You have to give Nutting credit: he lived, and ultimately died, adhering to his anti-safety credo, insisting to the end that the true purpose of ocean sailing was simply “the fun of the thing.”

The twist comes when the skipper early on brings his mistress aboard—a sanctimonious Bible-quoting woman named Carola—to join in the voyage. Though the two are living in sin, they seem always to be looking down their noses at their young libertine deckhand.