Fact1: ship of Captain Tom Wilder is seized by Chinese Communists, Fact2: Wilder has been recruited to transport people of Chiku Shan out of Red China, Fact3: Villagers have been raising bottom of harbor channel with stones in to trap local Red Chinese patrol boat, Fact4: family not inform on rest of villagers, Fact5: Wilder 's love interest is tough and determined American named
Output: The ship of Captain Tom Wilder, an American Merchant Mariner, is seized by the Chinese Communists, and he is imprisoned for two years. He is helped to escape using bribery and then given the uniform of a Soviet army officer. He is transported to Chiku Shan village by a large Chinese man who will not divulge why he was broken out of prison. The village headman, Mr. Tso, explains all to the captain when he arrives: Wilder has been recruited to transport the people of Chiku Shan out of Red China to the British port of Hong Kong. In order to do this Captain Wilder must use a stolen, woodburning, flatbottomed, 19 Century sternwheel riverboat. He will also need to utilize his detailed memory of the China coast to make a handmade chart and use an unreliable magnetic compass by which to navigate. He will also need to rely upon the determination of the villagers and use their other assets in order to escape to freedom. Their plan has been underway for more than a year. Villagers have been gradually raising the bottom of their harbor channel with stones in order to trap the local Red Chinese patrol boat, once it has been lured inside. Sinking sampans loaded with rocks at the channel mouth will cause it to run aground and be trapped while the village makes it escape. They have also been quietly accumulating arms, ranging from Browning machine guns to Mosin–Nagant rifles and Nagant revolvers. They are forced to deal with the complication of the Communist Feng family, who must be brought along so they cannot inform on the rest of the villagers or be shot for allowing the escape. The villagers include the riverboats Chief Engineer, a U.S. Navytrained marine engineer named Tack, who helps the villagers take over and steal the steamboat ferry. Tack and Wilder brings the stern wheeler to Chiku Shan village, where she is loaded with firewood for the furnace and water for the boiler, provisioned, and given the name of the village. Wilders love interest is a tough and determined American named Cathy Grainger, whose father is a medical missionary in Chiku Shan village. Dr. Grainger is murdered by the Red Chinese after an operation he was performing on a political commissar failed. Wilder is forced to tell her of her fathers murder just before the villagers leave Chiku Shan village forever. Following their plan, the villagers lure the patrol boat into the harbor and trap it there. They flee down the coast, bluffing their way past a Peoples Liberation Army Navy destroyer and then disappear into a fog bank, hiding by day and sailing by night. Along the way, the Fengs first poison the food supply and then during a storm attempt to take over the riverboat, an attempt that fails. During the storm, Cathy comes to terms with her feelings for and attraction to the gruff Captain Wilder. Forced by a shortage of wood and fresh water, the Chiku Shan pulls into the Graveyard of Ships at Honghai Bay; Captain Wilder orders the wrecks stripped of wood for fuel and water siphoned from tanks and depressions for the boiler and drinking water. While mooring, a heavy timber plows through the stern wheel, snapping one of the paddle blades. This forces Captain Wilder to stay longer than he had intended in order to make repairs. At the same time, Cathy leaves the steamboat without permission to search for the truth about her fathers death, only returning after learning that his death happened exactly as Wilder had said. The Fengs are put off, only to be taken back aboard when a pursuing Red Chinese destroyer shells the Graveyard and sends its powered boats to search for the ferry. Unable to use the steam engine because the smoke from the boiler would give away their position, the villagers both pole and tow the riverboat through the marshlands until they can reach the open sea beyond the destroyers search radius. Tack fires up the boiler again and the Chiku Shan triumphantly proceeds to Hong Kong with her 170plus refugees. Her arrival in port is greeted by the repeated sounding of steam whistles and ships sirens from every vessel in the harbor.