He saw himself quelling tempers and putting down inflamed mutinies. From his high post, Jim daydreamed that he was being readied for a heroic "role" he romantically envisioned himself rescuing people from hurricanes and then surviving half-naked on a deserted island. His job stationed him at the ship's fore-top, from which he could scan the surroundings and look down at the other boys, as if from a very privileged distance. Not long afterward, he was sent to a "training ship for officers." He was generally well-liked at the school he was cool-headed, clever, and had an enviable physique. Seemingly, Jim became interested in sailing and adventure as a young boy, because one day, after reading some "light holiday literature," presumably about sailing, he immediately decided that the sea would be his vocation. The natives dubbed him "Tuan Jim," or Lord Jim. It was while Jim was working among the Malays (the Bugis) that he acquired the other half of the name by which men would know him. We are also told that for many years, Jim went by only one name - Jim - because he wanted to hide a "fact" about himself and when that "fact" surfaced in seaport gossip, Jim would leave town very suddenly, always traveling "farther east," toward the rising sun. Jim always drew good wages, but he never stayed at one port for very long he had "something of the unknown" about him, something that set him apart, something which Conrad calls "an exquisite sensibility." While the ship remained docked, Jim had to court, cajole, and serve the captain as a loyal friend and as a patient, good-natured companion so that the captain would spend a great deal of money at the ship-chandler's. He was a popular and successful water -clerk - that is, he competed against all the other water-clerks in port to be the very first man to greet a newly docked sea captain and steer him to a vast supply store (a "ship's chandler") filled with all the items that a ship would need for its next voyage. Jim was an impressive young man - about six feet tall and powerfully built - extremely intense, self-assertive, and lways dressed in spotless white.
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