Heiress Nadine Miller is washed ashore on a desolate island when her steamship sinks. Nadine is rescued by Captain Wolf Hansen, who plans to to salvage a fortune in jewelry from the sunken wreck. The poor girl finds herself once again fighting for survival when the mutinous crew take control of the ship and seize the precious cargo.
Produced under the title Lost Island, Wolves of the Sea is a pleasant throwback to blood-and-thunder melodramas of the silent-movie era. Hobart Bosworth was a top star of the early years of Hollywood and the screen's original portrayer of Jack London's infamous sea captain Wolf Larson. RKO contractee Jean Carmen (billed as Julia Thayer in Republic's 1937 chapter play The Painted Stallion) makes a fetching ingenue and brightens the film with her earnest performance. Six years after his appearance in Wolves of the Sea, Rondo Hatton achieved legendary horror status for his role as "The Creeper" in Sherlock Holmes in The Pearl Of Death.