Lord Jim, Chapter 12 summary

What happens

1. Jim describes rescue by the Avondale and insists that his jump matters more than the others’ account of the disaster.
2. News that the Patna survives stops the cries he imagines hearing, but does not remove his shame.
3. Jim says visible lights would bring him back; the narrator explains how the ship’s turn hides them.
4. A French gunboat finds the crowded Patna, boards her, and begins a careful tow.
5. The narrator recalls meeting a French lieutenant who stays aboard the damaged ship for thirty hours.
6. The lieutenant praises the swift removal of passengers in port and describes his departure with much still unexplained.

In this chapter

What to notice

Jim separates his own action from the account offered by his companions. Survival does not erase his sense of personal failure.

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