Character Analysis
Captain Davidson
Davidson, captain of the Sissie, is introduced in Chapter 3 of Part 1 and continues to play a minor part through the whole book. At the end, he presides over the final acts of the sanguinary affair on Samburan. Davidson is a good-natured fat man with fine feeling. Although Axel Heyst's polite courtesy disconcerts him, he always swings in near Heyst's lonely island on the chance that the Swedish baron might want to hail him for something. It is Davidson who stands by Heyst's side while Lena is dying. Later he receives Heyst's last sad confession and sifts the ashes of Heyst's fire to find evidence of the Swedish baron's death. In the final chapter, Davidson reports to a Dutch "Excellency" in Sourabaya the details of the tragedy.