In the movie she is played by the USS Thompson DD-627/DMS-38 a 2500 ton Gleaves class destroyer converted into a Destroyer Minesweeper since by the time the movie was made no “four pipers” were left in existence. In the book she is a First World War One 1250 ton Wickes or Clemson class four piper. The story centers around the officers or the wardroom of the USS Caine, an elderly Destroyer Minesweeper which had been in continuous combat in the South Pacific. The book gained popular success and was made into a movie in 1954 starring Humphrey Bogart, Van Johnson and Fred MacMurray, Jose Ferrer and Robert Francis. There has never been a mutiny on a United States Navy ship yet the book and later the movie The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk is one of the most poignant books on leadership in existence. In this essay I go through the movie and book and illustrate my point with quotations from it. I prefer the book but I am captivated by the performances of Humphrey Bogart and Jose Ferrer. The Caine Mutiny is a classic on leadership either in book or movie form. While none of these incidents could be described as mutiny they were certainly acts which undermined the chain of command, endangered the mission and had they occurred in a combat zone or in emergent conditions could have gotten soldiers or sailors killed. I write this after seeing a number of officers do some really dumb things in my 28 year career in the manner in which they supported their commanders or chain of command in trying times. You don’t support your captain because you like him you support because he’s got the job or you’re no good!” Jose Ferrer as Lieutenant Barney Greenwald
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