Peerless
The Peerless is the bark that appears like an answer to Rowland's desperate prayer on the iceberg, rescuing him and the child Myra from certain death. It is the vessel that carries them to safety, first to Christiansand in Norway, and later up the Thames to London, where its captain, Captain Barry, becomes Rowland's most loyal friend and defender. The ship thus marks the hinge of Rowland's fate: before it, he is a drugged, disgraced, and dying man; after it, he is a survivor whose courage and integrity begin to be recognized, even as he must confront the loss of his arm and the machinations of his enemies.
The Rescue and the Voyage to Christiansand
The Peerless appears in the narrative at the moment of Rowland's greatest despair. After the Titan's collision with the iceberg, Rowland is stranded on a floating ice field with the sleeping child Myra, whom he has wrapped in his coat. He has fought and killed a polar bear with only a knife, but he is crippled, feverish, and nearly out of supplies. On the third day of his delirium, he prays to the God he has denied, begging for the life of the child and the safety of her mother. As he rises from his knees, the flying-jib of a bark appears around a corner of ice, and the whole moonlit fabric comes into view, wafted by a faint westerly wind, not half a mile away. Rowland springs to his fire, makes a blaze, and hails the vessel, which answers with a deep-toned voice. The bark is the Peerless, and it takes them aboard. The rescue is so timely that Rowland later wonders whether his prayer was answered, noting that the bark was already there before he thought of praying.
The Peerless carries Rowland and Myra to Christiansand, Norway, where they are both dangerously ill. Rowland's arm, crushed by the bear, has become infected, and the surgeons at Christiansand amputate it. He is too sick to leave the ship, and the Peerless remains his floating hospital. The child, too, is ill, but she recovers under the care of the crew, who lovingly sew her a new outfit from bagging-stuff and old flannel shirts, since Rowland, with one arm, cannot sew. The crew's kindness is a testament to the ship's character as a place of refuge and humanity.
The Voyage to London and the Arrival at Lloyds
After weeks of recovery, the Peerless sails up the Thames to London, carrying Rowland and Myra to the confrontation at Lloyds. Captain Barry, the Peerless's master, has become Rowland's protector and advocate. When Rowland is too weak to walk, Barry carries him, with little Myra on his other shoulder, into Mr. Meyer's office. Barry announces, "Well, I've brought him, half dead; but why couldn't you give me time to dock my ship? A mate can't do everything." His breezy, quarter-deck tone masks a fierce loyalty. When Captain Bryce insults Rowland, Barry knocks him down with a single blow, warning, "If you insult him again in my presence I'll knock your teeth down your throat." He later testifies to having seen the polar bear Rowland killed, and he stands by Rowland when Mr. Meyer tries to coerce him into testifying against the Titan's officers.
The Peerless is also the destination to which Barry invites Rowland after the confrontation. When Rowland refuses to testify, thereby allowing the insurance to be paid, Barry tells him, "You can't ship 'fore the mast again --- that's settled. But you can have a berth mate with me as long as I sail a ship --- if you'll take it; and you're to make my cabin your home as long as you like." He even offers to send advance money for Rowland to return, but Rowland declines, saying his going to sea is ended because even a mate needs two hands. Barry's offer, and the Peerless itself, represent a possible future that Rowland chooses not to take, preferring to start a new life ashore.
The Ship as a Symbol of Rescue and Renewal
The Peerless is more than a vessel; it is the instrument of Rowland's physical and moral rescue. It appears at the nadir of his fortunes, when he is alone on the ice with a dying child and a dead bear, and it carries him to a place where he can recover and confront his enemies. The ship's crew, and especially Captain Barry, embody the decency and loyalty that Rowland has been denied by the Titan's officers. The Peerless thus stands in contrast to the Titan, which is a floating city of luxury and corruption, where the captain drugs a sailor to suppress the truth. The Peerless is a working ship, a bark, whose crew sews clothes for a child and whose captain risks his own safety to defend a friend. It is the setting for Rowland's convalescence, his amputation, and his first steps toward a new identity. When Rowland leaves the Peerless for the last time, he is a changed man: sober, determined, and ready to build a future for himself and for Myra. The ship, having served its purpose, fades from the narrative, but its influence endures in the friendship and the second chance it made possible.
