p. 217

S expresses a strong will to live, congratulating himself for finding a makeshift weapon in the form of a small nail, thinking:

“He’ll be damned if he’ll allow himself to sit slack-jawed and vacant-eyed, silencing himself to the delight of a cabin full of monsters who want to claim him as one of their own” (217).

This line shows his defiance against Maelstrom and the rest of the crew, a sharp contrast from the relief he felt when he saw the ship and its crew after his misadventure with Corbeau and the others. It also clearly defines S as separate from the rest of the crew. He has an “us versus them” mentality that he carries with him throughout most of the book.

That day, S plans his escape and continues writing down his experiences. He knows that he cannot stay on this ship for long, especially after witnessing what happened to the man from the ghost ship, but he also knows that attempting an escape could prove very dangerous. He also “wants to leave a record in case he dies, even if it’s a record no one but the ship’s crew might read” (217). As Eric notes in the margins, this is the “most fundamental impulse of a writer” (217), strengthening the case that S represents Straka, a writer.

Also in the margins, Jen and Eric theorize about Straka the man. Jen writes that “The Ekstrom Archive in Stockholm has scans + translations of his travel diary” (217) before going on to say that he may have been with GMI and Durand. Jen and Eric go on to discuss the possibilities of a group of people meeting together to discuss the S, and what role Straka might have played in the group. They do not come to a conclusion, however, and their discourse leaves more questions than answers.

Lower on the page, Jen underlines that S is “ready to use the nail for its other, bloodier purpose” (217), referring to the possibility of S using the nail as a weapon if a sailor comes down and attempts to coerce him into sewing his lips shut. Jen notes that S has obviously changed, going on to write that this change has gone over Moody’s head, meaning that there is “no way he’ll have the full story” (217).

Jen also tells Eric that she read the novel “A Swindle of Cowbirds”. Eric asks how it was, to which Jen  bluntly states

Awful

(217) before going on to state that it’s merely an attack on several writers that MacInnes, the author, knew. In real life, there is no particularly prominent author named MacInnes. There is an old Scottish clan, as well as a Canadian hockey player that go by the name, but it is unlikely that either of those connections pertain to the novel.