Joseph Conrad's The Nigger of the "Narcissus"

A big foaming sea came out of the mist; it made for the ship, roaring wildly, and in its rush it looked as mischievous and discomposing as a madman with an axe.
Joseph Conrad, The Nigger of the "Narcissus" (William Heinemann, 1898).

This storm is the centerpiece of Conrad's novel, as the ship, on its way from India to England, puts it side in the water and the soaked crew waits. In all that crowd of cold and hungry men, waiting wearily for a violent death, not a voice was heard:  they were mute, and in somber thoughtfulness listened to the horrible imprecations of the gale.
But suddenly they realize Jimmy Wait, the title character, was missing and they risk their lives to rescue him from his wrecked cabin, where he had retreated to die, being too sick (or pretending to be) to work.  Then, after he was rescued and seemed well, the captain confined him to his quarters, which almost precipitated a mutiny.

To me it seems slightly foolish to defend Conrad (or Mark Twain) from racism, since Jimmy is the most fully realized character in the book, much more so than the polyglot crew with their accents and slang.  Jimmy rather reminds me of the unfairly maligned Stepin Fetchit, a master of using the perceptions of others to pursue his own ends.

Life on the Narcissus is vividly portrayed and, like the best allegories, functions effectively on the most realistic level.  But the ship is like the world and its societies, with the continuing struggle between the authority of the captain and the lives of the crew, as well as the relations of the various nationalities and races (there are no women in the book, though they are spoken of).

The narration of the story is somewhat confusing, with the crew sometimes being "we" and sometimes "they," and the ending is written in the first person.  Overall, however, the effect is to cause one to feel one is actually on the storm-tossed ship.  And there is plenty of detail about the ship, with a glossary provided in the Penguin edition I have, defining everything from 'baccy to Yellow Jack.  What might also have helped would have been a drawing of the ship itself, which one finds in Patrick O'Brian's books about Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin.