Herman Wouk - The Caine Mutiny

by The Caine Mutiny(Lit)

  Greenwald opened his cross-examination by saying, "Cap-tain Southard, have you ever conned a ship through the center of a typhoon?"

  "Negative. Been on the fringes often but always managed to avoid the center."

  "Have you ever commanded a destroyer-minesweeper, sir?"

  "Negative."

  "This case, sir, concerns a destroyer-minesweeper at the center of a typhoon-"

  "I'm aware of that," Southard said frostily. "I've had DMS's under my command in screens, and I've read the book on 'em. They don't differ from destroyers except in details of topside weight characteristics."

  "I ask these questions, Captain, because you are the only expert witness on ship handling and the extent of your expert knowledge should be clear to the court."

  "That's all right. I've handled destroyer types in almost every conceivable situation for ten years. Haven't handled a DMS at the center of a typhoon, no, but I don't know who has besides the skipper of the Caine. It's a thousand-to-one shot."

  "Will you state without reservation that the rules of de-stroyer handling would hold for a DMS in the center of a typhoon?"

  "Well, at the center of a typhoon there are no hard-and-fast rules. That's one situation where it's all up to the commanding officer. Too many strange things happen too fast. But seaman-ship is seamanship."

  "A hypothetical question, Captain. Assuming you are conn-ing a destroyer in winds and seas worse than any you have ever experienced. You are wallowing broadside. You actually believe your ship is foundering. You are in the last extremity. Would you try to bring your ship head into wind, or stern to wind?"

  "That's a mighty hypothetical question."

  "Yes, sir. Don't you wish to answer it?"

  "I'll answer it. In the last extremity I'd head into the wind if I could. Only in the last extremity."

  "Why, sir?"

  "Why, because your engines and rudder have the best pur-chase that way, that's all, and it's your last chance to keep control of your ship."

  "But suppose heading into the wind would mean remaining in the path of a storm instead of escaping?"

  "First things first. If you're on the verge of foundering you're as bad off as you can get. Mind you, you said the last extremity."

  "Yes, sir. No further questions."

  Challee stood at once. "Captain, in your opinion who is the best judge as to whether a ship is in its last extremity?"

  "There is only one judge. The commanding officer."

  "Why?"

  "The Navy has made him captain because his knowledge of the sea and of ships is better than anyone else's on the ship. It's very common for subordinate officers to think the ship is a goner when all they're going through is a little weather."

  "Don't you think, though, sir, that when his subordinates all agree that the ship is going down the captain ought to listen to them?"

  "Negative! Panic is a common hazard at sea. The highest function of command is to override it and to listen to nothing but the voice of his own judgment."

  "Thank you, Captain."

  35

  The Court-Martial-Second Day, Afternoon

  Dr. Forrest Lundeen was a stout, pink-faced commander with gold-rimmed glasses, and straight blond hair fading to gray. He was chief of psychiatry at the Navy hospital, and had headed the medical board which had examined Queeg. He sat com-fortably in the witness chair, answering Challee's questions with good-humored alertness.

  "How long did your examination last, Doctor?"

  "We had the commander under constant observation and testing for three weeks."

  "Who comprised the board?"

  "Myself, Dr. Bird, and Dr. Manella."

  "All three practicing psychiatrists?"

  "Dr. Bird and Dr. Manella have been civilian psychiatrists. They are reserve officers. I have specialized in psychiatry in the Navy for fifteen years."

  "What was the finding of the board?"

  "Commander Queeg was discharged with a clean bill of health."

  "No evidence of insanity was found?"

  "None whatever."

  "Does that mean that Commander Queeg is absolutely nor-mal?"

  "Well, normality, you know, is a fiction in psychiatry. It's all relative. No adult is without problems except a happy im-becile. Commander Queeg is a well-adjusted personality."

  "Do you consider it possible that two weeks before you began your examination Commander Queeg was insane?"

  "It is utterly impossible. The commander is sane now and has always been sane. A psychotic collapse leaves trauma that can always be detected."

  "You found no such trauma in Commander Queeg?"

  "None."

  "Commander Queeg was summarily relieved of command of the U.S.S. Caine on December 18, 1944, by his executive officer, who stated that the captain was mentally ill. Do you consider it possible that on that date Commander Queeg was in such a state of psychotic collapse that the executive officer's act was justified?"

  "Absolutely impossible."

  "Is it possible for a sane man to perform offensive, dis-agreeable, foolish acts?"

  "It happens every day."

  "Assuming for a moment-this is a hypothetical question--that the conduct of Commander Queeg throughout his com-mand was harsh, ill tempered, nasty, oppressive, and often showed bad judgment. Would that be inconsistent with your board's findings?"

