He's gonna challenge the Japs to a drill. The winner gets an all-expense-paid honeymoon trip with Tokyo Rose in the Bungo Straits.
- Submarine Crewman: Suppose that fish hadn't gone wild, sir?
- Ens. Gerald Cartwright: You think that aircraft was just playing games up there? The Japs had us detected before we moved in.
- Petty Officer 1st Class Ruby: But the captain said when we moved out...
- Ens. Gerald Cartwright: The captain's flat on his back. We'd be better off if somebody put him there sooner. Kohler, get started on that before the watch.
- Yeoman 1st Class Mueller: Mr. Cartwright... this time, words just fail me!
- [decks Cartwright]
- Laura Richardson: [Social norms of a 1940s lady, having changed from pants to a dress for their unexpected guest, she presents a tray of fresh lemonade and a bottle of gin to her husband and the irritated Lt. Bledsoe] Anyone for a slug of gin?
- Lt. Jim Bledsoe: [P.O.'d at Captain Richardson for taking command of the sub away from him, Bledsoe contains himself to politely respond] Thank you, Mrs. Richardson. I'll take a rain check... Some other time.
- Laura Richardson: [With the natural, gentle touch of this warm, classy lady who's seen everything as a wife of an officer with perhaps 30 years' service, including wartime, she graciously and realistically says 'goodbye'] Lieutenant, if there isn't another time, 'good luck.'
- Lt. Jim Bledsoe: [Commanding officer addressing his men via the sub's PA system] You beach boys will be checking in at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. The hotel does
- [raises voice with one word]
- Lt. Jim Bledsoe: not have a repair crew.