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{{short description|1902 novel by Joseph Conrad}}
{{unreferenced|date=June 2011}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox book {{Infobox book
| name = Typhoon | name = Typhoon
| title_orig = | title_orig =
| translator = | translator =
| image = ] | image = File:TyphoonNovel.jpg
| image_caption = 1st UK book edition | caption = First book edition (US)
| author = ] | author = ]
| illustrator = | illustrator =
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| country = United Kingdom | country = United Kingdom
| language = English | language = English
| genre = ]
| series =
| genre = ] | publisher = '']''
| publisher = ]
| release_date = 1902 | release_date = 1902
| english_release_date = | english_release_date =
| media_type = Print (] & ]) | media_type = Print (hardback & paperback)
| pages =
| isbn = NA <!-- Released before ISBN system implimented -->
| oclc = 2312277 | oclc = 2312277
| preceded_by = | preceded_by =
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}} }}


'''''Typhoon''''' is a novel by ], begun in 1899 and serialized in '']'' in January–March 1902. Its first book publication was in New York by ] in 1902; it was also published in Britain in '''''Typhoon and Other Stories''''' by ] in 1903. '''''Typhoon''''' is a short novel by ], begun in 1899 and serialized in '']'' in January–March 1902. Its first book publication was in New York by ] in 1902; it was also published in Britain in '''''Typhoon and Other Stories''''' by ] in 1903.


==Plot summary== ==Plot summary==
''Typhoon'' is a classic sea yarn, possibly based upon Conrad's actual experience of seaman's life, and probably on a real incident aboard of the real steamer ''John P. Best''.{{cn|date=October 2012}} It describes how Captain MacWhirr sails the ]ese steamer ''Nan-Shan'' into a ]—a mature ] of the northwestern part of the ]. Other characters include the young Jukes - most probably an "]" of Conrad from the time he had sailed under captain John McWhir - and Solomon Rout, the chief engineer. The novel classically evokes the seafaring life at the turn of the century. While Macwhirr, who, according to Conrad, "never walked on this Earth" - is emotionally estranged from his family and crew, and though he refuses to consider an alternate course to skirt the typhoon, his indomitable will in the face of a superior natural force elicits grudging admiration. Captain MacWhirr sails the ''Nan-Shan'', a British-built steamer running under the ]ese flag, into a ]—a mature ] of the northwestern part of the ]. Other characters include the young Jukes—most probably an ] of Conrad from the time he had sailed under captain John McWhir—and Solomon Rout, the chief engineer. While MacWhirr, who, according to Conrad, "never walked on this Earth"—is emotionally estranged from his family and crew, and though he refuses to consider an alternative course to skirt the typhoon, his indomitable will in the face of a superior natural force elicits grudging admiration.


==Characters== ==Analysis==
Conrad "broke new ground" by showing the ways a steam ship differs from a sailing vessel, an historic shift occurring at the time. For example how the crew were broken into "sailors and firemen" ; the unromantic labors of Hackett and Beal; the captain as a mirror of his ship, isolated from nature and lacking the power of imagination.<ref name="Fraser">{{cite book |title=The Cambridge Companion to Joseph Conrad |publisher=Cambridge University Press |chapter=The Short Fiction |author=Gail Fraser |editor=J. H. Stape |orig-year=1996 |year=2004 |pages= |isbn=0521484847 }}</ref>
⚫ * Captain MacWhirr, an empirical man without imagination.
* Captain Wilson from "Melita", the "storm-strategist".
* Jukes, the first mate (with no first name).
* Jukes' absent friends - second mate Jack Allen and another mate from trans-Atlantic liner (addressee of Jukes' letter).
⚫ * Solomon Rout, the chief engineer, an experienced seaman.
⚫ * Second engineer Harry and third engineer Beale.
* The boatswain.
* The second mate.
* Sailors, steward and cook of the "Nan-Shan".
⚫ * The coolies, hired workers from India and China.
* The clerk for Messrs. Bun-Hin Co.
* Mrs Lucy MacWhirr, the Captain's wife.
* Lydia MacWhirr, the Captain's daughter.
* Mrs Rout, the chief engineer's wife.
* Messrs Sigg and Son, the owners of the boat.
* Owners and foremen from the building yard.