  "No. We did not find that he was a perfect officer. We found an absence of mental illness."

  "From your knowledge of the commander, would you say he is capable of ill temper and harshness?"

  "Yes. It's in the picture."

  "Having discovered all that, you still say that the act of the executive officer in relieving him was unjustified?"

  "From a psychiatric standpoint, completely unjustified. That was the unanimous conclusion of the board."

  "Describe the background of your colleagues."

  "Bird has special training in Freudian technique. He's a recent honor graduate of Harvard Medical School. Manella is one of the best-known psychosomatic men on the West Coast."

  "State their present whereabouts."

  "Bird is still on my staff. Manella was detached last week and is en route to the Philippines."

  "We will place your report in evidence and hear Dr. Bird. Thank you, Doctor."

  The judge advocate allowed himself a direct glance into Greenwald's eyes, and a thin cold grin. Greenwald came shuffling toward the witness platform, rubbing his nose with the back of his hand, looking down at his feet, and presenting a general picture of flustered embarrassment. "Dr. Lundeen, my background is legal, not medical. I hope you will bear with me if I try to clarify technical terms. I'll probably ask some elementary questions."

  "Perfectly all right."

  "You said Commander Queeg, like all adults, had problems, to which he was adjusted. Can you describe the problems?"

  "Well, most of that information comes under the heading of clinical confidences."

  "Yes, sir. Suppressing all confidential information, can you still describe in general the problems?"

  Challee called out, "I object. Commander Queeg is not on trial. Lieutenant Maryk is. The question constitutes irrelevant probing of medical confidences."

  Blakely looked to Greenwald. The pilot shrugged. "I rely on the judgment of the court. Evidence regarding disturbing fac-tors in Commander Queeg's mental make-up is of the ut-most importance to the issue, obviously."

  With an annoyed glance at the judge advocate, Blakely ordered the court cleared. The parties were summoned back in less than a minute. Blakely said, "The question is material. Objection overruled. The doctor has the privilege of medical discretion in answering." Challee flushed, and slouched in his chair. The stenographer repeated the question.

  "Well, you might say the over-all problem is one of in-feriority feelings," said Lundeen, "generated by an unfavor-able childhood and aggravated by some adult experiences."

  "Unfavorable childhood in what way?"


  "Disturbed background. Divorced parents, financial trouble, schooling problems."

  "And the aggravating factors in adult life?"

  "Well, I can't go into those too much. In general, the com-mander is rather troubled by his short stature, his low standing in his class, and such factors. Apparently the hazing at the Academy was a scarring experience." Lundeen paused. "That's about what I can say."

  "How about his present family life?"

  The doctor said reluctantly, "Well, you begin to tread on clinical ground there."

  "But there are tensions, without describing them?"

  "I won't answer further questions in that direction. As I say, the commander is well adjusted to all these things."

  "Can you describe the nature of the adjustment?"

  "Yes, I can. His identity as a naval officer is the essential balancing factor. It's the key to his personal security and there-fore he's excessively zealous to protect his standing. That would account for the harshness and ill temper I spoke about before."

  "Would he be disinclined to admit to mistakes?"

  "Well, there's a tendency that way. The commander has a fixed anxiety about protecting his standing. Of course there's nothing unbalanced in that."

  "Would he be a perfectionist?"

  "Such a personality would be."

  "Inclined to hound subordinates about small details?"

  "He prides himself on meticulousness. Any mistake of a subordinate is intolerable because it might endanger him."

  "Is such a personality, with such a zeal for perfection, likely to avoid all mistakes?"

  "Well, we all know that reality is beyond the hundred-per-cent control of any human being-"

  "Yet he will not admit mistakes when made. Is he lying?"

  "Definitely not! He-you might say be revises reality in his own mind so that he comes out blameless. There's a tendency to blame others-"

  "Doctor, isn't distorting reality a symptom of mental ill-ness?"

  "Certainly not, in itself. It's all' a question of degree. None of us wholly faces reality."

  "But doesn't the commander distort reality more than, say, you do, or any other person not under his tensions?"

  "That's his weakness. Other people have other weaknesses. It's definitely not disabling."

  "Would such a personality be inclined to feel that people were against him, hostile to him?"

  "It's all part of it. Such a man by nature is constantly on the alert to defend his self-esteem."

  "Would he be suspicious of subordinates, and inclined to question their loyalty and competence?"

  "Maybe somewhat. It's all part of the anxiety for perfec-tion."

  "If criticized from above, would he be inclined to think he was being unjustly persecuted?"

  "Well, as I say, it's all one pattern, all stemming from one basic premise, that he must try to be perfect."

  "Would he be inclined to stubbornness?"

  "Well, you'll have a certain rigidity of personality in such an individual. The inner insecurity checks him from admitting that those who differ with him may be right."

