four spools of number 12 piano wire, okay? i ordered them.
they choke on it.
you all know me. you know what i do for a living. i'll go out and get this bird for you. he's a bad one and it's not like goin' down the pond chasing blue-gills and tommy- cods. this is a fish that can swallow a man whole. a little shakin', a little tenderizing and down ya' go. you gotta get this fellow and get him quick. if you do, it'll bring a lot of tourist business just to see him and you've got your business back on a paying basis. a shark of that size is no pleasure and i value my neck at a hell of a lot more'n 3,000 bucks. i'll find him for three. but i'll kill him for ten.
the bastard is costing you more'n that every day. do you wanna stay alive and annee up the ten or play it cheap and be on welfare next winter. i'm gonna kill this thing.  just a matter of whether i do it now -- or at the end of summer.
did you bring a check?
cash? or do we do this on a handshake and a promise?
and my regular daily rate -- $200, whether we catch him or not.
and incidental damages, if any.
and you get the mayor off my back with this zoning crap. nobody tells me how to run my property.
and, uh, a case of apricot brandy and you buy the lunch.
try some of this. i made it myself.
here's to swimmin' with bowlegged women.
you want to get paid, you go.
this is the last time i hear from you. i don't want anyone with piss for blood on my vessel. put that blackfish on board, pump the bilges, and top off the fuel tanks, and finish up in the morning. then you're on the beach.
i know who he is.
transplants?
i'm not talking about day sailing or pleasure boating. i'm talking about working for a living. sharking.
are you now. i know about porkers in the water -- here. tie me a sheepshank.
let me see your hands.
ha. city hands. you been counting money. if you had a $5000 net and $2000 worth of fish in it, and along comes mr. white, and makes it look like a kiddy scissors class has gone to work on it and made paper dolls. if you'd ever worked for a living, you'd know what that means.
what do you mean 'we?'
all right, commissioner. but when we're on my ship, i am master, mate and pilot. and i want him.  . along for ballast.
5 lengths of 1. 2-inch, 20 number 14's, straight gaff, flying gaffs, tail rope, eye splice, m-1, 20 clips, pliers, irons.
hey, squirt! you want to stow this gear or you want me to use it for ballast? it ain't good for much but bait.
hello, junior. what are you? some kind of half-assed astronaut? jesus christ, when i was a kid, every little squirt wanted to be a harpooner or a sword fisherman. what d'ya have there -- a portable shower?
who's inside, you or the shark?
you're in the cage? the cage is in the water? the shark is in the water too? you're in the water with the shark.
hurry up, chief, daylight's a wastin'.
'here is the body of mary lee. for 15 years she kept her virginity. not a bad record for this vicinity.'
cast off the bow line! now your stern!
front-bow, back-stern, port, starboard. aloft, below. it's not a staircase, it's a ladder, it's not a rope, it's a line, and if you don't get it right.  i'll throw your ass through that little round window.
now hear this. you're aboard the fishing vessel 'orca,' and i'm her captain, master, mate, and owner. you'll jump when i holler. we're doin' a job here, and christ, i ain't got time to watch you birds get hooks in your ass and fall overboard. ship with me, and you'll do all right. cross me, and i'll slap you upside your heads. now -- if you boys are ready -- let's go fishin'.
here's something for you.
these greedy sons-a-bitches will eat their own guts.
go ahead, you cannibals. tell 'em where you got it!
just a little appetizer. i want our porker to know we're serving. i want to put some iron into that big yap.
keep that chum line going -- we've got five good miles. don't break it.
nobody. we're drifting with the current.
hell, in the old days we went out with good charts, good sounding lead, and a damn good compass. nowadays, these kids are afraid to go out without depth finders, radar, radio, electric toothbrush, every stupid thing.
get a fresh barrel.
real fine stuff but it won't mean a thing to mr. whitey, of course.  he didn't go to schools in electronics. he was born with what he does best. eat. he's a swimming appetite. 'course he might eat this stuff, but then i've seen him eat a rocking chair, too. next time, ask me.
it ain't a big mac. the expert don't approve. what do you thing? you're closer to the situation.