Stylistically, Conrad made "perhaps the most celebrated ] in modern short fiction".<ref name="Fraser" /> At the end of chapter V the story reaches a climactic point, the ship barely makes it into the eye of the typhoon and faces a final challenge to exit the storm through the eye wall.
==Major themes==
:The hurricane, with its power to madden the seas, to sink ships, to uproot trees, to overturn strong walls and dash the very birds of the air to the ground, had found this taciturn man in its path, and, doing its utmost, had managed to wring out a few words. Before the renewed wrath of winds swooped on his ship, Captain MacWhirr was moved to declare, in a tone of vexation, as it were: “I wouldn't like to lose her.”
{{copypaste|date=September 2012}}
On the surface an adventure novel, the book contains many interwoven themes including:
* In a dangerous situation, people will follow someone showing certainty even if the source of the certainty is dubious.
* Lack of imagination can place one in as much danger as lack of experience.


This is followed by a single sentence:
SS ''NAN-SHAN'' is a twin-decked, single-funnelled steamer with two masts and (at least) two-cylinder steam piston engine, working on one shaft and fed by one coal-burning boiler placed in the boiler-room before the engine room. The ship carries as well auxiliary rig and sails of a schooner. She was built "almost three years ago" by a shipyard owned by two sharers at Dumbarton, British Isles, to the order of Messrs. "Sigg & Son", Trading & Shipping Company based and working in Siam (Bangkok?). The foreman in charge of the ''Nan-Shan''{{'}}s construction is Mr. Bates. Mr. Tait, a ], is responsible for finishing works aboard, including door locks in the cabins, which his people have spoiled. The ship, ready for service, becomes the handiest unit of her size in Chinese waters. Soon after commissioning for service her owners transfer the ship from the British to the Siamese flag.


:He was spared that annoyance.
NO TECHNICAL DETAILS of the ship are mentioned (like gross or dead weight tonnage, dimensions, or speed). Her sides are long and grey. She is wide and flat-bottomed, fitted with bilge keels and has separate officers' cabins. Her bridge occupies the midship. In the wheelhouse (which scarcely offers room to move around and has two windows) there are a steering wheel, a compass in the oval mounting with glass, a voice tube to the engine room and gratings on the floor. As the main lifesaving equipment there are two boats. Furthermore the ship is fitted with many technical innovations and solutions, such as cargo winches and derricks, steam anchor winch or high quality navigational instruments. At least two downtake ventilators with horizontally-movable heads, placed on both sides by the bridge superstructure behind the funnel (?) supply the boiler and engine rooms with fresh air. Weak points of the ship are its defective door locks.


The story then leaps forward in time with the ship back in port, the events of what happened unstated. This was an innovative technique with hints of ].<ref name="Fraser" /> He challenges the reader to fill in the events of the story themselves. The break in the chronology is particularly effective, and jarring, as the preceding passages had been so detailed that the time it took to read the novel and the real time of the story were not so far apart.<ref name="Fraser" />
THE CHART ROOM is Captain MacWhirr's sea quarters. In it there are a sofa, a working table, an armchair and a bookshelf, as well as two barometers on the bulkheads (walls), including an ] one over the sofa. On the table there are the Captain's working tools (always arranged in strict order) like rulers, pencils and an inkwell.


==Real life connections==
Among many books on the shelf there is one thick navigational manual with a chapter describing storms in detail. From the ceiling hangs a lamp in ]s. In the room there are holders for a bottle of water and two glasses. There is also a shelf with a deep ledge, where always a half-filled matchbox is to be placed, and close to the sofa there is a hand washbasin with towel locker.
In 1887, Conrad worked as chief mate on the ''Highland Forest'' under Captain John McWhir, whom he portrays in the novel as "McWhirr".<ref name="Allen177">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/seayearsofjoseph00alle |title=Sea Years of Joseph Conrad |publisher=Doubleday |location=Garden City, N. Y. |author=Jerry Allen |year=1965 |page=}}</ref> He drew upon this six months voyage for the novel.<ref name="Allen322">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/seayearsofjoseph00alle |title=Sea Years of Joseph Conrad |publisher=Doubleday |location=Garden City, N. Y. |author=Jerry Allen |year=1965 |page=}}</ref>


