Joseph Conrad's The Secret Sharer, is a novella that tells the story of a ship captain who discovers a stow away and harbors him without telling his crewmembers. As the story goes on, the stow away, Leggat, explains that he killed a man and had run away. Although the captain knows that what Leggat did was wrong, he still allows him to share his space. The captain then refers to Leggat as the sharer of his room, the sharer of his clothes, the sharer of his appearance, and in some ways the sharer of his life. The plot of this novella focuses on the psyche of the captain in a way that reveals his need for another dimension to his monotonous life, and he lives this life through the experiences of another man.
This story begins with the captain of a ship named the Sephora. When we are introduced to the captain, he is pondering the commands that he has issued to his crew. He doesn't know much about anyone of them, and wonders if they trust him and if he is doing a fair job of running the ship. He feels to himself that he is doing less than what is expected and is somewhat disappointed in him. While on the poop deck he goes over to raise the ladder and discovers Mr. Leggat at the bottom. He allows him to come on board and gives him clothes and refuge. Leggat explains to him the circumstances surrounding the reasons why he ran away. He had killed a man out of rage on the neighboring ship and had been detained. After three weeks of being locked up he saw an opportunity to escape and did so. He was swimming in the ocean for quite sometime before he saw the lights of the Sephora and swam towards it, which ended him up where he was at the moment. The captain still hid Leggat. He looked at him as his twin, someone that could resemble him physically and someone whom he shared a special bond with. The captain of the neighboring ship came over, looking slightly distraught, to ask a few questions concerning Leggat.