The film opens with sea scouts Donald Duck & his nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie at sea. They are first seen rowing out to Donald's large ship in a small rowboat, with Donald conducting the rowing who says to the audience "Some class, huh?".

Aboard Donald's ship, he acts as a proud and able sea captain. 

He is forced to move aside when a seagull almost defecates on his sea captain hat, and then discovers that his nephews have fallen asleep. 

He yells at them to wake up and they bump into each other in their haste to follow his orders (this continues throughout the film due to their clumsiness). 

They are asked to raise the anchor, but as they are raising it, it gets caught on a rock under the water. 

Not realizing what's wrong, Donald attempts to raise the anchor himself but runs into the same problem. 

Angrily, he tries again but pushes so hard the boat sinks instead of the anchor rising and goes underwater. 

At first, Donald does not know what has happened – even thinking he sees "flying fish" and "flying turtles" – but finally finds out what has happened, and lowers the anchor to make the boat rise. 

In the process, he is thrown into the mast, getting tangled up in flags. 

His nephews find this funny and laugh, but Donald responds by angrily telling them to raise the sail. 

However, they do not raise it properly, pulling the sail, while still between its masts, upward instead of outward. 

When he tells them to do it the right way, they say "Aye aye, sir!" and unintentionally let it fall on Donald. 

Donald loses his temper and raises the sail himself, and the ship finally leaves the dock