Typhoon by Joseph Conrad (short story review)

Submitted by Aaron Arkin.

A longtime fan of the writer Joseph Conrad, I recently read his short story, “Typhoon”. Introducing its main character, a person who had risen to the position of ship’s captain, my initial impression saw him as a particular type, someone essentially of mediocre caliber, a “by-the-book” guy who never made waves, and likely had never really been tested by events.

I thought him the embodiment of “the peter principle” (the tendency in organizational hierarchies for employees to rise through promotion until they reach a level of incompetence), who was only given his current command because despite reservations of the ship’s owners, he had no black marks against him and, more importantly, was available on short notice.

Now, with a severe typhoon upon him and his ship at risk, I was curious to see how the author would have him meet the occasion. Given my own experience with bureaucratic management blunders, I was expecting Conrad would not disappoint, and our captain would fail miserably to meet the challenge.

When I finished reading however, I felt Conrad had tricked me, misdirected me as it were. But were I to be honest, I realized I had misdirected myself. The captain never changed from who he was. Conrad didn’t indulge in an unrealistic character reveal or a series of unlikely but fortuitous plot twist contrivances to see him through. Although I started out with certainty that our captain would prove “the peter principle”, he turned out to be made of much different stuff.

True, he was someone with limited intellect, conversational skills, imagination and curiosity, and a stickler for order down to even small, seemingly unimportant details. But he proved to be practical, tolerant, dogged, a person of courage under pressure, with a strong sense of fairness and for making things right. Not only was he instrumental in saving his ship, his crew, and the steerage passengers, but in the end and true to his strong instinct for fairness, he remedied a difficult problem with a clever and equitable “cut the Gordian Knot” solution.

Keeping with my initial impression of the man, to the end he remained underrated and uninteresting in the eyes of his crew, fellow officers, even his wife, due in no small part that by nature he was taciturn, didn’t speak of accomplishments and, even if he had ever thought about it, was without insight to realize he was underselling himself.

He should be a humbling lesson to all who, in judging what constitutes a person’s worthiness, put great stock in charisma, charm, innate intelligence, intellectual accomplishment, and language facility. Here, Conrad created a memorable character who turned out to be (and always was) a strong individual who, despite limitations, is an exemplary for the worthy but unsung everyman.