The Secret Sharer

A young captain, new to his ship and unsure of himself, keeps the night watch alone and finds a man clinging to the rope ladder in the dark water. The swimmer is Leggatt, the first mate of another ship, who has killed a sailor during a storm and escaped from arrest. The captain hides him in his own cabin, dresses him in his own sleeping suit, and spends days whispering with this second self while the crew grows suspicious. To set Leggatt free, he must take his ship dangerously close to a rocky island, and the test of the fugitive becomes the test of the captain.

What happens in The Secret Sharer

A young, untried captain has just taken command of a ship anchored at the head of the Gulf of Siam. He feels a stranger to his crew and to himself. Sending the crew to bed, he keeps watch alone and finds a naked man in the water at the foot of the rope ladder that should have been hauled in. The swimmer, Leggatt, is chief mate of the Sephora, anchored nearby. During a terrible storm, while setting the reefed foresail that saved the ship, he killed an insolent sailor, and his captain had kept him locked up for nearly seven weeks. He slipped out through a port and swam until he reached the narrator’s ship. The captain, feeling an immediate kinship, hides Leggatt in the L-shaped stateroom and bathroom of his own cabin and dresses him in a sleeping suit like his own. The next day the Sephora’s nervous captain comes aboard asking about his missing mate, and the narrator deflects him. For days the captain hides his double from the steward and the officers, behaving so strangely that the crew begins to doubt him. Leggatt asks to be put ashore among the islands off the Cambodian coast. The captain takes the ship perilously close to the dark island of Koh-ring at night, gives Leggatt three sovereigns and presses his own floppy white hat on him, and lets him slip into the sea. In the blackness near the rocks, the captain cannot tell whether the ship is moving until he sees his hat floating on the water, which Leggatt has lost. Using it as a mark, he brings the ship about just in time. Watching the hat vanish, he feels that his secret sharer has gone to take his punishment as a free man, and that he himself now truly commands his ship.

Where and when The Secret Sharer happens

Timeline the story arc, beat by beat

1. Arrival
   A stranger in command

   A young captain takes over a ship anchored in the Gulf of Siam and feels untested and uncertain.

2. Discovery
   The man at the ladder

   Keeping watch alone, he finds a naked swimmer, Leggatt, clinging to the rope ladder in the dark.

3. Confession
   The storm and the killing

   Leggatt explains that he killed a sailor while saving the Sephora in a storm and escaped after weeks of arrest.

4. Concealment
   A second self

   The captain hides Leggatt in his cabin, dressed like himself, and they whisper together for days.

5. The search
   The Sephora’s captain

   The Sephora’s captain comes aboard looking for his mate, and the narrator steers him away from the truth.

6. The approach
   Close to Koh-ring

   The captain sails dangerously near a dark island at night so Leggatt can swim ashore, alarming his crew.

7. Release
   The floating hat

   Leggatt swims away, and the captain’s own hat, left on the water, shows him how to turn the ship in time.

Characters and how they connect

Character Relationships who connects to whom, and the themes that bind them

Themes in The Secret Sharer what the story is really about

Symbols & motifs

Conflicts

Literary devices

First-person retrospective narration

The captain tells the story years later, which lets him reflect on how the experience changed him.

Doppelganger

Leggatt is a classic literary double, a second self who mirrors and tests the protagonist.

Suspense

Repeated near discoveries and the final approach to the island keep the tension high.

Symbolism

The hat, the ladder, and the island carry the story’s inner meaning.

Biblical allusion

Leggatt’s reference to the brand of Cain frames him as a wanderer marked by guilt.

Important quotes

The ending of The Secret Sharer, explained

The ending brings the captain’s two tests together: freeing Leggatt and proving himself in command. Leggatt has asked to be left among the islands off the Cambodian coast, and the captain decides to take the ship as close as he dares to the dark island of Koh-ring so the swimmer will have a short distance to cover. His officers are alarmed; the chief mate is nearly frantic as the black mass of land looms over them in the still night. Before Leggatt goes, the captain gives him money and presses his own floppy white hat on his head to protect him from the tropical sun. Leggatt lowers himself into the sea from the sail locker. Now the captain faces a real danger. In the darkness and near calm he cannot tell whether the ship is moving at all, and without knowing that he cannot turn her away from the rocks. Then he sees something white on the water: his own hat, which has fallen from Leggatt’s head. It gives him a fixed point, and by watching it he can see the ship gathering sternway, so he orders the helm shifted and brings her about in time. The act of kindness has become the thing that saves the ship. As the hat disappears, the captain feels that his other self has gone into the water to take his punishment, a free man starting a new destiny, and that he himself is at last alone with his command, no longer a stranger to his ship. Readers still debate whether Leggatt represents the captain’s darker side, his ideal self, or both; the ending suggests the captain needed to know that part of himself and then let it go.

Common misreadings

Test yourself

A young captain on his first job is nervous and not sure he is good enough. One night he finds a man swimming beside his ship. The swimmer, Leggatt, killed a sailor during a scary storm on another ship and escaped. The captain feels they are almost the same person, so he secretly hides Leggatt in his cabin for days, even though his crew starts thinking he is acting weird. To help Leggatt escape, the captain steers very close to a dark island. Leggatt swims off, and the captain’s white hat, floating on the water, helps him see how to turn the ship safely. By the end, the captain finally feels like a real captain.

Flashcards flip, self-grade, and the deck remembers what you know

Compare & connect the story universe

Discussion & essay prompts for class, or your next paper

Key questions students ask

• Who is Leggatt in The Secret Sharer
• Why does the captain hide Leggatt
• What does the hat symbolize in The Secret Sharer
• Is Leggatt the captain’s double
• Why does the captain sail so close to Koh-ring
• What does the ending of The Secret Sharer mean