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Guest Cast:

Evans.......................Carl Reindel 
Harker......................Eddie Ryder 
Blake.......................Robert Doyle 
Dr. Baines..................Wright King 
Collins.....................George Lindsey

When there's only a fraction between living and dying, then it's not a little, it's everything.--Harriman Nelson

Morton calls the Seaview from New London; the diving bell, undergoing repairs there, isn't ready yet. The Seaview will arrive in a few hours.

On the Seaview, Evans looks depressed. Blake, at sonar, asks what's wrong, and Evans shows him a telegram; he plans to ask the executive officer, Bishop, for emergency leave. When he does, Bishop orders him to get below, as he isn't on duty, and says they can discuss it later. Evans presses the issue--his wife is pregnant and something has gone wrong--but Bishop says to ask him when they reach port. Blake stands, anticipating trouble. Evans threatens to go directly to Nelson with his request; when Bishop still won't discuss it, Evans takes a swing at him, knocking him out. The master at arms is called to the control room, and Evans is put under arrest. While all this is going on, the Seaview runs into a derelict mine field; seeing this, Crane orders the ship to come to a full stop, ordering Bishop to back up slowly. Bishop is badly hurt and O'Brien does it instead; Crane goes to the control room to see what has happened. Bishop is taken to sick bay, and Blake tries to explain the situation to Crane, who says he will talk to him later if they have the chance. Nelson orders the ship to stop--there are mines right next to the ship.

Nelson goes to the control room; he says the cable is fouled and they cannot pull free, so will have to cut it. Because it's too deep to send out a diver, he orders Parker to prepare the minisub. Nelson learns about Bishop's condition and asks Blake what happened. Blake admits his mistake in getting up from his post to try to stop the fight--he was away from the screen for several minutes; Nelson says that was dereliction of duty. Just then, the minisub is launched, and they watch through the observation nose as it maneuvers through the mines, then cuts through the cable. It then bumps another mine, which explodes, destroying the minisub and rocking the Seaview. The power goes out, and another mine explodes. Water starts to leak into the ship at a great rate. The crew rushes out of the flooding section of the ship, but not everyone can make it out in time; Nelson orders Harker to seal the hatch anyway, for the safety of the rest of the ship.

The Seaview sinks to the bottom. Nelson orders Harker to go aft and see if there is any way to reach the auxiliary ballast tanks; he leaves, obviously upset, blaming himself for the deaths of the men behind the hatch. He returns to the control room with no good news, and Nelson tells him to pass out escape lungs to the crew. He leaves, and Nelson orders a marker buoy sent to the surface.

Harker gives an escape lung to Kowalski, who tells him the device won't work at this depth; Harker says to take it anyway, Admiral's orders. He gives one to Blake, asking if he can handle this without lousing it up; Harker and Blake start to fight, but Kowalski separates them.

In the control room, the crew is silent. Crane goes to find out whether the air purifier went out along with the lights. A crewmember asks Nelson for the truth--do they have a chance? Nelson replies that the Seaview's position is known, and that the Coast Guard probably began searching for them as soon as their radio went out. Crane returns; the air purifier has been damaged beyond repair. Nelson assures the men that although they will be short of air, it won't be for long--Morton and Jones are sure to arrive as soon as they can with the diving bell, and once they get there the sub will have plenty of air. Crane asks Nelson how long they can last; Nelson's answer is ten hours, more or less. They look at the telephone--when it rings, it will mean that someone has found the buoy.

Morton reads a newspaper--the headline says Seaview Sunk; he tells Jones the ship has been found twelve miles out. Jones says there is a short in the bell's guidance control system--he estimates that the repair will take two days.

Morton, on a Coast Guard ship, goes to the Seaview's marker buoy. He picks up the phone and asks Nelson if they are all right. Nelson starts to tell him what to do with the diving bell to rescue them--they'll have to maneuver through the mines and then couple the bell to the Seaview's hull--but of course the bell isn't there yet, it's still being repaired. Nelson asks how long it will take; Morton replies that if it isn't finished by the time he gets back to New London, he'll bring it anyway and they will attempt a rescue by controlled descent. Nelson, disappointed, tells the crew that it will take longer than anticipated but if they conserve as much air as possible, they should be all right. The doctor calls Nelson to the sick bay, and he leaves.

In the sick bay, the doctor tells Nelson that Bishop is in critical condition and won't survive without extra oxygen. Nelson says that he can't make that decision for the crew, that Bishop can have his own share and Nelson's, but the crew will have to decide about about the rest of it. He'll take a vote, starting with the doctor. The doctor says yes, of course Bishop can have his share.

The crewmen are talking. Evans sits beside Blake, who, feeling guilty, says that the deaths are his fault. Evans tells him they aren't, but Harker says that the way he sees it, Blake is to blame. Kowalski, who saw the incident, says that as far as he's concerned, it was Bishop's fault. Nelson enters and tells them about the situation with Bishop; he says that each man "owns" a share of the oxygen, and they should decide what is to be done with it. Evans is uncertain, blaming Bishop for the situation, but after the others vote yes, he changes his mind, making it unanimous. Nelson thanks the men, and after completing his survey tells the doctor that Bishop can have the oxygen.

