SOURCE: "Seamanship in Conrad's The Secret Sharer, in Criticism, Vol. XV, No. 1, Winter, 1973, pp. 1-15.

In the following essay, Schenck examines "The Secret Sharer" as the story of the narrator's development as a ship's captain, asserting that earlier criticism of the story lacks sufficient analysis of the story's "physical details" and "surface action. 'I

Since its first appearance in 1910, "The Secret Sharer" has elicited critical reading focused primarily upon psychological or symbolic aspects of the story. On the other hand, a number of critics have perceived that the surface as well as the symbolic aspects are worthy of examination. Nevertheless, although this story has received a large number of readings and explications, not a single critic appears to have fully understood and exploited the actual physical action of the story. Although R. W. Stallman argues that the "meanings which attach to the narrative or surface level are less...