Ship Owner and Circumnavigator
Villiers reunited with the de Cloux family in 1931, becoming a partner with them in the four-masted barque Parma. Continuing in the grain trade, he proved an able shiphandler. In 1932 he won the unofficial "grain race" between the ships of the trade, arriving in 103 days despite broaching in a gale. In 1933, he made it in 83 days.
After selling his shares back to the de Cloux family, Villiers went on to purchase the Georg Stage in 1934. A full rigged sailing ship of 400 tons, originally built in 1882 by Burmeister & Wain in Copenhagen, Denmark, she was employed as a sailing school ship by Stiftelsen Georg Stages Minde. Saving her from the scrapyard, Villiers renamed her the Joseph Conrad, after the author of The Nigger of the 'Narcissus', Typhoon, and The Shadow-Line, who was also an accomplished seaman.
A sail training pioneer, Villiers circumnavigated the globe with an amateur crew. He used the unique environment of the sea to build character and discipline in his young crew and, with his contemporaries Irving and Exy Johnson, he helped form the modern concept of sail training. It is used not to teach youth for a life at sea, but to use the sea to teach youth for life.
Returning almost two years later, Villiers sold the Joseph Conrad to George Huntington Hartford. He published two books of his adventures, Cruise of the "Conrad" and Stormalong. The Joseph Conrad is maintained and operated as a museum ship at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut, USA, where she continues to educate the youth of today in the rich history of the age of sail.
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