CAPTAIN QUEEG

Lt. Cmdr. 'Philip Francis Queeg', USN, is a fictional character in Herman Wouk's 1951 novel ''The Caine Mutiny'', in the 1954 film made from it, ''The Caine Mutiny'', and in the Broadway play ''The Caine Mutiny Court Martial'', which opened the same year as the film.

Contents

Character overview

Pop culture references

Character overview

Queeg, a 1936 graduate of the United States Naval Academy and formerly an officer on a destroyer, is assigned as captain of the ''U.S.S. Caine'', a minesweeper stationed in the Pacific during World War II. He is pulled from anti-submarine school to command the vessel. It is his first command. He is initially welcomed by the crew as a tough, no-nonsense veteran, who will shape up the ship after his slovenly predecessor's departure. Queeg is married, and lives in Phoenix, Arizona, but his wife is not a character in the novel.
After a honeymoon period, it becomes apparent that Queeg is prone to eccentric behavior. Queeg displays a micro-managing command style and (sometimes unprovoked) angry outbursts. As time passes, he begins to make mistakes that endanger his crew. He neglects to order the ship to stop turning while reprimanding a crew member for having his shirttail out, and so the ship steams over its own towline, parting it. When called on the carpet by a superior after this incident, he refuses to acknowledge it happened, or to admit blame in any way. His superiors are not satisfied, but allow him to retain command.
The ''Caine'' is sent to San Francisco for an overhaul. Queeg uses the opportunity to take home, against the letter of Naval Regulations, a case of alcohol. He orders the ''Caine'' across the Bay to Oakland to drop off the crate before going to San Francisco. Queeg's contradictory orders to the boat crew which he orders to take the crate ashore cause the loss of the crate. When a subordinate requests leave, Queeg brings up the boat incident and implies (falsely) that the officer was responsible. The officer can take a hint, and reimburses Queeg for the lost liquor.
After the overhaul, the ''Caine'' is ordered into combat. Queeg is observed to always frequent the sheltered side of the ship's bridge from the beach. When he orders the ship to withdraw before reaching the line of departure while escorting a Marine landing craft under hostile fire, his subordinates consider him either crazy or a coward.
Another episode which highlights Queeg's behaviors occurs when a quart of strawberries vanish from the wardroom icebox. Remembering how he helped solve a mystery involving a similar theft when he was an ensign earlier in his career, Queeg attempts to recreate his former accomplishment by insisting the strawberries were pilfered by a crewmember with a duplicate key. Queeg orders every key on the ship collected, and a thorough search made. During the search, the captain is confronted with evidence that the messboys ate the strawberries. Queeg loses all enthusiasm for the search, though he orders it to continue, and it is continued in a desultory way amid public mocking of the captain.
The first officer, Steve Maryk, remains loyal to the captain but is eventually goaded into believing that Queeg is unfit for command by Lieutenant Tom Keefer, an aspiring novelist pressed into wartime service who has a grudge against the captain. Keefer persuades Maryk that the captain may be mentally ill, causing the exec, who is a man of the sea but not particularly intelligent, to study medical books on mental illness. Soon after, the ''Caine'' is caught in a typhoon, and is in danger of sinking. Maryk believes Queeg unable to deal with the crisis and relieves Queeg of command on the grounds of mental illness.
During Maryk's court-martial, Queeg takes the stand, and eventually reveals his peculiar behaviors to the court. The question of his mental health is left undetermined, and the degree of justification of the officers for the reader to decide. The psychiatric evidence at the court-martial is inconclusive. This leaves the reader to ponder whether Maryk's actions had been justified as Maryk's defense attorney, Lieutenant Barney Greenwald, in a drunken speech at a party following Maryk's acquittal, praises Queeg for choosing a career defending the country, and condemns Keefer for inciting a mutiny and then running from the consequences. Had the officers been more supportive of the Captain, he maintains, it would not have been necessary for Maryk to relieve Queeg. Greenwald is convinced that the officers let Queeg down, rather than the other way around.
After the trial, Queeg is assigned to a naval depot in Iowa and is passed over for promotion, likely signalling the end of his naval career.

