The staff at "Variety" magazine wrote "Combining dramatic content of four Eugene O'Neill one-act plays, John Ford pilots adventures of a tramp steamer from the West Indies to an American port, and then across the Atlantic with cargo of high explosives. Picture is typically Fordian, his direction accentuating characterizations and adventures of the voyage." "Harrison's Reports" called it "A powerful picture, directed with skill and acted with artistry." "Film Daily" called it "a powerful, realistic vehicle, human and dramatic from main title to finis." John Mosher of "The New Yorker" wrote a rave review, calling it "one of the magnificent films of film history. Never has the sea, its infinite pictorial possibilities, been so comprehended upon the screen and its beauty and its threat so elonquently conveyed."