Returning to New London, Morton finds that the bell has not yet been repaired. Jones asks if they can't use it as is; Morton replies that without the bell's guidance system, the rescue would be impossible. He tells Jones to keep at it--this is the only bell on the west coast capable of reaching the Seaview's depth.

On the Seaview, a fire in the auxiliary wiring system of the missile storage room threatens what little air the ship has. Nelson goes to help, checking the aft corridor--he extinguishes the fire he finds, but is knocked out by falling crates when the ship shifts.

In the control room, O'Brien sends a relief fire detail aft, then passes out. Crane revives him, giving him only enough oxygen to bring him around. O'Brien insists that he's all right and returns to his post. Crane tells Kowalski to spread the rest of the oxygen in the cylinder through the room, as the air is foul, and tells Blake to put a cylinder in each unflooded compartment.

In the crew's quarters, Collins is whispering to Evans, trying to convince him to attempt to leave the ship using the escape lungs. Evans tells him they are too deep, but Collins says that might not be true, and that it might be their only chance, however remote, to get out alive.

Blake is busy distributing oxygen cylinders. Harker sees him and comments that Blake has his own private supply of oxygen, that he looks out for himself no matter what. Blake grabs him and they start to fight--and then the Seaview shifts again. They must have settled to the bottom--or are they breaking up?

In New London, Morton waits impatiently by the diving bell. Finally he tells Jones that they are leaving anyway; even though the bell's guidance system is still broken, they'll get through the mine field somehow.

On the Seaview, Crane enters the control room and tells O'Brien that the ship is now resting at an angle of 23 degrees--if it shifts further, the bell will be unable to couple with the sub, unable to help them even if it does arrive. On his way to give Nelson the news, he passes Harker in the hall and asks him if the admiral is still helping to fight the fire. Harker says no--Nelson had gone aft to check for fires, and he assumed that Nelson would have been back in the control room by now. Crane enters the missile storage room, telling the men to seal up the room and come forward when the fire is out, and goes aft to search for Nelson. He finds him on the floor, soaked with the water flooding into the compartment, and pulls him out into the corridor with Harker's help.

Collins, with the escape lung, is preparing to leave the ship. Evans tries to convince him not to go--they still have a chance--but Collins goes anyway, telling Evans to follow him once he knows he's all right.

Nelson, Crane, and Harker are in the hall drying off, when they overhear Collins urging Evans to follow him with his escape lung. They rush to the compartment where Evans stands listening. Nelson says that Collins hasn't a chance out there at this depth; Evans says he tried to tell Collins that, but he wouldn't listen. Collins seems fine, until suddenly he finds himself in trouble, begging Evans to help him. Harker says that's another death on Blake's head; Nelson responds that Blake made a mistake of judgment that he has to live with, and that Harker should give him a break.

On the surface, Morton and Jones are loading the bell with cylinders of oxygen. They board the bell, and it is lowered from a crane.

Nelson tells the crew that Morton is on his way down with the bell, but that it will still be several hours and they must conserve their remaining air, keeping as quiet as possible and staying calm. Morton asks Nelson the angle on the escape hatch--23 degrees will be difficult but not impossible, as long as the Seaview doesn't settle again.

In the crew's quarters, Harker tells Blake that the bell is on its way and offers him a cup of coffee. Blake gets out of his bunk and leaves the room without saying a word.

In the bell, Morton notes that the mines are shifting with the current. The descent will be slow. Two of the mines collide and explode, rocking the bell and the Seaview. Another explosion follows. Nelson attempts to contact the bell but the phone is dead. And the ship is now resting at an angle of 31 degrees--impossible for the bell to couple with.

Morton, on the bell, attempts to contact the Seaview but the line is dead. They are now over the sub but the angle is too steep for them to couple with it.

On the Seaview, Nelson says that they must shift the ship somehow; Crane suggests that flooding compartment 47 should bring them about. Unfortunately, whoever goes to flood the compartment would be unable to escape--it would be suicide, and he is unwilling to ask that of any crewmember, particularly when they are uncertain if the diving bell even survived the explosions. Blake, unseen, leaves the control room, passing Harker in the corridor. Harker enters the control room and asks why Blake was up there. Crane didn't know that Blake was there at all; he asks where Blake was going and Harker tells him he was headed toward compartment 47. Nelson, Crane, Kowalski and Harker run to the door of the compartment and try to get Blake to come out, but he refuses and floods the compartment, dying in the process. The Seaview shifts, and soon they hear the diving bell make contact. Morton, looking through the hatch, asks for permission to come aboard and starts handing down the cylinders of oxygen.

Nelson and Crane meet in front of a hospital; Crane tells Nelson that the men are doing fine but more are in the hospital than are on shore leave. The Seaview, too, has recovered from the ordeal. And Evans' wife has named her baby Harriman, after Nelson.