 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Joseph Conrad" ship – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(September 2007) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
 | |
| 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 |
|
| Out of service | 1945 |
| Homeport | Mystic Seaport,Mystic, Connecticut |
| Honors & awards | |
| Status | Museum andtraining ship |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Sailing ship |
| Length | |
| Beam | 25 ft 3 in (7.70 m) |
| Draft | 12 ft (3.7 m) |
| Sail plan | Full-rigged ship |
Joseph Conrad is an iron-hulledsailing ship, originally launched asGeorg Stage in 1882 and used to trainsailors inDenmark. After sailing around the world as a private yacht in 1934 she served as a training ship in theUnited States, and is now amuseum ship atMystic Seaport inConnecticut.
Late one night in 1905 in Copenhagen during a fireworks display over the harbor the ships crew were ordered to shut down the lights, and most of the crew went down to their bunks to sleep. A larger merchant ship came into the direction of the ship, now completely black due to no lights, and so, it crashed and filled the bunks where the boys were sleeping, killing 22 boys the ages of 14 to 17. The ship was raised afterward. It was on guard during WWI but was more of a merchant ship and not even moved from the harbor.
Australian sailor and authorAlan Villiers savedGeorg Stage from the scrappers and renamed the ship in honor of famed sea authorJoseph Conrad. Villiers planned acircumnavigation with a crew of mostly boys.Joseph Conrad sailed fromIpswich on 22 October 1934, crossed theAtlantic Ocean toNew York City, then down toRio de Janeiro,Cape Town, and across theIndian Ocean and through theEast Indies. After stops inSydney,New Zealand, andTahiti,Joseph Conrad roundedCape 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, andJoey Goes to Sea), and sold the ship[1] toHuntington Hartford, heir to theA&P supermarket fortune, who added an engine and used her as ayacht.
In 1939 Hartford donatedJoseph Conrad to theUnited States Coast Guard for use as a training ship for themerchant marine based inJacksonville, Florida. She participated in a training cruise through the Caribbean beginning in December, 1939 and sailed in the St. Petersburg to Havana Yacht Race in early 1941, a few months before the United States enteredWorld War II. The Coast Guard turned the vessel over to theMaritime Administration when the merchant marine training functions of the Coast Guard were transferred to the newly createdWar Shipping Administration on September 1, 1942.Joseph Conrad continued to serve as a training ship until the war's end in 1945.[2]
After being laid up for two years, the ship was transferred toMystic Seaport inStonington, Connecticut on July 9, 1947, for "museum and youth training purposes", where she has remained ever since as an exhibit. 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.
American Defense Service Medal
American Campaign Medal
Merchant Marine Atlantic War Zone Medal
World War II Victory Medal
Merchant Marine World War II Victory Medal{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
41°21′45″N71°57′55″W / 41.36250°N 71.96528°W /41.36250; -71.96528
