payment page
"The Secret Sharer" is a short story by Joseph Conrad, first published as a two-part serial in Harper's Magazine in 1910. It has since appeared in short story anthologies, as well as being adapted for stage and screen. The story describes events in the life of a captain on a British sailing ship, who is approached by an escaped criminal from another vessel. Like many of Conrad's works, "The Secret Sharer" has a nautical theme and a setting that mirrors the author's own experiences as a seaman, as well as a narrator who makes the non-obvious choice when faced with a moral conundrum. The story was likely inspired by a real event that took place in 1880, in which a mate aboard the sailing ship Cutty Sark killed another sailor but escaped execution by fleeing into the sea.
