The Irony of the West-Country Sailor - “A Black Mate”
Joseph Conrad expounds, “I have known a West-country sailor, boatswain of a fine ship, who looked more Spanish than any Spaniard afloat I’ve ever met. He looked like a Spaniard in a picture.” It is ironic for a non-Spaniard to appear “more Spanish than any Spaniard.” The sailor’s irony elucidates the discrepancy between color and race identity. Superficial appearances are not the absolute definers of individuality. Conrad employs this irony to demystify the color-based cataloguing of people for it subsidizes bigoted intolerance.
The Irony of the Apse Family
Initially, the Apse Family is viewed as a quintessential, idyllic ship: “This last one, the Apse Family, was to be like the others, only she was to be still stronger, still safer, still more roomy and comfortable.” However, after her launch, “If she wasn’t mad, then she was the most evil-minded, underhand, savage brute that ever went afloat. I’ve seen her run in a heavy gale beautifully for two days, and on the third broach to twice in the same afternoon. The first time she flung the helmsman clean over the wheel, but as she didn’t quite manage to kill him she had another try about three hours afterwards. She swamped herself fore and aft, burst all the canvas we had set, scared all hands into a panic, and even frightened Mrs. Colchester down there in these beautiful stern cabins that she was so proud of. When we mustered the crew there was one man missing. Swept overboard, of course, without being either seen or heard, poor devil! and I only wonder more of us didn’t go.” The ship is not unquestionably benign for it actuates horror, fright and death; thus, it infringes all the prospects that the originators had about it. What is more, the corollaries accredited to the ship are parallel to that of a devil that inflicts mayhem arbitrarily which renders it precarious and distressing.
