Captain Carroll needs to hire, the the worst way, a first-mate for his three-masted cargo ship, the "Marigold," sailing to Manila and Singapore, and does so by hiring Woolf Barstow, whose track record includes the loss of three ships. Barstow brings along his equally-unsavory confederate, "Scar" Murray, as the boatswain. Bartsow intends to take over the ship, and also has his lustful eye on the captain's daughter, Mary. He poisons the captain, drowns the second-mate, Miller, and has a fake cargo arranged by Wong, a Chinese merchant who operates a waterfront dive where Barstow's true-blue sweetheart, Concha Renaldo, dances. As a replacement for the 2nd-mate, he hires a derelict who is handy with his fists, Steve Trent, and Trent brings along his drunken-sot friend, Bloater, as the ship's cook. Concha, spurned by Barstow, is a stowaway on the ship. The pot is boiling. Anchor's aweigh.