The Secret Sharer
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"The Secret Sharer" is a short story by Joseph Conrad written in 1909, first published in Harper's Magazine in 1910, and as a book in the short-story collection Twixt Land and Sea (1912). It contains a theme typical for Conrad: a solitary character who is challenged by external and internal agents.
The story was filmed as a segment of the 1952 film Face to Face.
Plot Summary
Characters
- Nameless Captain (Narrator)
- Leggatt
- Captain Archbold (Skipper of the Sephora)
- The Second Mate
- The Chief Mate
- The Steward
The story takes place at sea, near the Gulf of Siam, and is told from the perspective of a young nameless Captain. The captain is unfamiliar with both his ship and his crew, having only joined their company a fortnight earlier. The Captain is furthermore unsure of himself, questioning his ability to fulfill the role of such an authoritative figure. These themes are explored through symbols throughout the novella.
The captain soon encounters a naked swimmer holding onto the side ladder of the ship while he is alone at night on look-out duty. He helps the mysterious swimmer onto the boat and hides him in his cabin without the rest of the crew's knowledge. He then learns of the mysterious swimmer's past; his name is Leggatt, and he swam away from a nearby ship, called the Sephora, where, as chief mate, he killed another crew member for insolence during a storm.
The captain keeps Leggatt hidden in his quarters, away from the suspicious crew members and a visit from the skipper of the Sephora. Eventually the Captain allows Leggatt to escape by bringing the ship perilously close to land for Leggatt to swim away safely, though this risky sailing maneuver nearly sends the ship into the rocks, testing the Captain's seamanship. He succeeds and leads the ship away.
Analysis
The story was created (in just 2 weeks) while Conrad was writing Under Western Eyes; he wrote the Secret Sharer as a break from his much larger novel that was emotionally difficult for him to write. There are similarities between the two stories, with the Captain and Leggatt becoming Razumov and Haldin respectively. The story originally appeared in Harper's Magazine, under the title "The Secret-Sharer", but Conrad revised the title to make it more ambiguous, making Leggatt secretly share with the captain, rather than merely sharing a secret.
The story contains elements of real events – the chief mate of the Cutty Sark killed another crew-member for insolence during a storm, and was later arrested in London for his murder. Conrad also drew on his own time as captain of the Otago, when his first mate did not trust him, and got a particular scare when Conrad maneuvered the ship dangerously close to rocks in the gulf of Siam.
Many proleptic devices are used that ironically predict what happens in the story. An example of this is when the captain doubts at the start of the story that the ship "was not likely to keep any special surprises", yet it gives him a very special surprise in the form of Leggatt. This technique was commonly used by Conrad.
