I have just finished reading this, well, great I think, story. I love how Conrad writes about the sea – like she were a woman stalking landlubbers and preying upon those who attempt to crawl about her in a wooden ship.

I was reading along and I thought following along pretty well but then when it ended, I felt as though I missed the point.

The black mate, a blue-eyed, raven haired young man, Winston Bunter by name seemed like a guy who could handle anything. [spoiler alert] But when a storm kicks up and a little bit inconceivably, destroys all his little bottles of wonderful medication, I didn't quote that because I think it's a little different than that, but these bottles are clearly something pretty special to Bunter, his life essentially unravels. And then his hair turns white. And the way the story is written, it is coincident with either the actual, or his feinting of having a ghost experience, that he takes sick – I mean that he loses his stash and then falls down a ladder knocking himself in the head (maybe). He lays in bed for a couple of weeks and is never the same afterward, as though he got old all of sudden.

My question is: was he an old guy, whose age was disguised by black hair color which he carried along with him? Or, did he take some drug which made him stoic and confident and carried around with him all the time? It was a great story, but I'm afraid I don't know what the ending meant. Anyone got any ideas?