|
HISTORY
The Joseph
Conrad is a sailing ship originally launched as the Georg Stage
in 1882 and used to train sailors in Denmark, then bought in
1934 and renamed by Alan Villiers for a round-the-world cruise,
and later used for training by the United States. Joseph Conrad
is now a museum ship at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut.
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. Conrad
started from Ipswich on October 22, 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, Conrad rounded Cape
Horn and returned to New York on October 16, 1936, having
traveled a total of some 57,000 miles.
Villiers was broke 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, who added an engine and used her as a
yacht. In 1939 he 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.
Type: Full rigged ship
Hull: Iron
Built: 1882, København, Denmark
Homeport: Mystic Seaport, Mystic, CT
Builder and Designer: Burmeister & Wain
Length: 118 ft (36m)
Length on deck: 100.8 ft (30.7m)
Beam: 25.3 ft (7.7m)
Draft: 12 ft (3.7m)
Displacement: 213 tons
Former Names: Georg Stage
|
to top
