King of the Coral Sea

Tighten your main halyard.

Come on, lively now, come on.

Sake, stand by and kip.

Sake, lay low.

Hands on the main sheet.

Come on, you two.

You'll never take me at this side of the island.

Over this way, Mr. King.

Motorboat.

Not yet.

Steady as she goes.

What you found?

A body.

Sagigi.

Turn him over, let's have a look at him.

Looks like the barracuda got at him.

Yeah, he's a bit of a mess.

Do you know him, Yusep?

Never seen him before in my life.

- Any of you other fella, you know this fella?

- This man don't come from Thursday Island.

He must have fall off some boat coming through the strait.

- Cover him over, I don't like the way he looks at me.

Never could stand the glassy stare.

Funny thing to find, Mr. King.

A fella just floating around like that.

Yeah, city dress too.

Alright, Bandos, Sagi, stand by

your ship, we're coming about.

Sabe, Guji, run up a dead man's flag.

Tell the other boats to fall in line astern, Yusep.

Come on, you fellas, get into line astern

behind the H.B., we've got a dead man aboard.

Laylo, come here.

Come on, come on.

Get forward.

- Miss Rusty, there's a couple of boats coming in.

They've lost a diver.

Janiero, Janiero, we've lost a diver.

What's this, what's this?

- It's Mr. King's boat, he must have lost a diver.

It couldn't be.

What?

No.

Get hold the end of this, gully.

You can look after the shell, Yusep.

See it's all in the shed before dark.

I make 'em work.

Come on, you men, bring the dinghy back here.

Quick and lively, now.

There's a man dead.

No, we found one.

Two or three mile out the other side of Weekend Island.

Who is he?

I don't know, just found him

in the sea floating on his face.

What's left of him.

Stranger to me.

- Yeah, must have fallen off a steamer, Charlie.

Hardly been in the water couple of days, what's left of him.

Hey Ted, just a minute.

Where are you off to?

The shore.

Well do you want to know more about this?

Yeah, I know, red tape.

You coppers always wanna know something about something.

I'll drop into the station when I get the shell organized.

Right, but don't make it too long, mate.

You're not up in an hour, I'll send a couple

of strong arm in there to get you.

Oh gee, it's good to see you.

Who was it, dad?

None of our men.

I thought it might have been you.

I'll get out of this.

Welcome home, Ted.

Nice to see you back.

G'day, Jack.

How's Uncle Sam's wandering boy?

Oh, fine, just fine.

Yeah?

Well I haven't had a meal all day

so what's say you get off home

and organize something to eat, I'm hungry.

Alright, but don't you be too long.

- I won't. - Oh, dad.

Funny business here, Janiero.

Found a man out there floating on his face,

city dressed, too, collar, tie, city shoes, the whole works.

Been in the water about two days.

Who was he?

Oh, I haven't a clue.

Musta took a dive off a steamer.

- Yeah, about the only way he coulda got there.

But it's a funny business, who's this from?

Wait and see.

Merriman, what's he coming up here for?

- There was a letter from him a couple of days back,

looks like he wants to take over.

Oh he does, does he?

Let's have a look at this letter.

Sorry to hear about your...

Save it, Grundy, save it.

We never lost anybody.

Well, it does look as though he intends

to come up here and run things.

Must have closed up all the nightclubs down south.

Yeah.

A big time playboy.

I looked him up in Who's Who.

Peter Benedict Merriman,

born 1925 with a mouth full of silver spoons.

Spent the first 15 years of his life

being protected from society

and the next 30 being inflicted on it.

But you got to admit there,

Mr. Merriman's got a very nice taste in dames.

Could be.

Shell's in.

Okay Yank, let's go.

Everything in off your boat, Yusep?

- That's the lot, Mr. King, everything's here.

Good.

- Jack. - Huh?

I gotta to up to the police station.

You look after the rest of this weigh in, will ya?

Okay.

A blasted nuisance having to go

dragging all the way up there.

Nothing I can tell 'em they don't already know.

Well, you won't go finding things.

You want this stuff cased tonight?

- You know I want it, guys hardly all sit down.

Nice large shell, your hand?

Yep.

- Petri, go get some cases and pack this stuff up.

Righto.

Mr. Janiero, Mr. Janiero.

Janiero, come quick.

Hey hey, hold it.

Shoulda hit him with a railroad track.

Okay, let's take him into the office.

And you haven't any idea who hit you?

No.

And they didn't take anything?

No, not a thing.

It's crazy, Sergeant.

They turned out his pockets

and walk off and leave the dough.

- Whatever it was they were looking for I didn't have it on,

get my coat for me, will you Jack?

Mm hm.

- That was a pretty vicious sort of attack there.

They coulda killed you.

Yeah, you can say that again.

This might have something to do with it.

It was on the body.

What about coming up to the station, Ted?

Well I.

Okay okay, I got things to do.

See you in the morning, boss.

Righto, Jack.

- You've got no idea how important this can be.

No?

There's a bit of smuggling going on, Ted.

There's always a fair bit of that sort of thing

but we've got a special brand of our own up here.

What do you mean?

This'll give you an idea what I mean.

Top secret?

Read it.

Canberra.

Further to report FBS, SS, Han Sing, Hong Kong, Sydney.

Hong Kong operative advises this vessel

on last three voyages transported

five prohibited European nationals.

None of these men possess passport entry phases

to this country and none was listed

on passenger or crew declarations.

European nationals not on board Han Sing

on arrival first to stay in the port of entry.

Where'd they get to?

- Well, the theory is they dropped off in the Torres Straits

and taken to the mainland in a pearling lugger.

Could be, too.

It's not a haphazard business, Ted.

It's a very carefully prepared plan.

And somehow or another, this body ties up with it.

Now, what I'd like you to do, Ted,

is to come in with us on this thing

and help us find out what's going on.

- Yeah, he'll be in in about an hour, Serena.

Everything okay up at the house?

Well don't make it too nice for him,

he might decide to stay.

But of course.

What's that?

Oh yeah, he's a big time playboy

from the big wicked city, don't you know?

Yeah, he's probably got all the old ladies