This is the story of a destroyer of the Royal Navy and of those that serve in her. In the Battle of Crete she i dive bombed while steaming at 30 knots and goes down fighting. Among those of her survivors who are able to reach the Carley float are Captain Edward Kinross RN (Captain D commanding the flotilla) (Noel Coward), Chief Petty Officer Walter Hardy (Bernard Miles) and ordinary seaman 'Shorty' Blake (John Mills). As they cling to the float exhausted, wounded and machine gunned, we see, through the memories of their characters, their families and their home lives interwoven and dominated by their ship. Through their minds we are shown the ordeals, the achievements and the gallantry of HMS Torrin from her commissioning as a unit o His Majesty's Fleet until she sinks in her last battle, Thr Torrin has gone and so have many of her crew but they, no less than the survivors, carry on the fight. For they are the spirit of the British Navy past, present and future, which will guard our shores and keep our honor on all the oceans of the world.
—Tonyman 5