'He Was Spared That Annoyance'

As expected, Beryl made landfall near Matagorda early Monday as a Category 1 hurricane. Sustained winds hit 80 m.p.h. By 7 a.m. we could hear a hum like a dentist’s drill when the wind gusted. Trees fell and we watched water fill the street, top the curb and slosh on the lawn. The lights blinked, the generator kicked in and we lost power for microseconds. Five hours later, the wind stopped and the sun came out. The speed at which the weather changes in this sub-tropical zone always surprises this Northerner. 

The night before, to steel my reslove, I reread Conrad’s Typhoon, a novella he published in 1902. Captain MacWhirr, one of Conrad’s obsessives, navigates his steamship, the Nan-Shan, safely to the eye of the hurricane and out again. It deserves to be read, on one level, as an old-fashioned adventure story. Chapter V concludes:

 

“The hurricane, with its power to madden the seas, to sink ships, to uproot trees, to overturn strong walls and dash the very birds of the air to the ground, had found this taciturn man in its path, and, doing its utmost, had managed to wring out a few words. Before the renewed wrath of winds swooped on his ship, Captain MacWhirr was moved to declare, in a tone of vexation, as it were: ‘I wouldn't like to lose her.’

 

“He was spared that annoyance.”