In the year 1797, following the great mutinies in the British Navy at Spithead and Nore and during the first of the Napoleonic Wars, the British Merchant ship Rights of Man is halted at sea by H. M. S. Indomitable. The Indomitable, in need of seamen, impresses the young foretopman of the Rights of Man, Billy Budd, into the King's service. Although Billy is a young man without either family or education, Lieutenant Ratcliffe, the impressment officer from the Indomitable, instantly recognizes him as a superior man. And though Billy does not make the same excellent impression among the more experienced sailors of the Indomitable, he is, nevertheless, noticed as a capable sailor by the officers of that vessel.