Like every good romantic comedy, this story begins with a classic Hollywood “meet cute.”

Edward Bell was producing promotional events for the 1984 Olympics.

One day he got a call from McDonald’s wondering if he could find a celebrity from the sport of swimming.

"I said, 'Well. There's Buster Crabbe,' " Edward says.

Buster Crabbe was an actor who won gold in the freestyle at the 1932 Olympics. But Buster Crabbe didn’t work out.

"And they said, 'Do you know anybody else?' " Edward says. "And I said, 'Well, yeah. Esther Williams.' And they said, 'Fine, can you get her?' And I said, 'Oh, yeah, sure.' "

Edward didn’t actually know Esther Williams. But he did own a telephone.

"So I picked up the telephone, and I called her. And I told her what we needed," Edward says. "She said, 'Would you like to meet for lunch?' Of course I'd like to meet for lunch. Esther Williams, I saw her movies at Radio City Music Hall when I was a kid."

Edward arranged to meet Esther at a restaurant in LA.

"She was late. She was an hour late. And when I saw her walk in, I stood up and knocked the whole table over. Everything. The wine, the glass and everything. She thought that was very funny," Edward says.

Edward says he doesn't remember much about the rest of the lunch.

"I think I was so taken by the fact that — I loved movie stars, I knew a lot of them. But it was — she was extraordinary. She was so charming and bright that I just, I was so taken with her," Edward says.

McDonald’s ended up going in another direction, but Edward helped Esther get a different job at those Olympic Games.

"NBC was looking for commentators, because it was [the] first Olympics they had synchronized swimming," Edward says. "And Esther was referred to as 'the mother of synchronized swimming.' "

Esther Williams had almost gone to the Olympics herself. In 1939, she was the reigning American 100-meter freestyle champion.

"But, in 1940, the Olympics were canceled because of the war. So, as Esther said, 'As compensation, I became a movie star.' "

Esther's first movie was 'Andy Hardy's Double Life' with Mickey Rooney. "She gave Mickey Rooney an underwater kiss," Edward says.

Esther Williams starred in a new kind of movie – called "aqua musicals." They were huge MGM productions that spotlighted Esther’s grace and power as a swimmer.

"And I think, instinctively, women felt empowered by her. She was athletic, strong and powerful. I was very proud of her. She had this strength about her. This strength about her as a woman," Bell says.

Maybe you’ve already figured this out, but Edward and Esther fell in love.

"I was her fourth husband," Bell says. "She was my third wife. And we lasted for 30 years. We had a wonderful, wonderful relationship."

Esther Williams and Edward Bell in 2008. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

The Prize, The Face And The Voice

Esther Williams died in 2013. And I didn’t call Edward Bell to talk about her career. I called him because I recently learned that this swimmer-turned-movie star was the prize, the face and the voice of an international military competition that spanned seven decades.

"Aren't soldiers silly?" Bell says. "They're goofy."

"We've got lots of ways of being stupid in the armed forces," says military historian Dr. Tom Lewis.

Tom served in the Australian Navy for 20 years. And it wasn’t long after he joined in 1983 that he first heard about the Esther Williams Trophy.

"I think I remember thinking that it was just one of those trophies that ships compete for," Tom says. "So you do have competitions in sport, you have competitions for best gunnery ship and things like that. So I would have thought it was just one of those type trophies."

But it wasn’t, as Tom learned on a visit to a place called Spectacle Island.

"Spectacle Island is so called, because it was two islands joined by a little strip of land," Tom says. "They have these huge warehouses. They're incredible. They're a couple of hundred meters long — each of them — and air conditioned."

Spectacle Island is where the Australian Navy keeps its most prized artifacts. And it was there that Tom first saw the framed photo that the Australian Navy — and, later, the British, American and Canadian Navies — fought over from 1943 until Esther’s death in 2013.

"It's a rather odd looking thing and a rather odd concept of a trophy," Tom says.

Over the years, a few copies of the Esther Williams Trophy have been made. The one Tom saw is called the "fighting copy." It’s a signed photo of a smiling Esther in a wooden frame inscribed with "Take me if you dare" and "Carry me with honor."

You’re probably picturing a photo of Esther Williams in a swimsuit with legs for days. But Edward Bell wants you to know this wasn’t that.