Conrad once dictated to biographer and friend ] a list of ships he served on, and the stories they were connected to—the connections might have been minor (a single character or incident) or major (a complete voyage), Conrad did not indicate. For ''Typhoon'' he said it "suggested" the steamer ''John P. Best'' which he served on.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/josephconradstud00curlrich |title=Joseph Conrad: A Study |publisher=Doubleday |location=Garden City, N. Y. |author=Richard Curle |author-link=Richard Curle |year=1914 |pages=}}</ref><ref name="Allen179">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/seayearsofjoseph00alle |title=Sea Years of Joseph Conrad |publisher=Doubleday |location=Garden City, N. Y. |author=Jerry Allen |year=1965 |page=}}</ref>
IN THE CABIN there are some rifles, as all ships running China coasts carry them.


Joseph Conrad dedicated the book to ], a fellow writer and Scots radical who was an enthusiastic supporter of Conrad since his earliest publications.<ref name="Allen30">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/seayearsofjoseph00alle |title=Sea Years of Joseph Conrad |publisher=Doubleday |location=Garden City, N. Y. |author=Jerry Allen |year=1965 |pages=, }}</ref>
The ''Nan-Shan'' has an empty COAL BUNKER across her hull, used as an additional cargo hold. There is an iron door to it out of the first 'tweendeck; the gangway to it being the first one in the superstructure alleyway.


==Characters==
THE ENGINE ROOM resembles the inside of a monument, divided into levels by iron scaffolding; its walls are painted white and the compartment is lit dimly by the deck skylight. It is accessible from the (superstructure) deck or via the boiler room, which itself is probably connected with the coal bunker and the first 'tweendeck, where the coolies travel.
⚫ * Captain Tom MacWhirr, an empirical man without imagination.
* Jukes, the ]. ''Typhoon'' alternates between his third-person limited point of view, the third-person limited point of view of MacWhirr, and the third-person omniscient point of view of the narrator.
* Jukes' absent friend, the second mate from a trans-Atlantic liner. The omniscient narrator quotes from Jukes's letters to him, and the friend comments to his shipmates about a letter from Jukes.
⚫ * Solomon Rout, the ], an experienced seaman.
⚫ * The garrulous, choleric second engineer Harry and the silent third engineer Beale.
* The ], "an ill-favoured, undersized, gruff sailor of fifty, coarsely hairy, short-legged, long-armed, resembing an elderly ape."
* The ]: "He was one of those men who...are competent enough, appear hopelessly hard up, show no evidence of any kind of vice, and carry about with them all the signs of manifest failure."
* The other sailors, steward and cook of the ''Nan-Shan''. The reader only learns the name of the helmsman, Hackett.
⚫ * The ], hired workers being sent home to China by the Bun Hin Company.
* The clerk for the Bun Hin Company, who interprets between the workers and the ship's officers.
* Mrs. Lucy MacWhirr, Lydia, and Tom, the Captain's wife, daughter and son, who all comment upon him in one way or another from their home in London.
* Mrs. Rout, the chief engineer's wife and the elder Mrs. Rout, the chief engineer's mother, also living in London, who comment upon the engineer.
* The two owners of the shipbuilding firm in Dumbarton, Scotland, that constructed the ''Nan-Shan''. They discuss MacWhirr after hiring and briefing him.