  Greenwald suddenly switched from his fumbling manner to clicking preciseness. "Doctor, you've testified that the fol-lowing symptoms exist in the commander's behavior: rigidity of personality, feelings of persecution, unreasonable suspicion, withdrawal from reality, perfectionist anxiety, an unreal basic premise, and an obsessive sense of self-righteousness."

  Dr. Lundeen looked startled. "All mild, sir, all well com-pensated."

  "Yes, Doctor. Is there an inclusive psychiatric term-one label-for this syndrome?"

  "Syndrome? Who said anything about a syndrome? You're misusing a term. There's no syndrome, because there's no disease."

  "Thank you for the correction, Doctor. I'll rephrase it. Do the symptoms fall into a single pattern of neurotic disturbance-a common psychiatric class?"

  "I know what you're driving at, of course. It's a paranoid personality, of course, but that is not a disabling affliction."

  "What kind of personality, Doctor?"

  "Paranoid."

  "Paranoid, Doctor?"

  "Yes, paranoid."

  Greenwald glanced at Challee, then looked around slowly, one by one, at the faces of the court. He started back to his desk. Challee rose. The pilot said, "I haven't finished cross--examination, I want to consult my notes." Challee sank into his seat. There was a minute of silence. Greenwald shuffled papers at his desk. The word "paranoid" hung in the air.

  "Doctor, in a paranoid personality like Commander Queeg's, how do you distinguish between illness and adjustment?"

  "As I've said repeatedly"-there was a tired, irritated note in Lundeen's voice-"it's a question of degree. Nobody's ab-solutely normal. Perhaps you're a mild manic-depressive. Per-haps I'm a mild schizoid. Millions of people live normal lives with these compensated conditions. Their physical analogues are a sway back, a heart murmur, something that is an in-dividual weakness but not a disabling factor. You have to look for the disabling factor."

  "Is this disabling factor an absolute or a relative thing, Doctor?"

  "How do you mean that?"

  "Well, could a man have a paranoid personality which would not disable him for any subordinate duties, but would disable him for command?"

  "Conceivably."

  "Then as a communications officer he would not be mentally ill-but as captain of the ship he would be mentally ill, isn't that right?"

  "You're jumbling up a lot of medical language which you use very loosely," Lundeen said huffily.

  "I'm sorry, Doctor."

  "In the case of Captain Queeg my board did not find him disabled for command.

  "I remember that testimony, sir. Can you describe, Doctor, the point at which the paranoid personality becomes dis-abling?"

  "When the man loses control of himself and of the reality around him."

  "What are the symptoms of the disabled paranoid who finds reality too much for him?"

  "Well, there can be various reactions. Withdrawal into torpor, or frenzy, or nervous collapse-it all depends on cir-cumstances."

  "Is the disabling factor likely to show up in personal in-terviews?"

  "With a skilled psychiatrist, yes."

  "You mean the patient would go into frenzy or torpor?"

  "No. I mean the psychiatrist could detect the disabling mech-anisms, the rigidity, persecution feelings, fixed ideas, and so forth."

  "Why is a psychiatrist needed, Doctor? Can't an educated intelligent person, like myself, or the judge advocate, or the court, detect a paranoid?"

  Dr. Lundeen said sarcastically, "You evidently are not too well acquainted with the pattern. The distinguishing mark of this neurosis is extreme plausibility and a most convincing normal manner on the surface. Particularly in self-justifica-tion."

  Greenwald looked at the floor for half a minute. There was a rustle at the bench as all the court members, by a common impulse, shifted in their chairs. "A hypothetical question, Doc-tor, about a commanding officer with a paranoid personality... Assuming he does the following things: he becomes be-wildered or frightened under fire, and runs away; he damages government property and denies it; he falsifies official records; he extorts money from his subordinates; he issues excessive punishments for small offenses. Is he disabled for command?"

  After a long wait, with the court members staring hard at him, Lundeen said, "It's an incomplete question. Does he perform his duties satisfactorily otherwise?"

  "Hypothetically, let us say so."

  "Well, then, he-he is not necessarily disabled, no. He is obviously not very desirable. It's a question of your level of officer procurement. If you have other men as qualified as him for command, well, they would be preferable. If you're in a war and command personnel is stretched thin, well, you may have to use him. It's another war risk."

  "Dr. Lundeen, would you, as an expert witness, say that Commander Queeg should be restored to command of a United States naval vessel?"

&
nbsp; "Well, I- The question's pointless. That's the province of the Bureau of Personnel. The man is not mentally ill. I've repeatedly stated that a paranoid disturbance, however mild, is a distorting condition and exceedingly unpleasant for associ-ates. In war you make do with what you have. He isn't dis-abled."