The story of the Costa Concordia‘s wreck off the Italian coast grows more Conradian by the day. The Coast Guard officer yells at the stupefied Captain to get back on the ship and direct the rescue. The captain claims he hadn’t meant to get into the lifeboat but tripped and fell in.
Lord Jim knows what really happened:
When your ship fails you, your whole world seems to fail you; the world that made you, restrained you, has taken care of you. It is as if the souls of men floating on an abyss and in touch with immensity had been set free for any excess of heroism, absurdity, or abomination.
The Times also has the story.
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