==References==
THE CHIEF ENGINEER's WORKING STATION is located opposite the engine starter, fitted with railing and to the right of it there are the boiler manometer and water level indicator.
{{Reflist}}

THE OFFICERS include seven people. Two of them are known by family and first names (Skipper Thomas MacWhirr and the Chief Engineer Salomon Rout). Although a 'Thomas MacWhirr' (whose first name is mentioned one time in the whole story) never lived on this earth, he has, similarly to his ship, a historic namesake - the skipper John MacWhir, with whom Conrad served as an officer in the clipper Highland Forest.
Two more officers are known only by family names (the First Mate Jukes and the Third Engineer Beale). Mr. Jukes, without any first name known, is based upon Conrad himself at the time of his service with skipper MacWhir.
Another one is known by first name (the Second Engineer Harry).
The last two people - the Second Mate and the Bosun - remain incognito.
The Captain, the Chief Engineer and the Bosun are married; the First Mate Jukes is a 'bachelor, not even engaged'.
The Second Mate replaced Mr Jukes' friend, Mr. John (Jack) Allen, who shortly after his arrival from the Country fell overboard into a coal lighter and was delivered to the harbour hospital at Shanghai with a brain concussion and some broken limbs.

OUT OF THE CREW we know the helmsman Hackett by family name.
The clever Chips, the "old Dog" Cook, the Steward, a gossip too eager for news, the sailors, the donkeyman and the firemen - they all remain incognito.

''Nan-Shan'' sets sail for her voyage from Bangkok on a December afternoon (after one p.m. she is to be under steam and ready for sea). This voyage is to be unique one - two hundred Chinese coolies are embarked and berthed in her fore 'tweendeck. The Chinamen return to their country, sent back by Messrs. Bun-Hin Co, and accompanied by a Bun-Hin clerk, acting as an interpreter. In the compartment there are six protected lamps. The Chips is ordered to fix three-inch-battens alongside the compartment so as to avoid shifting the coolies' chests. A sampan delivers twenty-five sacks of rice alongside, the base of the unusual passengers' menu during the voyage.

WHEN THE TYPHOON sets in, the Helmsman is steering the course N 45 E.

THE TYPHOON rages exactly through the afternoon, evening and night of the Christmas Eve, until morning of the first Christmas Day, lasting for thirty hours long without any break, and the calm when the ship passes the "centre of it" - only a bit more than 20 minutes. In one of his numerous and famous letters to his wife Lucy, brought to an end probably already at Foo-chow, Captain MacWhirr writes, that on Dec. 25th, between 4 and 6 a. m. he thought, that his ship wouldn't live another hour in such a weather, and he wouldn't see his wife and children any more again.

The description above was made on the basis of pure reading of Conrad's "Typhoon" without data from any source other than the story originally written by J. Conrad. The ship may be associated with the real steamer s/s Vidar, in which Conrad had served as the 1st mate for 19 weeks.


==External links== ==External links==
{{wikisource|Typhoon}} {{wikisource|Typhoon}}
*, available at ] (1921 edition) * , available at ] (1921 edition)
* {{gutenberg|no=1142|name=Typhoon}} * {{Gutenberg |no=1142 |name=Typhoon}}
* {{ria|117|Typhoon}} * {{Librivox book |title=Typhoon |author=Joseph Conrad}}


{{Conrad}} {{Conrad}}

{{Authority control}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Typhoon (novel)}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Typhoon (novel)}}
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Latest revision as of 13:34, 6 June 2024

1902 novel by Joseph Conrad

Typhoon
First book edition (US)
AuthorJoseph Conrad
LanguageEnglish
GenreAdventure story
PublisherPall Mall Magazine
Publication date1902
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)
OCLC2312277

Typhoon is a short novel by Joseph Conrad, begun in 1899 and serialized in Pall Mall Magazine in January–March 1902. Its first book publication was in New York by Putnam in 1902; it was also published in Britain in Typhoon and Other Stories by Heinemann in 1903.

Plot summary

Captain MacWhirr sails the Nan-Shan, a British-built steamer running under the Siamese flag, into a typhoon—a mature tropical cyclone of the northwestern part of the Pacific Ocean. Other characters include the young Jukes—most probably an alter ego of Conrad from the time he had sailed under captain John McWhir—and Solomon Rout, the chief engineer. While MacWhirr, who, according to Conrad, "never walked on this Earth"—is emotionally estranged from his family and crew, and though he refuses to consider an alternative course to skirt the typhoon, his indomitable will in the face of a superior natural force elicits grudging admiration.

