Chapter 10 Summary

Moving away in the lifeboat, veiled in darkness, the four men watch until they can see no light aboard the vessel, and assume it has sunk at last. Then, under the impression that Jim is, in fact, George, they begin to berate him for not having jumped sooner. When they discover it is Jim in the lifeboat with them, they are furious and the two engineers hurl insults at him and accuse him of having killed George. Jim stands to confront them, but they both back down.

Jim clutches the tiller until dawn – about six hours – in case they try to throw him overboard. They try to placate him, asking him to be sensible and to drop the wood. The captain wants him to come aft, to have a word with him in order to get their story straight, but he drops the...