As executive officer, on the last day of World War II, Lt. Cmdr. White makes the split-second decision to leave the captain, Cmdr. Joshua Rice and the quartermaster, both wounded by a strafing fighter on the bridge while the attack continues from the fighter and a destroyer above. As he surfaces, he learns that Japan has surrendered. He blames himself, as do some of the crew, for not taking the time to recover the two dead or wounded from the bridge before diving. As time passes this haunts him to the breaking point and threatens to destroy his marriage. His peacetime job is to manage the mothball submarine fleet. At the moment where he decides to leave the Navy, the Korean War starts and his old sub is returned to active service with him as captain. In the course of a dangerous mission, he risks his ship in an minefield and facing shore batteries as an acceptable loss for the good of the mission. The sub is shelled and sunk but not before all hands are able to escape. His wife ends the film by christening the next USS Tiger Shark.
—patsw