Build a movie plot around this: Is this Captain Ashland's first voyage? No
The answer to this question is:
A mysterious black freighter steams at night, apparently deserted. Detecting a cruise ship close by, the ship alters course as ghostly voices shout in German, "Battle Stations! Enemy in sight!" The controls and wheel move my themselves.Aboard the cruise ship, the prickly Captain Ashland (George Kennedy) is making his final voyage, attended by his replacement, Captain Trevor Marshall (Richard Crenna), who has brought along his family. Outside, the freighter heads right for them, blasting its horn, and despite Ashland's best efforts, collides with the cruise ship, sinking it.The next morning, a handful of survivors, including Marshall, his wife Margaret (Sally Ann Howes), their children Robin and Ben, a young officer named Nick (Nick Mancuso), his love interest Lori (Victoria Burgoyne), the ship's stand up comic Jackie (Saul Rubinek), and a passenger, Mrs. Morgan (Kate Reid), are adrift on a large piece of wreckage. Ashland surfaces nearby, and is brought aboard barely conscious. Later, the survivors come upon the black freighter, unaware it is the ship which attacked them. Finding a boarding ladder slung from the stern, they climb aboard, but not before the ladder plunges into the sea as the officers try to climb it with the injured Ashland. When all are finally aboard, Jackie tries to rally the survivors with humor, but a cable seizes him by the ankle, and he is lifted and swung outboard by one of the ship's cranes, which lowers the thrashing comic into the water before cutting him loose, to be swept astern and lost.Shocked, the survivors explore the corridors of the empty, echoing vessel, finding only cobwebs and 1930s memorabilia. Hatches open and close by themselves and lights go on and off while a swinging block knocks out Nick, who is exploring above deck.Meanwhile, a delirious Ashland hears a disembodied voice speaking to him in German, telling him: "This ship has been waiting for you...It is your new ship....Your chance has come!" The others finally set up in a dusty bunk room, and break up to retrieve...