If there is one movie that is near and dear to the heart of any retired Navy engineer, it is The Sand Pebbles. This movie recreates what we remember so very well: from the realities of the engine room to getting our asses professionally chewed by the captain; from spending most of our liberty (and money) in That One Bar to the shipmate who risks his career (and life) for the Asian bar girl whom he loves; from the high ideals of showing the flag in a foreign land to the depths of a crew's despair — and how a courageous captain can forestall a dangerous impasse among the crew.
And it's not just the concepts above, but the detail! Those of us who remember the old days cannot help but recognize the dragons on the inside of the wrists of Steve McQueen's dress blues; the unpainted, almost Spartan rooms where the bar girls usually slept; and the engineers' dungarees stained by sweat, grease, and oil.
My dad was a 'wiper' - an engineer - on a merchant marine ship. He drowned in Hong Kong harbor back in '74 after trying unsuccessfully to jump from the liberty boat to the ship's accommodation ladder. I cried about it once, but that's it — I hadn't seen him since I was two. Ironically, when I joined the Navy seven years later, I became a Machinist's Mate, the Navy equivalent of what my dad was, and the same rate that Steve McQueen wore in the movie. I can state unequivocally that the engine room scenes in the movie are as real as it gets, from the deck plates to the deck gratings to the scene in the bilges (including the steam from the gage glass) to the reciprocating gears, jacking gear, burnt bearing, the slugging wrench, the main steam stop valve... I could almost smell it! Next time I feel particularly maudlin and have a six-pack handy to cry in, I know what movie I'll be watching.
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