***SPOILER ALERT*** True story of a shipwreck, due in the film to a WWII German naval mine, that had the ship's-The Crescent Star- second mate Executive Officer Alec Holmes, Tyrone Power, take command after the fatality injured ship's Captain Paul Darrow Laurence Nismith, put him in charge of it's survivors.<br /><br />Under the most extreme and dangerous circumstances Holmes gathers the some 35 Crescent Star survivors in a lifeboat that can hold no more the 15 people! Stuck in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean some 1,500 miles from the nearest land, the African Continent, Holmes has to now choose those who can help make it to shore and those who are just dead weight and have to be thrown overboard in order for the rest to survive. The movie has a very determined yet tortured and guilt ridden Holmes make the ultimate decision of life or death for those he's been put in charge of on the overcrowded lifeboat. A decision that in the end he'll have to stand trial for and possibly face the death penalty for premeditated murder!<br /><br />Knowing what he has to do to save the few people on the lifeboat who could survive the long and dangerous, in the teeth of a powerful South Atlantc Ocean storm, trip to Africa Holmes does in fact accomplish his almost impossible mission. That's even after he ends up almost getting killed by one of the lifeboat's passengers who threw a knife in his chest. Not reaching the African coastline Holmes and the surviving passengers were rescued by a British freighter-The British Soldier-just when Holmes himself was about, in him feeling that he's become a burden to those on board, to throw himself overboard!<br /><br />***SPOILERS***What's so sad and depressing about the ending is that none of the survivors with the exception of the ship's nurse Julie White, Mai Zettering, and one of it's passengers Edith Middleton, Moira Lister, who's husband was one of those who ended up under the waves, were willing to vouch or stand up for the man who was most responsible in saving their lives: Alec Holmes!<br /><br />Based on the true story of the wreck of the William Brown back in the spring 1841 "Abandon Ship" shows us how people can in many cases desert and leave hanging the very persons who not only saved their lives but risked their own lives in doing it! Even for the self-serving gutless and selfish reasons that they can conjure up in their not too sharp as well non analytical minds.<br /><br />P.S In the sinking of the William Brown the boat was sunk by an iceberg not naval mine like in the movie based on it. Also the William Brown was not a luxury cruse ship like the Crescent Star was with its passengers not of the upper crust of society. But mostly poor and downtrodden Irish emigrants trying to find a new start in life in America. The only thing that matched both the fictitious Crescent Star and real William Brown was the name of both ships tragic hero Alac Holmes! Who in real life was made a scapegoat for the maritime deserter and made to spend six months behind bars after being convicted for involuntary manslaughter! That for Holmes heroic part in saving some 15 persons who, if it wasn't for his brave and at the same time difficult actions, would have ended up at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean!