Joseph Conrad (ship)

This article is about the sailing ship previously named Georg Stage. For sailing ship currently named Georg Stage, see Georg Stage.

Joseph Conrad

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History
Denmark
Name:	Georg Stage (1882–c.1930)
Namesake:	Georg Stage
Builder:	Burmeister & Wain, Copenhagen, Denmark
Launched:	1882
Fate:	Sold 1934
United Kingdom
Name:	Joseph Conrad
Namesake:	Joseph Conrad
Owner:	Alan Villiers
Acquired:	1934
Fate:	Sold 1936
United States
Name:	Joseph Conrad
Namesake:	Joseph Conrad
Owner:	G.H. Hartford (1936–1939) Maritime Commission (1939–1947) Mystic Seaport (1947–)
Out of service:	1945
Homeport:	Mystic Seaport, Mystic, Connecticut
Status:	Museum and training ship
General characteristics
Type:	Sailing ship
Length:	118 ft (36 m) sparred 100 ft 8 in (30.68 m) on deck
Beam:	25 ft 3 in (7.70 m)
Draft:	12 ft (3.7 m)
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship

Joseph Conrad is an iron-hulled sailing ship, originally launched as Georg Stage in 1882 and used to train sailors in Denmark. After sailing around the world as a private yacht in 1934 she served as a training ship in the United States, and is now a museum ship at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut.

Service history

File:Joseph Conrad 2008.jpg

Joseph Conrad in 2008

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 Huntington Hartford, heir to the A&P supermarket fortune, 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.

External links

Template:Mystic Seaport