Banter (The Black Mate) - “A Black Mate”
The black mate withstands gratuitous racism due to the color tone of his skin. Conrad writes, “He was noticeable to them in the street from a great distance; and when in the morning he strode down the Jetty to his ship, the lumpers and the dock labourers rolling the bales and trundling the cases of cargo on their hand-trucks would remark to each other: “Here’s the black mate coming along.” The black mate is subjected to prejudice as his peculiar skin that does not accommodate tanning auspiciously. The judgment that he gets from the other colleagues are uncultured, racist and condescending. The bigotry renders him an interloper who does not deserve deference and benevolent treatment.
The Apse Family - “The Brute”
“The Apse Family” is an inimitable, over-exaggerated ship that incarnates endangerment. The stranger narrates, “They called it the launch of a ship, but I’ve heard people say that, from the wailing and yelling and scrambling out of the way, it was more like letting a devil loose upon the river. She snapped all her checks like pack-thread, and went for the tugs in attendance like a fury. Before anybody could see what she was up to she sent one of them to the bottom, and laid up another for three months’ repairs. One of her cables parted, and then, suddenly — you couldn’t tell why.” The ship produces a reverberation that are analogous to a devil’s during its launch. The howling of the ship is a foreshadow of the callousness that it will unbridle. The ship espouses ferocity like a human being which is depicted through its mannerisms and cables. Clearly, the ship cannot be restrained for it is boisterous.
