What happens
Lou Costello tries to join the Merchant Marine, a plan his partner Bud Abbott doubts from the start. Costello insists he knows the sea, boasting of his family's sailing history and his nautical vocabulary, while Abbott quizzes him on boats and wind. At the shipyard they meet a captain eager to recruit him, and Costello gets a rough physical examination. The guide covers the early part of the broadcast, in which Costello's claims of seafaring experience are tested and the two men begin their search for a berth. The series is Abbott and Costello, first broadcast on January 25, 1945, on NBC and ABC, with Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in the leads, alongside Connie Haines.
A seaport and shipyard, with a harbour and ships during the Second World War era
Characters: Lou Costello, Bud Abbott, Connie Haines
Listen for: Costello's malapropisms and comic misunderstandings of nautical terms as Abbott quizzes him about boats
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.