A bungling burglar, determined to go down in the annals of crime as a genius, steals a ship in New York in order to rob a bank in Boston. He steals a mothballed Liberty ship, assembles a nitwit band of meatballs and sets sail on his crazy cruise for crime. To "drive" the ship they shanghai an inept ex-Navy officer who somehow manages to bring them through a hurricane, a fire and a mutiny.