Service History
Australian sailor and author Alan Villiers saved Georg Stage from the scrappers and renamed the ship in honor of famed sea author Joseph Conrad. Villiers planned a circumnavigation with a crew of mostly boys. Joseph Conrad sailed from Ipswich on 22 October 1934, crossed the Atlantic Ocean to New York City, then down to Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town, and across the Indian Ocean and through the East Indies. After stops in Sydney, New Zealand, and Tahiti, Joseph Conrad rounded Cape Horn and returned to New York on 16 October 1936, having traveled a total of some 57,000 miles (92,000 km).
Villiers was bankrupted as a result of the expedition (although he did get three books out of the episode - Cruise of the "Conrad", Stormalong, and Joey Goes to Sea), and sold the ship to George Huntington Hartford, founder of The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, who added an engine and used her as a yacht. In 1939 Hartford transferred the vessel to the Maritime Commission, who used her for training until 1945. After being laid up for two years, the ship was transferred to Mystic Seaport.
In addition to her role as a museum, she is also a static training vessel and is employed by Mystic Seaport to house campers attending the Joseph Conrad Sailing Camp.
Read more about this topic: Joseph Conrad (ship)
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