p. 67

After pointing himself to shore, he swims steadfastly towards shore. At one point he wonders how far away from the ship he is, but he cannot manage to look back, and instead he only continues swimming forward towards what awaits on shore.

The last sentence of this page, and of Chapter 2, ends with the phrase, “try to keep his head above the waves,” (67). As Eric points out, this is the same phrase that ends the Summersby confession, except he says he is trying to keep his head above water. As Eric states, he is quite confused by Summersby’s decision to do this. It does not strengthen his confession seeing as SOT had already been published, and it does not seem like a necessary quote. Jen then ponders whether or not this could be a code, or a signal to someone. Eric eventually concludes that, “Whatever the reason, it sounds like he knew he’d die when he went up to the deck. He knew these would be the last words he’d speak.” This conclusion shows that Summersby was aware of the situation he was in, and knowingly chose his last words to be that of SOT. Jen does not respond to Eric’s statement, but the discussion of Summersby continues throughout the book.