In early December 1941, a young U.S. Navy ensign in the Philippines named Kemp Tolley was given his first ship command - the Lanikai, an old seventy-six-foot schooner that once served as a movie prop in John Ford's The Hurricaine. Crewed mostly by Filipinos who did not speak English and armed with a cannon that had last seen service in the Spanish-American War, the ship was under top-secret presidential orders to sail south, ostensibly to spy on Japanese fleet movements. To Tolley it was clear that their mission was to create an incident that would provoke war. Events overtook the plan when Pearl Harbor was attacked before the Lanikai could get underway. When Bataan and Corregidor fell, the Lanikai was ordered to set sail for Australia and became one of the few U.S. naval vessels to escape the Philippines. Here Tolley tells of the saga of her great adventure and regales the reader with details of the unusual operation and an explanation of President Roosevelt's order. Tolley's description of the Lanikai's four thousand-mile odyssey to escape the Japanese ranks with the best of sea tales.