'cause this is where he lives. you gotta think like they do.
now if he weren't around, we'd of hooked something else by now, wouldn't we? but he scared 'em all away. big lonesome son of a bitch.
-- he'll gulp it down now.  hooooooo!
get behind me, dummy! reverse her and turn -- he's taking too much line! wet my reel, quick!
starboard, for chris'sake --
hey, you! farmer! half-speed there.
neutral! where the hell is he going?
oh, this ain't foolin' me -- sure -- try it!
makin' believe it's easy now.
gettin' ready to run again -- no? no? what's he playin' here? put the gloves on! let's see who's gonna tease who now!
down here, hooper!
look -- you may be a big yahoo in the lab, but out here you're just supercargo, and you'll do as i say, or you can take your gear and backstroke home. now get down here!
unbuckle me -- fast! grab the leader. he ain't normal, this one.  they never --
watch your hands -- grab onto this!
a marlin, or a stingray. huh. don't ever tell me my business again. get back up on the bridge.
fasten the pole.
don't tell me my business! quarter-mile, that way. full throttle.
what i do is trick him to the surface, got that? then i can jab him, understand? think i'm gonna haul it in as if he's a catfish, like everyone else does?
over there!
at least you handle the boat all right. stop. here.  cut the engine.
25 feet. and three tons of him there.
i never saw one that big.
orca here.
put her on.
this is quint, missus.
he's busy.
just fine, missus. we'll be back soon. everything's fine. we haven't seen anything yet. orca out.
here. rig this to the forward keg up there.
get up there and steer her. follow my hand, and hold 'er steady. i've got to get a clean shot at that porker's head.
hurry up, rig the line!
come to port. watch my hand. steady now.
the line, man, the line!
get clear, damn you!
jesus h. christ on a crutch!
now you've done it, you piss-ant. stop and rig a goddam tinker toy to my gear. let the bastard fight the keg for a while. he can't stay down with that on.
we got a barrel on him. we can't lose him. we stay out here until we find him.
you hired me, remember? it's my $10,000. it's my shark.
he's up again.
that's not so bad. look at this: . st. paddy's day in knocko nolans, in boston, where some sunovabitch winged me upside the head with a spittoon.
wire burn. trying to stop a backstay from taking my head off.
face and head scars come from amateur amusements in the bar room. this love line here.  . that's from some crazy frenchie come after me with a knife. i caught him with a good right hand right in the snot locker and laid him amongst the sweetpeas.
nothing! a pleasure scar. look here --
slammed with a thresher's tail. look just like somebody caressed me with a nutmeg grater.
and i'll drink to yours.
wait a minute, young fella. look. just look. don't touch.
mako. fell out of the tail rope and onto the deck. you don't get bitten by one of those bastards but twice -- your first and your last.
and here's to the ladies. and here's to their sisters; i'd rather one miss than a shipload of misters.
look a' that -- bayonet iwo jima.
i almost had 'im.
tattoo. had it taken off.
'u.s.s indianapolis.' 1944.
