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As the ketch Scarlet Queen nears japan, ship master Philip Carney faces mutiny from his first mate, Gallagher.
In voiceover, Carney recounts the moments of their first night in Kobe Bay, and in his typical picturesque speech. A crew member comes onboard to report that Gallagher is on a drunk, and refuses to return to ship. Though he shouldn’t have gone, Carney is forced to go ashore to find Gallagher. After properly paying bribes, he is sent to Gallagher, but
Carney smells a rat.
After gunshots as Carney nears the Scarlet Queen. Clues are discovered, and it leads him back to town, on a trail through the seedy side of town in a wierd mix of Japanese and American culture. Carney encounters a geisha who drops her pigeon English to reveal that she’s originally from Boston. Speaking a fluent English, she also knows enough to help him out. It’s a trap! Tough guys always fall for the dame. His kidnapper is in part made up of the not so drunk Gallagher, and they want him to try to identify an unlabled chart of the Japanese coastline.
It’s actually a pencil drawn chart of Chesapeake Bay, but that’s a secret that Carney’s not telling. When he is left alone, Carney is cut loose by the geisha from Boston. Is she an agent of Kang? She let’s him know that he can trust Gallagher, and how he fooled the kidnappers to distract them from the real info that they’re seeking. I guess sometimes the tough guy can trust the dame, but what a rough way to get travelling orders.
The kidnappers are back, a fight ensues, gunplay, but in the end, Gallagher had the instructions from Kang all along. Our heros make their get away, and the Scarlet
Queen is standing by to make sail for the next leg of the adventure.
