Caine Mutiny, The - Herman Wouk [245]
“Could his sickness, greatly intensified, disable him?”
“Very greatly intensified, yes.”
Greenwald said with sudden sharpness, “Isn’t there another possibility, Doctor?”
“What do you mean?”
“Suppose the requirements of command were many times as severe as you believe them to be-wouldn’t even this mild sickness disable Queeg?”
“That’s absurdly hypothetical, because-”
“Is it? Have you ever had sea duty, Doctor?”
“No.”
“Have you ever been to sea?”
“No.” Bird was losing his self-possessed look.
“How long have you been in the Navy?”
“Five months-no, six, I guess, now-”
“Have you had any dealings with ships’ captains before this case?”
“No.”
“On what do you base your estimate of the stresses of command?”
“Well, my general knowledge-”
“Do you think command requires a highly gifted, exceptional person?”
“Well, no-”
“It doesn’t?”
“Not highly gifted, no. Adequate responses, fairly good intelligence, and sufficient training and experience, but-”
“Is that enough equipment for, say, a skilled psychiatrist?”
“Well, not exactly-that is, it’s a different field-”
“In other words, it takes more ability to be a psychiatrist than the captain of a naval vessel?” The lawyer looked toward Blakely.
“It takes-that is, different abilities are required. You’re making the invidious comparison, not I:”
“Doctor, you have admitted Commander Queeg is sick, which is more than Dr. Lundeen did. The only remaining question is, how sick. You don’t think he’s sick enough to be disabled for command. I suggest that since evidently you don’t know much about the requirements of command you may be wrong in your conclusion.”
“I repudiate your suggestion.” Bird looked like an insulted boy. His voice quivered. “You’ve deliberately substituted the word sick, which is a loose, a polarized word, for the correct-”
“Pardon me, what kind of word?”
“Polarized-loaded, invidious-I never said sick. My grasp of the requirements of command is adequate or I would have disqualified myself from serving on the board-”
“Maybe you should have.”
Challee shouted, “The witness is being badgered.”
“I withdraw my last statement. No more questions.” Greenwald strode to his seat.
For ten minutes Challee tried to get Bird to withdraw the word “sick.” The young doctor was upset. He became querulous and dogmatic, and threw up clouds of terminology. He refused to abandon the word. Challee finally excused the balky, hostile psychiatrist. He introduced as evidence the medical board’s report, the Ulithi doctor’s report, several of Queeg’s fitness reports, and sundry logs and records of the Caine. His presentation was finished.
“It’s three o’clock,” said Blakely. “Is the defense ready to present its case?”
“I only have two witnesses, sir,” said the pilot. “The first is the accused.”
“Does the accused request that he be permitted to testify?”
At a nod from his lawyer, Maryk stood. “I do so request, sir.”
“Stenographer will affirmatively record that the statutory request was made. ... Defense proceed to present its case.”
Maryk told the story of the morning of December 18. It was a repetition of Willie Keith’s version. Greenwald said, “Was the ship in the last extremity when you relieved the captain?”
“It was.”
“On what facts do you base that judgment?”
Maryk ran his tongue over his lips. “Well, several things, like-well, we were unable to hold course. We broached to three times in an hour. We were rolling too steeply for the inclinometer to record. We were shipping solid water in the wheelhouse. The generators were cutting out. The lights and the gyro cut off and on. The ship wasn’t answering to emergency rudder and engine settings. The radar was jammed out by sea return. We were lost and out of control.”
“Did you point these things out to the captain?”
“Repeatedly for an hour. I begged him to ballast and head into the wind.”
“What was his response?”
“Well, mostly a glazed look and no answer, or a repetition of his own desires.”
“Which were what?”
“I guess to hold fleet course until we went down.”
“When did you start