The Sea-Wolf

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1904

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Chapters 25-27Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 25 Summary

The next morning at breakfast, Humphrey reports to Larsen that the fog bank is off to the north and northwest, and there is no sign of the Macedonia. Larsen leaves to talk to the hunters in the steerage; Humphrey and Maud hear his voice, but not his words, through the wall. At the end of a long speech, the hunters cheer and head onto the deck. They excitedly prepare their boats for departure and take rifles on board, which Humphrey notes as clearly not meant for seal hunting. Larsen tells Humphrey that he plans to “give that brother of mine a taste of his own medicine” (178) by disrupting the hunt.

Humphrey visits Mugridge, who is recuperating after losing his foot to the shark. Mugridge vows to see Larsen dead. With the Macedonia approaching and clearly set on monopolizing the hunt again, Humphrey joins Larsen at the wheel of the ship. The Macedonia dispatches some of its boats. Larsen sails the Ghost past their own boats and towards the first of the Macedonia’s. Larsen calls down to the men in the boat, inviting them aboard for a chat; as preparations are made to help these men aboard, Larsen orders both Humphrey and Maud to remain on deck.

The Macedonia hunter is a tall, strong man who towers over even Larsen. When he and his two sailors come aboard, Larsen invites the hunter to his cabin while the sailors proceed to the steerage. Maud and Humphrey hear a “furious struggle” (181) coming from below. At the sound of violence, Maud is terrified, and Humphrey says, “Whatever part I take in what is going on and what is to come […] I am compelled to take it” (181). Larsen returns to the deck and has Humphrey bring the two sailors from the Macedonia forward. When they arrive, Larsen commands them to haul in their boat, saying that they and their hunter will now sail for him.

Larsen has tied up the hunter as a prisoner and turns his attention to the battle on the water: Both parties are using rifles to lay claim over the sealing waters. Larsen remarks on Maud’s bravery by saying, “You are well rounded, a bluestocking fit to be the wife of a pirate chief” (183). His increasingly frequent advances intimidate Maud and ignite jealousy and pride in Humphrey, who feels more and more compelled to escape with Maud.

Larsen captures another of his brother’s boats and traps the men on the Ghost. The Ghost’s hunters have rounded up the remaining seven of the Macedonia’s boats. Larsen steers the Ghost to them and begins forcing the men onto his ship as the Macedonia quickly approaches. Larsen commands the Ghost into a nearby fogbank, then quickly maneuvers to exit the fog in a way his brother won’t expect. Before the Macedonia can catch on to his plan, Larsen directs the Ghost back into the fogbank at a different angle and takes refuge. He orders whiskey to be brought to the new sailors to solidify their allegiance to the Ghost, and he offers his original hunters a monetary incentive to keep the new, captive hunters in line.

Chapter 26 Summary

As the men drink and celebrate, Humphrey gives medical attention to the wounded men. Louis is the only sailor to abstain from the drinking; otherwise, the new sailors happily get along with the Ghost’s original crew as if nothing happened between them. Humphrey sits down to dinner with Maud and Larsen.

In a good mood from his victory, Larsen engages Maud in conversation over the nature of temptation. Humphrey comments infrequently, the discussion largely undertaken by Maud and Larsen, particularly when the topic turns to love. Humphrey is both jealous and afraid for Maud as he watches “the man I feared and the woman I loved talking on and on” (195).

Through the fog, Louis spies the Macedonia’s lights nearby. Larsen keeps the ship as quiet as possible until the steamer passes.

Humphrey goes to bed but wakes up in the middle of the night with a sense of foreboding. In the cabin, he finds Larsen forcefully embracing Maud. Filled with rage, Humphrey attacks Larsen and draws his knife. Suddenly, Larsen inexplicably falls against the wall, seemingly incapacitated. Humphrey rushes forward and stabs Larsen in the shoulder. Maud intervenes and stops Humphrey from giving Larsen a more fatal blow. The two realize that one of Larsen’s headaches is coming on.

With Larsen incapacitated and the crew drunk, Humphrey realizes that this may be their best chance at escape. He and Maud begin to collect provisions and supplies from the Ghost’s stores, outfitting one of the hunting boats with everything needed for an extended time on the open ocean. They lower the boat into the ocean and begin their escape.

Chapter 27 Summary

Humphrey and Maud are on a boat in the sea outside Japan, escaped from the Ghost. By Humphrey’s calculation, if he and Maud can steer the boat accurately, they will make it to Japan in five days. Humphrey grows deeper in love with Maud, pondering how new it is to feel “the reverence and awe in which I knew I should always hold her” (205). They dress warmly and eat breakfast from their provisions.

Humphrey instructs Maud in how to steer the boat so that they can take turns. After the lesson, he sleeps for seven hours, waking to find Maud on the brink of exhaustion. Humphrey is concerned for her welfare and has her promise to obey him “as a sailor would obey his captain” (207). Once Humphrey resumes steering, the wind changes and begins to blow them off course. Humphrey fashions a sea anchor that keeps their boat from flipping in the wind. At midnight, Maud takes her turn steering as Humphrey goes to sleep.

Chapters 25-27 Analysis

When Maud comments “You may be unafraid, Mr. Larsen, but you must grant that the bravery is mine” (183), she continues a discussion on the nature of emotion in the body, the mind’s ability to control it through will, and the necessity of fear for bravery to exist. Because Maud is physically weaker than the men around her and experiences fear in the face of brutality, she is braver than Larsen, who feels nothing. As Larsen expected to control Maud through fear, her ability to surmount emotion and utilize her willpower allow her to transcend Larsen’s control entirely and remain outside of his influence. This contrasts starkly with Humphrey’s first interactions with Larsen, in which Larsen was able to manipulate Humphrey through fear.

On the subject of physical experience, Humphrey remarks on the unfolding physicality of his love for Maud (204), something he wasn’t prepared for by his previously bookish life. Humphrey is, by degrees, falling out of a conceptual life and into a physical one grounded in reality. This transition happens first through Humphrey’s experiences with Larsen, who renders masculinity something inherently brutal and prone to power struggles. The transition happens second through Maud, who softens the harshness of bodily experience by inspiring pleasure.

There is small-scale, open warfare between the Ghost and the Macedonia, with men from both sides taking deadly action without fear of punishment when they return to land. When Larsen commands them to fight, they do so without hesitation: “All feuds and grudges were forgotten, and I was surprised at the alacrity with which the men who had so long endured his brutality sprang to execute his orders” (186). There is no mention of law, justice, or punishment. Only vengeance and the brutality inherent in nature itself matter to these men. Besides suggesting the desensitized, violent natures of the sailors, this fact reveals how little power governments on land had over seafaring vessels at the time. If the men are unafraid of incarceration for murder once they complete their hunting, this implies that previously they could have faced the same circumstances earlier and gotten away without notice from law enforcement. On the open sea, no one holds these men accountable for their actions other than themselves.

Humphrey’s language has changed, or rather his vocabulary has expanded. As he commands his and Maud’s small escape boat, he uses words such as “astern, abeam, or on the quarter” (206), signifying how much he has learned from the crew of the Ghost. Moreover, he has changed in character and is surprised at himself for how little fear he feels on the open water. Because he is in love, he attributes these new developments to love: “The coming of Maud Brewster into my life seemed to have transformed me” (209). Here, Maud’s character is the provocative plot device needed for Humphrey to enact change and progress the plot towards an end. But it is all put on Maud’s influence, this change Humphrey sees in himself. Whether he would have eventually been able to stand up to Larsen on his own is doubtful.