Chapter 6 Summary

In this chapter, Marlow speaks of the inquiry, presided over by a police magistrate and two nautical assessors, one of who is 'Big' Brierly, captain of the sixteen-knot steel steamer Ossa. Despite his considerable achievements and the renown in which he is held, less than a week after the conclusion of the inquiry, Brierly had committed suicide by jumping overboard while at sea. Brierly's chief officer, a Mr. Jones, relates the story to Marlow some two years later, aboard the Fire-Queen, a ship of which he had been given charge. He tells Marlow of Brierly's considered, precise actions prior to his leaping to his death and says that he had left two letters – one to the company and the other to Jones – behind, in which, among other things, he asked Jones to look after the black Labrador that had been his faithful companion...