Hunters Point Naval Shipyard is the drydock setting for Greenwald’s visit to the damaged USS Caine while Steve Maryk’s court-martial is being prepared. The shipyard brings the legal proceedings into direct contact with the vessel at the center of the case: from its keelblocks, the Caine appears not as an abstract subject of testimony but as a battered, cluttered ship bearing visible damage.

The Caine in Drydock

When Greenwald asks where the Caine is, Jack Challee identifies Hunters Point as its location. The ship rests on keelblocks in a drydock, reached by a long, steep wooden gangway stretching across the dock. Accustomed to aircraft carriers, Greenwald sees the minesweeper as resembling a little river boat. Its main deck is strewn with rubble, and a jagged hole about four feet across, roped off near the motor whaleboat’s after davit, exposes twisted rusty cables and pipes.

Greenwald’s Visit

Before committing himself, Greenwald asks to speak with Maryk. At the shipyard he makes his way down the gangway and asks for the lieutenant, only to be told Maryk is not there. The visit thus establishes both the immediate, physical condition of the Caine and Greenwald’s effort to meet the man whose defense he may undertake; the excerpt does not disclose whether they meet later.