The romantic vision of seamanship is that the crew stays with the ship despite all kinds of weather and problems. Yet in 1880 an event occurred that shook this romantic belief throughout the world. The abandonment of the steamer Jeddah, along with its approximately one thousand Muslim pilgrims, caused civilians around the world to question the truth of this ideal. As a budding modernist writer, Conrad attempted to develop the real character of A.P. Williams, the first mate of the Jeddah, into the fictional character of Lord Jim, with the hope of shedding light on the inner conflict of a failed hero and what it means to be human . Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Norman Sherry's research on Lord Jim and Jeddah's factual account show several similarities between the character of Jim and that of AP Williams. Sherry states that, "Everything I have been able to discover about him...suggests that he was Conrad's inspiration for the entire first part of the novel...Williams's background is, in fact, identical to that of Lord Jim" (Sherry 336). Both were raised by a parson and "it seems likely that [Williams] went to a training ship for merchant marine officers, as did Lord Jim" (337). Conrad's use of A.P. Williams' background for the character of Jim was no coincidence, and would not have been overlooked upon publication. Using virtually the same character and the same account of the ship's desertion, Conrad creates a world in which he can offer a critique of the Jeddah's fallible crew. In doing so, he is sure to offer Jim salvation by pleading his case as a man who did not act out of fear, a natural human emotion. At the time of the Jeddah incident, the press did not see this scandal as a natural fight-or-flight response. While Conrad believes Jim's actions were motivated by fear, the media was convinced that abandoning the Jeddah had broken the sailor's code of ethics. Initially, before the Jeddah arrived with her survivors, The Globe, published in London, reported the loss under these headlines: "TERREVOUS DISASTER AT SEA. LOSS OF NEARLY 1,000 LIVES" (The Globe). After the Jeddah arrived safely in Aden, the Times, also based in London, published "There was something very unpleasant in the facts thus stated; for, for the honor of sailors, nothing is rarer than that, in a disaster at sea, the captain and chief officers of the ship should be the chief or sole survivors" (London Times). Obviously, the abandonment of the Jeddah was a shock to other sailors and civilians across Europe. Clearly no measures were taken to save the pilgrims on board, which was appalling, and the incident was investigated. Nearly twenty years later, Conrad brought this controversial story to the fore in Lord Jim to describe an individual who acts through fear. Typical of a modernist writer, Conrad was more concerned with a man's internal moral struggle than with the cultural values ​​by which sailors are measured. Author Gustav Morf writes: "Lord Jim is more than a novel, it is a confession. As the confession of a man tortured by nightmarish doubts and fears it must be understood, if it is to be understood" (Morf). Jim's character is in a lifelong battle with his conscience; his guilt accompanies him wherever he goes. Conrad portrays Jim as a failed hero, who had a chance to save the pilgrims on the fictional SS Patna, but instead escaped. Jim is restless after abandonment not only because he has failed, but also because he is ashamed of what others will think of his cowardice. Captain Brierly condemns Jim for his actions when he states, "Frankly,I don't care about all the pilgrims that ever came from Asia, but a good man wouldn't have behaved this way with a load full of old rags in bales" (Conrad 42). Although this statement shows racist qualities that imply that Muslims were less than human to Brierly, reinforce the idea that abandoning ship is wrong, no matter how a sailor feels about the cargo. As for the Pilgrims, the official statement from the Jeddah's commander, Captain Joseph Clark states the following: “The pilgrims armed themselves with knives and clubs… I was informed of their deliberate intention to kill my wife… I asked one of my officers to put her in one of the boats. Immediately thereafter, as I began to lower the boat, the pilgrims made a general assault, and I was pushed into the boat, during which I received several severe blows" (Sherry 310). Clark's statement contrasts sharply with Patna's fictional account. In Conrad's account, Jim allowed the pilgrims to sleep peacefully; he made "no noise for fear of creating panic" (Conrad 18). Conrad's choice to portray the Muslims as calm and silent shows that there probably wasn't one threat of violence in Jeddah and that the desertion had occurred for another reason. Through Lord Jim, it appears that Conrad believes that the men abandoned ship because they were afraid of drowning at the time of the trial The crew abandoned ship out of fear of drowning, not because of an attack. GR Goodfellow, the judge who tried the Jeddah crew, gives an accurate account of why the crew was motivated by fear to abandon ship. . The court found that the fasteners on the Jeddah's boilers were faulty, which is why they failed and caused a leak in the bottom of the vessel. The court found that due to the rough seas and the constant rocking of the ship, the water leaking inside appeared to be more than it was. Both the chief engineer and the captain were negligent in giving adequate attention to the boilers; instead they prepared the boats. Therefore, much of the blame for the accident is placed on them. “By [the captain's] act of giving orders to the boats, he led the passengers to believe that the ship would probably sink…” (Sherry 323). Up until the moment Clark boarded the boat, "it is evident that the Pilgrims had made no violence or even show of force to anyone on board" (323) until the Pilgrims realized they were stranded. The pilgrims saw the crew deserting, became frantic and tried to swarm the other boats. The pilgrims reacted the way they did because the only people who could help them in this situation were leaving them. Much like Captain Clark of the Jeddah, Jim has difficulty admitting that he abandoned ship when he thought it was sinking, because he cannot justify his actions through the Pilgrims' violence. Jim's inner turmoil is evident when he describes these Muslims, who were so calm they seemed lifeless: "He stood... watching the silent company of the dead. They were dead! Nothing could save them" (Conrad 53). His desperation shows a young man conflicted about what his action should be. He wanted to be a hero, but the impossibility of the situation seemed to prevent any noble action from taking place. This is when the natural fight or flight response took place. He subconsciously knew that in a battle between him and the sea, the sea would win, so he took the anti-heroic action of "every man for himself". Jim couldn't act like a hero because his human nature had taken over and, 1965.