‘The Feel of the Ship’: ‘The Secret Sharer’

The chapter on ‘The Secret Sharer’ (1909) takes up Ian Watt’s question as to why Conrad made Leggatt so ‘self-possessed,’ and interprets the novella on the literal rather than the non-literal level, with an emphasis on the issue of the body. It begins by tracing the intimate non-verbal communication that the captain shares with the stowaway and asserts that such a form of communication emphasizes the potential of the body to communicate and to express. Then it discusses in detail the captain’s learning process which proceeds ‘from the body to the mind’ by introducing a religious principle, and analyzes a climactic scene in terms of ‘bodily eyes’ and the ‘mind’s eye.’ The chapter concludes that the captain succeeds in developing the physical sense that is imperative for commanding a ship by first developing it in relation to the stowaway and then in relation to the ship.