yeah. the u.s.s. indianapolis. june 29th, 1945, three and a half minutes past midnight, two torpedoes from a japanese submarine slammed into our side. two or three. we was still under sealed orders after deliverin' the bomb. the hiroshima bomb. we was goin' back across the pacific from tinian to leyte. damn near eleven hundred men went over the side. the life boats was lashed down so tight to make the bomb run we couldn't cut a single one adrift. not one. and there was no rafts. none. that vessel sank in twelve minutes. yes, that's all she took. we didn't see the first shark till we'd been in the water about an hour. a thirteen-footer near enough. a blue. you measure that by judgin' the dorsal to the tail. what we didn't know.  of course the captain knew. i guess some officers knew.  was the bomb mission had been so secret, no distress signals was sent. what the men didn't know was that they wouldn't even list us as overdue for a week. well, i didn't know that -- i wasn't an officer -- just as well perhaps. so some of us were dead already -- in the water -- just hangin' limp in our lifejackets. and several already bleedin'. and the three hundred or so laying on the bottom of the ocean. as the light went, the sharks came crusin'. we formed tight groups -- somewhat like squares in an old battle -- you know what i mean -- so that when one come close, the man nearest would yell and shout and pound the water and sometimes it worked and the fish turned away, but other times that shark would seem to look right at a man -- right into his eyes -- and in spite of all shoutin' and poundin' you'd hear that terrible high screamin' and the ocean would go red, then churn up as they ripped him. then we'd reform our little squares. by the first dawn the sharks had taken more than a hundred. hard for me to count but more than a hundred. i don't know how many sharks. maybe a thousand. i do know they averaged six men an hour. all kinds -- blues, makos, tigers. all kinds. in the middle of the second day, some of us started to go crazy from the thirst. one fella cried out he saw a river, another claimed he saw a waterfall, some started to drink the ocean and choked on it, and some left our little groups -- our little squares -- and swam off alone lookin' for islands and the sharks always took them right away. it was mainly the young fellas that did that -- the older ones stayed where they was. that second day -- my life jacket rubbed me raw and that was more blood in the water. oh my. on thursday morning i bumped up against a friend of mine -- herbie robinson from cleveland -- a bosun's mate -- it seemed he was asleep but when i reached over to waken him, he bobbed in the water and i saw his body upend because he'd been bitten in half beneath the waist. well chief, so it went on -- bombers high overhead but nobody noticin' us. yes -- suicides, sharks, and all this goin' crazy and dyin' of thirst. noon the fifth day, mr. hooper, a lockheed ventura swung around and came in low. yes. he did that. yes, that pilot saw us. and early evenin', a big fat pby come down out of the sky and began the pickup. that was when i was most frightened of all -- while i was waitin' for my turn. just two and a half hours short of five days and five nights when they got to me and took me up. eleven hundred of us went into that ocean -- three hundred and sixteen got out. yeah. nineteen hundred and forty five. june the 29th. anyway, we delivered the bomb.
show me the way to go home.  i'm tired and i want to go to bed. i had a little drink about an hour ago, and it went right to my head.
start the engines.
he's busting the shaft! start the pump!
the bilge pumps. there --
cut the engines!
get up forward! watch for him!
keep your eyes open, mr. hooper!
nobody sleeps! nobody.
show me the way to go home.  i'm tired and i want to go to bed.
more left rudder! more! left hand down now, chief.
he's bent the housing. you can hear it.
it's him.
he's under the keg. careful --
easy -- just want to goose him up. the minute he runs, drop it or you'll lose your hands.
here -- gimme. i don't see what he's been doin'.
haul in that rope -- it'll foul us! start the engine!
easy! it'll tear right out!
shut up! just pump her out!
beg your pardon --
duty first and pleasure after --
excuse me!
no -- comin' right at us! slow ahead, he'll hit us head on -- slower! throttle back ---
hard to port!
try shakin' that out!
no! no! no! swing around! after him!
more gas.  go to half! get me right alongside him --
watch it!
atta boy!
take two, they're small!
order in the court!
three'll do it! he's havin' trouble with two!
grab yourselves a couple of poles!
get ready! now snag 'em!
pull in the ropes and tie 'em onto the transom -- free ride.
get tired! that's the idea! here's a little reverse for you!
haul in -- watch the prop!
now! untie 'em! quick! he'll tear us to pieces.
damn head is too far away. he's too big.
he can't go so deep. not with all those on him.
have to pump her steady, s'all.
follow him -- you start pumpin' out here.
no way! he can't!
he can't stay down with three barrels on him! where is he?!
no!
follow him!
dead astern! zig-zag!
full throttle! to port!
throttling back!
what can that gun of yours do?
let go of it!
he's comin' up -- !