 The film tells the story of the crew aboard a British tramp steamer named the SS "Glencairn" on the long voyage home from the West Indies to Baltimore and then to England.The crew is a motley, fun-loving, hard-drinking lot.Among them is their consensus leader, a middle-aged Irishman named Driscoll ("Drisk") (Thomas Mitchell), a young Swedish ex-farmer Ole Olsen (John Wayne), a spiteful steward nicknamed Cocky (Barry Fitzgerald), a brooding Lord Jim-like Englishman Smitty (Ian Hunter), and a burly, thoroughly dependable bruiser Davis (Joseph Sawyer), among others.