Can a young Marlowe survive as second mate for the ill-fated ship, Judea?

Joseph Conrad, today on the Classic Tales podcast.

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Joseph Conrad was a bit of an adventurer, and today's story is autobiographical.

And now, Youth, a narrative by Joseph Conrad.

This could have occurred nowhere but in England,

where men and sea interpenetrate, so to speak, the sea entering into the life of most men,

and the men, knowing something or everything about the sea in the way of amusement, of travel,

or of bread-winning. We were sitting round a mahogany table that reflected the bottle, the claret glasses, and our faces as we leaned on our elbows. They was a director of companies, an accountant, a lawyer, Marlowe, and myself.

The director had been a Conway boy. The accountant had served four years at sea. The lawyer, a fine-crusted Tory,

high churchman, the best of old fellows, the soul of honour, had been chief officer in the P&O

service in the good old days when mailboats were square-rigged at least on two masts,

and used to come down the China Sea before a fair monsoon

with stunsels set a low and aloft. We all began life in the merchant service. Between the five

of us, there was a strong bond of the sea, and also the fellowship of the craft, which no amount

of enthusiasm for yachting, cruising, and so on, can

give, since one is only the amusement of life, and the other is life itself.

...