Section 3

Summary

As he continues his story, Leggatt refers to his story as a "Nice little tale for a quiet tea party." He again tells the Captain that his father is a parson in Norfolk, forgetting that he has already mentioned this important fact. After some thought, the Captain conceals him in his stateroom and calls on the second mate to take on the night watch. His cabin is L-shaped and therefore somewhat easy to hide the fugitive. It is so arranged that the visitor can hide without being detected. Leggatt whispers that he can hear somebody moving about. The Captain assures him that nobody is likely to come there without knocking and getting permission. It is an uncanny sight for the Captain to be talking to his double in whispers. He also notices that he looks weak from being penned up on the ship.

The Captain wants to know how Leggatt came to the side ladder of his ship. Leggatt tells him about the ship's journey and how he was locked up every night, as though he were a murderous brute. He even tried to convince the old man to let him make a run for it but the old man refused. Finally one day as they were making a slow passage through Java and Carimata, he finally had a chance to escape. The steward who fed him accidentally left the door open so without thinking he strolled onto the quarterdeck, kicked off his slippers and jumped into the water. Somebody heard the splash and there was a great hullabaloo. Someone exclaimed that he had committed suicide while others thought he was swimming. After sometime the chaos died down and all was quiet. He swam for a good while, being a good swimmer, and stopped at the islets from time to time to rest. He threw his clothes in the water and decided to swim until he sank. Then seeing the light of the Captain's ship, he made towards it and then to the ladder.

They hear some footsteps above them and are afraid that somebody may hear them talk. The Captain closes the porthole quietly to make sure that they are not heard. The person above them is the second mate and the Captain admits that he is unfamiliar with him.

On the Captain's part, Leggatt's appearance is of someone who has the qualities of decisiveness, ability and courage that the Captain himself lacks. During the time that Leggatt remains locked in his stateroom on the Sephora, he had time to "think all matters over." The Captain marvels at the power Leggatt to think things out in a "stubborn if not steadfast operation." There is evidence to show that the double does not have any sense of ethics. He is intelligent and abnormally alert, but his consciousness is more animal-like then human. The length of the swim and his refusal to commit suicide suggests a tenacity to survive at all costs. The murder also was in order to save the ship and the men's lives. He acts on instinct rather than reason. This is in dire opposition to the Captain's self-consciousness. The fact that their similarities may be a projection of the Captain's subconscious is reaffirmed by the Captain's own remark, "He was not a bit like me really."

Yet in rescuing and protecting him, he somehow draws these qualities from Leggatt and absorbs them as he proceeds to meet the crisis of his first command successfully. The ordeal of concealing Leggatt from the prying eyes of the crewmen takes a supreme effort on the Captain's part so that his handling of a new ship seems relatively simple in comparison. Why the Captain has forsaken public duty for his own personal means is a perplexing part of the story and one that engenders much speculation. Yet instinctively and spontaneously he has made a choice and even though it is a dangerous and not morally sound one, it is a decision that he has made.

As a stranger to his ship as well as to himself, he is insecure and untried. Now he has taken on the burden of another person's life as well as jeopardizing his own. A demand has been placed upon the Captain and the threat comes in the form of Leggatt. A similar "fugitive" quality must be found in the Captain. Conrad quickly establishes the Captain's insecurity and his strangeness on board ship (the crew had been together for eighteen months or so), his youth (second youngest on board) and, most of all, his desire to be faithful to an ideal conception of his personality. Clearly, he must go through an ordeal that is transformative. His ordeal is to protect Leggatt and subsequently himself since he identifies so strongly with this man. Now the success of one depends on the success of the other. Leggatt must remain undiscovered in order for him as well as the captain to be free.

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