"Le Crabe Tambour" ("Drummer Crab") is the nickname for the mysterious central character, Willsdorff (Jacques Perrin), an Alsatian, whose doomed, out-of-date career is recalled through the tales of three naval officers currently serving aboard a French supply ship in the North Atlantic.
Jean Rochefort
Captain, commander of the escort ship
Claude Rich
Pierre, medical officer
Jacques Perrin
Lieutenant Willsdorff, 'Le Crabe-Tambour'
Aurore Clément
Aurore, nurse in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon
Odile Versois
The wife at the bistro of the former gendarme
Pierre Rousseau
Babourg, former sailor
Jacques Dufilho
Chief mechanic
François Dyrek
Former gendarme, boss of the bistro
Jean Champion
Admiral Dönitz's admirer at the bistro
Bernard Lajarrige
Rector
