What happens
Lou Costello plays a bumbling would-be sailor who wants to join the merchant marine, and Bud Abbott plays the friend who tries to talk sense into him. Lou struts about in a borrowed naval-style uniform and boasts of his love for the sea, but his nautical talk is hopelessly muddled. The two head to the docks to find him a berth, where recruiters, a shipyard christening and a medical check all keep turning the comedy toward Lou's blunders. The Abbott and Costello program aired on NBC and ABC, with Connie Haines singing and Freddie Rich's orchestra providing the music. This broadcast, from January 25, 1945, is sponsored by Camel cigarettes.
A seaport with docks, shipyards and a merchant ship, during the Second World War.
Characters: Lou Costello, Bud Abbott, Connie Haines
Listen for: Lou's garbled nautical terms, such as the mix-up over sloops and gunboats, and his fight with the boat's engines and anchor.
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.