Plot

A Pacific Ocean steamer with a brutal captain, Peter Forbes (Noah Beery), and carrying a motley cargo of passengers, drifts into the Sargasso Sea and is ship wrecked on the Island of Lost Ships.

Aboard The Queen sailing from Puerto Rico to New York, U.S. naval officer Frank Howard is the prisoner of New York Police Detective Jackson. Howard and society girl Dorothy Whitlock, who with her aunt is also a passenger, become mutually attracted. The ship is damaged when its hits a half-submerged derelict, and Frank saves Dorothy from drowning. Now itself derelict, the ship is swept into the Sargasso Sea, a wreckage-cluttered eddy in the central Atlantic, and is stranded amidst an "island" of new and old ships, comprising a small colony of refugees dominated by Captain Forbes. Since any woman must be married immediately to prevent quarrels among the men, Forbes demands that Dorothy become his wife. But Dorothy chooses Howard; and when challenged by Forbes, Howard beats him. Burke, an Irish mechanic who operates the engines of a stranded submarine, leads Howard, Dorothy, and Jackson to the craft, and they escape Forbes and his gang. Jackson later clears Howard of murder, allowing him to find happiness with Dorothy.