Chapter 9 Summary

Jim watches as they struggle, almost comically, with the lifeboat and refuses to help even when the chief engineer points desperately into the distance and Jim sees an approaching squall; if the damage alone wasn't enough, the arrival of the storm would surely sink the boat. Instead, he continues slashing at the ropes, trying to cut the other lifeboats free from the ship. Finished, he returns to the same spot and watches as the men finally succeed in launching the lifeboat.

He resolves to meet his fate with his eyes shut, but he cannot and upon opening them for a second time, sees the third engineer, a man by the name of George, collapse, ostensibly from a heart attack. The three others call to George from the boat below, pleading for him to jump. The squall arrives, and at the first gust of...