Editing Lord Jim (section)

==Allusions to historical events==
The opening event in ''Lord Jim'' has been speculated by historians to have been based in part on an actual abandonment of a ship. On 17 July 1880 the British merchantman [[SS Jeddah|SS ''Jeddah'']] set sail from Singapore bound for [[Penang]] and [[Jeddah]], with 778 men, 147 women, and 67 children on board. The passengers were [[Muslims]] from the [[British Malaya|Malay states]] and were travelling to [[Mecca]] for the ''[[hajj]]'' (holy pilgrimage). After rough weather conditions, the ''Jeddah'' began taking on water. The hull sprang a large leak, the water rose rapidly, and the captain and officers abandoned the heavily listing ship. They were picked up by another vessel and taken to [[Aden]], where they claimed that the passengers had attacked two engineers and the ship had foundered in poor weather. The pilgrims were abandoned by the crew. However, on 8 August 1880, a French steamship towed ''Jeddah'' into Aden and the pilgrims on board survived the incident. An official inquiry followed, as in the novel.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VzhZrnzo3H8C&pg=PR9|title=Lord Jim |publisher=[[Penguin Group]]|year=2009|first1=Joseph |last1=Conrad |contributor-first=Linda |contributor-last=Dryden |first2=Cathy |last2=Schlund-Vials |contribution=Introduction |page=ix|isbn=978-0-451-53127-8}}</ref>

The inspiration for the character of Jim was the chief mate of the ''Jeddah'', [[Augustine Podmore Williams|"Austin" Podmore Williams]], whose grave was tracked down to Singapore's [[Bidadari Cemetery]] by Gavin Young in his book ''In Search of Conrad''. As in the novel, Williams created a new life for himself, returning to Singapore and becoming a successful ship's chandler.<ref>{{cite book |first=Gavin |last=Young |title=In Search of Conrad |publisher=Penguin Books|year=1992 |pages=48–91 |isbn=978-0140172591}}</ref>

Conrad may also have been influenced by the naturalist [[Alfred Russel Wallace]]'s 1869 account of his travels and of the native peoples of the islands of Southeast Asia, ''[[The Malay Archipelago]]''; the character Stein is based on Wallace.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Rosen|first=Jonathen|title=Missing Link: Alfred Russel Wallace, Charles Darwin's neglected double|url=http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2007/02/12/070212crat_atlarge_rosen|magazine=The New Yorker|date=February 2007|pages=76–81 |pmid=17323543 |access-date=13 March 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Societe Conradienne Francaise|title=Lord Jim|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pb66-t7D4IQC&pg=PA26|series=Special Issue, Volume 30|year=2004|publisher=Presses Universite Limoges|isbn=978-2-84287-285-4|page=26}}</ref> The second part of the novel is based in some part on the life of [[James Brooke]], the first [[White Rajahs|Rajah of Sarawak]]<ref>{{cite book |title=Lord Jim |first=Joseph |last=Conrad |editor-first=Cedric Thomas |editor-last=Watts |publisher=Broadview Press |pages=13–14, 389–402 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=23H0nIJtLEkC |series=Literary Texts |date=7 November 2000 |isbn=978-1551111728 |access-date=24 September 2009 }}</ref> – as Conrad himself says in his letter to [[Margaret Brooke]]: "The book (Lord Jim) which has found favour in your eyes has been inspired in great measure by the history of the first Rajah's enterprise...".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Payne |first1=Robert |title=The White Rajahs of Sarawak |date=1960 |publisher=Robert Hale Limited |location=Brompton, London |isbn=0195826876 |page=171 |edition=1st}}</ref>
Brooke was an Indian-born English adventurer who in the 1840s managed to gain power and set up an independent state in [[Sarawak]], on the island of [[Borneo]]. Some critics, however, think that the fictional [[Patusan]] was intended not to be part of Borneo but of [[Sumatra]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-MBEWHp3ITMC&q=Patusan+Sumatra&pg=PA126 |last=Hampson |first=Robert |title=Conrad's Heterotopic Fiction |page=126 |isbn=978-0415971652 |year=2005 |series=Conrad in the Twenty-first Century: Contemporary Approaches and Perspectives |editor1-last=Kaplan |editor1-first=Carola |editor2-last=Mallios |editor2-first=Peter |editor3-last=White |editor3-first=Andrea |publisher=Psychology Press}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article3451927.ece |title=1923 Curle article}}{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>