Esther Williams Trophy (Courtesy Australia's Department of Defence)

"It's not like Rita Hayworth or Betty Grable, where you were showing legs and bodies. This was a pretty picture," Edward says. "Looks like a star."

"She was the prettiest thing in the Pacific at that time. You know, it was wartime at the time, 1943," says William Fury, U.S. Navy, retired.

He first saw the Esther Williams Trophy in 1956 while serving aboard the aircraft carrier USS Boxer.

"She was the only picture that was on any of those ships, okay? We had a pin-ups, but they had to be in your locker," Fury says.

The Rules Of Engagement

But the Esther Williams Trophy could be displayed, right out in the open. In fact, that was one of the rules. If you "liberated" the trophy from another ship, you had to display it in your wardroom — the officer’s mess.

There were other rules, too.

The trophy is to remain unsecured and in full view. The trophy may only be removed by force (preferably of the brute variety) or by exceedingly low cunning and vile stealth. Use of enlisted personnel in any fashion is prohibited. The only other restriction is against firearms and clubs. Unsuccessful suitors are to be given haircuts and lodging.

" 'Haircuts and lodging' would mean you probably have half your hair shaved off, and you'll be locked inside a bathroom for a couple of hours, or something like that," historian Tom Lewis says.

And did you catch that bit that prohibited the use of enlisted personnel? This was a game for officers. And William Fury was enlisted. Which meant, instead of khakis, he wore dungarees — we’d call them jeans today.

He continues his story...

"One of the officers come up to me, and he says, 'Hey, you're my size. Can I borrow your clothes?' I say, 'What are you gonna do, rob a bank, or what?' You know? So, "No, no, no, no, no, no." He says, 'You'll see.' So, anyway, I gave him my dungarees. And he went over to the USS Salem, and they went aboard and stole the picture of Esther Williams. And they brought it back and put it aboard our ship. And then the rest of the ships were all trying to steal it off us. It was a game."

Aboard the USS Boxer after a successful "capture" of the Esther Williams Trophy in 1956. (Couresty William Fury)

Once a ship captured Esther, they had to do two things. They’d fly a pennant — a special flag that let the rest of the fleet know that Esther was aboard.

And they’d send out a message, often written as if Esther herself was sending it, letting the fleet know that she’d been rescued.

THE IDEA OF FACING ANOTHER WINTER BOUNCING ALL OVER THE WEST AUSTRALIAN EXERCISE AREA MAKES ME A LITTLE CHUKY. I AM SICK OF FEELING GREEN AND VERY KEEN TO FEEL BLUE.

Those messages would end with...

ESTHER WILLIAMS SENDS

Communication sent by the USS Boxer after capturing the Esther Williams Trophy. (Courtesy William Fury)

While in port, the Boxer was connected — via long ropes — to two submarines.

"Conventionals," William says. "They weren't nukes at that time."

And, once the submarine officers learned that Esther was aboard the Boxer, they attacked.

"Submarine officers [came] aboard our ship and threw a smoke bomb in the hangar deck," William says. "And we went to fire quarters. Everybody runs to their battle stations or fire quarters. Okay. Everybody's got a place to be."

And if you think sending sailors to battle stations over a photo of a swimmer-turned-movie star sounds dangerous, you’d be right. Many a raid for the Esther Williams Trophy ended with injuries and water rescues.

The attackers took Esther and sped back to their submarine. The Boxer’s officers pursued them, but when they climbed aboard the sub and started to try to open the hatches, the sub suddenly submerged.

"The submarine is submerging right there, and they're all floating on top of it. So that was the end of that. They lost the battle," William says with a chuckle.

Canada Joins The Fun

Les Wood served in the Canadian Navy for 28 years. He crossed paths with the Esther William trophy sometime during the Korean War. He doesn’t remember the exact year.

So, sometime during the Korean War, Les and his fellow officers of the HMCS Haida were invited over to another Canadian ship to see the trophy.

"And Canadian ships, of course, they have liquor," Les says. "So we went in and had a few drinks. And they brought out the Esther Williams trophy, showed it to everybody. And everybody was passing it around.

"And we had heard about the trophy as being things that the ships were having fun trying to steal from each other. So I was talking to one of my friends, and I said, 'You know, just for fun, we should steal it.' And he says, 'Good idea.' "