The original film starred Marie Dressler, Wallace Beery, Robert Young, and Maureen O'Sullivan.

She starts hiring his crew, an experienced lot of sailors: Pinto (Mantan Moreland), Shiftless (Jack Norton), Missouri Jones (Barton Yarborough) and Johnny Webb (Hardie Albright).

It turns out the boy, whose name is Terry Jordan (Charles Gordon), is quite hostile towards Annie, and both she and her crew have difficulties in putting up with his antics.

Susan gets to play for a famous conductor, a womanizing musician, Alfred Puccini (Fritz Feld) whom Annie knew a long time ago, under a different name.

When Annie gets a very important and acute mission, Bullwinkle secretly empties her fuel tanks and sabotages her radio communication so that he can steal the job.

When the tugboat tows an oil tanker that has caught fire, and the boat is at risk because of the huge flames, Johnny dies saving Terry’s life.