Pop culture references

★ In the novel ''Holding the Dream'' by Nora Roberts one of the main characters says "Captain Queeg is in the office, rolling marbles and talking about strawberries" to illustrate a character's craziness.

★ In the novel ''Special Topics in Calamity Physics'' by Marisha Pessl the main character Blue van Meer reflects, "But I always told myself that everyone--at least everyone fascinating --had a few scars. And scars didn't necessarily mean one couldn't be, say, more Katharine Hepburn than Captain Queeg when it came to overall outlook and demeanor, a little more Sandra Dee than Scrooge." (p. 7)

★ In her book ''The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank'', humorist Erma Bombeck has a vignette entitled "CAPTAIN QUEEG AND THE ICE CUBES" in which her husband enters the room rolling two steel balls in his hand and demands to know who took the last ice cubes from the freezer without making more.

★ In the "Lambs to the Slaughter: Wolf In Sheep's Clothing" episode of ''Farscape'', John Crichton tells his friends that, "Scorpius has gone into Captain Queeg mode," and, "someone has stolen his strawberries..."

★ In the TV series ''Red Dwarf'', one of the episodes, entitled ''Queeg'', features a backup computer called Queeg 500 which takes control of the ship when Holly puts it in danger.

★ In the TV series '', the ship's CO Commodore Ross has a bowl of Strawberries stolen and tells the crew the ship will be searched and the guilty parties punished.

★ In the novel ''Shantaram'', Gregory David Roberts refers to having a recollection of thoughts like the steel balls in Captain Queeg's hand.

★ In Season 2, Episode 5 of the TV series ''The West Wing'' (And It's Surely To Their Credit), White House Communications Director Toby Ziegler and Press Secretary C.J. Cregg discuss a retiring Army General and his apparent intention to criticize the President in a series of upcoming interviews. Toby ends the discussion with "Let me know if you need me on Captain Queeg."

★ An early episode of the TV series ''Sealab 2021'' features Captain Murphy locking Sealab crew members in "battle stations" until his missing Happy Cake Oven (similar to an Easy-Bake Oven) is located. When Sparks invokes ''The Caine Mutiny'' as a cautionary tale, Murphy becomes distracted and starts reminiscing about Michael Caine.

★ In the ''King of the Hill'' episode "Hank's on Board" the characters charter a boat named the "Queeg".

★ In an August 28, 2006 issue of ''Newsweek'', Vice President Dick Cheney is called "increasingly Queeg-like".

★ In his column for January 8, 2006, New York Times opinion writer Paul Krugman discusses the "president's Queeg-like inability to own up to mistakes."

★ The February 3, 2007 episode of Zippy the Pinhead compares George W. Bush to Captain Queeg, with Zippy playing the part of Bush. link to comic

★ In the case Planned Parenthood vs. Casey, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy explained his difficulty in coming to a decision (he ultimately sided with the Pro-Choice majority ruling) as follows: "Sometimes you don't know if you're Caesar about to cross the Rubicon or Captain Queeg cutting your own tow line."

★ An issue of Games Magazine in 1980 included a 'surreal landscape" filled with pictures of things starting with the letter "Q." It includes a Mt. Rushmore scene, with Capt. Queeg replacing Thomas Jefferson.

★ Mad Magazine parodied the movie, with a caricatured version of Queeg on deck as he hears spelled-out sound effects "KWEEG!" and asks, "Who calls Kweeg? Who do I hear calling 'Kweeg'?" Lieutenant "Feefer" (Keefer) explains that it's the ship's horns and whistles making the sound "Kweeg." He adss, "Your name's like a furshlugginer sound effect, Sir!" Kweeg replies "That's insubordination, lieutenant--I kid you not! You have them ship's whistles and horns fixed so's they make the sound effect ' ''Captain'' Kweeg' and not just plain 'Kweeg!'" At the end of the strip, the character based on Keith is transferred to a new ship, the H.M.S. Bounty.