Analysis

Conrad "broke new ground" by showing the ways a steam ship differs from a sailing vessel, an historic shift occurring at the time. For example how the crew were broken into "sailors and firemen" ; the unromantic labors of Hackett and Beal; the captain as a mirror of his ship, isolated from nature and lacking the power of imagination.

Stylistically, Conrad made "perhaps the most celebrated ellipsis in modern short fiction". At the end of chapter V the story reaches a climactic point, the ship barely makes it into the eye of the typhoon and faces a final challenge to exit the storm through the eye wall.

The hurricane, with its power to madden the seas, to sink ships, to uproot trees, to overturn strong walls and dash the very birds of the air to the ground, had found this taciturn man in its path, and, doing its utmost, had managed to wring out a few words. Before the renewed wrath of winds swooped on his ship, Captain MacWhirr was moved to declare, in a tone of vexation, as it were: “I wouldn't like to lose her.”

This is followed by a single sentence:

He was spared that annoyance.

The story then leaps forward in time with the ship back in port, the events of what happened unstated. This was an innovative technique with hints of post-modernism. He challenges the reader to fill in the events of the story themselves. The break in the chronology is particularly effective, and jarring, as the preceding passages had been so detailed that the time it took to read the novel and the real time of the story were not so far apart.

Real life connections

In 1887, Conrad worked as chief mate on the Highland Forest under Captain John McWhir, whom he portrays in the novel as "McWhirr". He drew upon this six months voyage for the novel.

Conrad once dictated to biographer and friend Richard Curle a list of ships he served on, and the stories they were connected to—the connections might have been minor (a single character or incident) or major (a complete voyage), Conrad did not indicate. For Typhoon he said it "suggested" the steamer John P. Best which he served on.

Joseph Conrad dedicated the book to Cunninghame Graham, a fellow writer and Scots radical who was an enthusiastic supporter of Conrad since his earliest publications.

Characters

  • Captain Tom MacWhirr, an empirical man without imagination.
  • Jukes, the first mate. Typhoon alternates between his third-person limited point of view, the third-person limited point of view of MacWhirr, and the third-person omniscient point of view of the narrator.
  • Jukes' absent friend, the second mate from a trans-Atlantic liner. The omniscient narrator quotes from Jukes's letters to him, and the friend comments to his shipmates about a letter from Jukes.
  • Solomon Rout, the chief engineer, an experienced seaman.
  • The garrulous, choleric second engineer Harry and the silent third engineer Beale.
  • The boatswain, "an ill-favoured, undersized, gruff sailor of fifty, coarsely hairy, short-legged, long-armed, resembing an elderly ape."
  • The second mate: "He was one of those men who...are competent enough, appear hopelessly hard up, show no evidence of any kind of vice, and carry about with them all the signs of manifest failure."
  • The other sailors, steward and cook of the Nan-Shan. The reader only learns the name of the helmsman, Hackett.
  • The coolies, hired workers being sent home to China by the Bun Hin Company.
  • The clerk for the Bun Hin Company, who interprets between the workers and the ship's officers.
  • Mrs. Lucy MacWhirr, Lydia, and Tom, the Captain's wife, daughter and son, who all comment upon him in one way or another from their home in London.
  • Mrs. Rout, the chief engineer's wife and the elder Mrs. Rout, the chief engineer's mother, also living in London, who comment upon the engineer.
  • The two owners of the shipbuilding firm in Dumbarton, Scotland, that constructed the Nan-Shan. They discuss MacWhirr after hiring and briefing him.

References

  1. ^ Gail Fraser (2004) . "The Short Fiction". In J. H. Stape (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Joseph Conrad. Cambridge University Press. pp. 38-39. ISBN 0521484847.
  2. Jerry Allen (1965). Sea Years of Joseph Conrad. Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday. p. 177.
  3. Jerry Allen (1965). Sea Years of Joseph Conrad. Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday. p. 322.
  4. Richard Curle (1914). Joseph Conrad: A Study. Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday. pp. 17-18.
  5. Jerry Allen (1965). Sea Years of Joseph Conrad. Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday. p. 179.
  6. Jerry Allen (1965). Sea Years of Joseph Conrad. Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday. pp. 30, 302.

External links

Joseph Conrad (works)
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