Caine Mutiny, The - Herman Wouk [248]
“In fact, you don’t know what you’re talking about when you discuss mental illness, is that right?”
“I didn’t say I knew much about it.”
“And yet you thought you knew enough to commit an act that might be outright mutiny, justifying yourself by your grasp of psychiatric diagnosis?”
“I wanted to save the ship.”
“What right had you to usurp the captain’s responsibility for the ship’s safety-setting aside your psychiatric insight?”
“Well, I-” Maryk stared dumbly.
“Answer the question, please! Either your act was justified by your psychiatric diagnosis of Queeg-or else it was the most serious breach of naval discipline of which you were capable. Isn’t that right?”
“If he wasn’t sick it would have been a mutinous act. But he was sick.”
“Have you heard the diagnosis of the qualified psychiatrists who have testified?”
“Yes.”
“What was their diagnosis-was he sick or wasn’t he on 18 December?”
“They say he wasn’t.”
“Lieutenant Maryk, did you think your ship-handling judgment was better than the captain’s?”
“In normal circumstances the captain could handle the ship. Under pressure he became erratic.”
“Isn’t the reverse possible-that under pressure you became erratic, and couldn’t understand the captain’s sound decisions? Is that possible?”
“It’s possible, but-”
“As between a captain and an executive officer, who is presumed by the Navy to have the better judgment in ship handling?”
“The captain.”
“Now, Lieutenant, your so-called justification consists in two assertions, doesn’t it-one, that the captain was mentally ill, and two, that the ship was in a dangerous situation-correct?”
“Yes.”
“The doctors have found that he wasn’t mentally ill, haven’t they?”
“That’s their opinion, yes-”
“Then this court must presume that the captain’s estimate of the ship’s situation was right and yours was wrong, isn’t that so?”
Maryk said, “Yes, except-just don’t forget the doctors could be wrong. They weren’t there.”
“Then your entire defense, Lieutenant Maryk, boils down to this. Your on-the-spot snap psychiatric diagnosis-despite your confessed ignorance of psychiatry-is superior to the judgment of three psychiatrists after three weeks of exhaustive professional examination. That is your defense, isn’t it?”
Maryk took a long pause, then said shakily, “All I can say is, they didn’t see him when the ship was in trouble.”
Challee turned and grinned openly at the court. He went on, “Who was the third ranking officer on your ship?”
“Lieutenant Keefer.”
“Was he a good officer?”
“Yes.”
“What’s his civilian background?”
“He’s an author.”
“Do you consider his mind as good as yours? Or perhaps better?”
“Perhaps better.”
“Did you show him this medical log of yours?”
“Yes.”
“Was he convinced by it that the captain was mentally ill?”
“No.”
“Did he dissuade you from trying to have the captain relieved, two weeks before the typhoon?”
“Yes.”
“And yet two weeks later-despite the whole weight of naval discipline-despite the arguments of the next officer in rank to you, a superior intellect by your own admission, arguments that had previously convinced you your diagnosis was wrong-you went ahead and seized command of your ship?”
“I relieved him because he definitely seemed sick during the typhoon.”
“Don’t you think it’s illogical, or fantastically conceited, to insist on your ignorant diagnosis now against the opinion of three psychiatrists?”
Maryk looked around unhappily at Greenwald, who was staring at the desk. The exec’s forehead was covered with wrinkles. He swung his head back and forth, like an annoyed bull. “Well, maybe it sounds that way. I don’t know.”
“Very well. Now then. This amazing interview in which the captain offered to falsify official records. Were there any witnesses to it?”
“No, we were alone in the captain’s cabin.”
“Were any erasures made? Is there the slightest thread of tangible evidence to support your story?”
“The captain knows it happened.”
“You rely for confirmation of this insulting libel upon the very officer you are libeling?”
“I don’t know