Common Core State Standard: ELA-Literacy.

RH 6-8 4 • ELA Lteracy RH 6-858* ELA-Literacy

RH 6-8.6 •ELA - Literacy R15.1 - ELA - Literacy
R15.2 - ELA - Literacy R15.3

by Nancy Hughes, Mystic Seaport Educator

“Sea Stories: and find in personal tragedy a chance for public
Part 1 - The Story good. So in 1880, even as Carl Frederik Stage
Behind Joseph mourned the untimely death of his only son Georg,
Conrad. he set aside a third of his fortune as a Danish ship
Like a chubby owner to help young men train to serve at sea. He
thumb, Denmark juts paid to design, build and endow a small, full-rigged
from the mainland iron ship and named her for his beloved son. Thus
of Europe into the begun the remarkable career of the little Danish
waters that connect ship Georg Stage, later renamed the Joseph Conrad,
the Baltic Sea to which now resides at Mystic Seaport.
the North Sea and
Atlantic Ocean. For over fifty years, from 1882 to 1934, the Georg
Germany is her Stage sailed the protected waters around Denmark,
southern neighbor; venturing through the North and Baltic seas to
to her north and Norway and Sweden and as far as the shores of
east, in places only a few miles’ sailing away, lie Britain and Scotland. In that time she was the
her fellow Scandinavians, Norway and Sweden. For home and school-house for over 4,000 young
many centuries these have been some of the busiest Danes, who learned the traditional ways to handle
seaways in the world, and for the Danes their vessels, a sailing ship. The cadets, aged fifteen to eighteen,
great and small, play a central role in their daily were chosen for good character and academic
lives and in their long seafaring history. Somehow, achievement. Scholarships were given to those in
two of those Danish vessels have found a home need. Each cadet crew mustered about eighty boys,
at Mystic Seaport. They are very different in form who slept in hammocks slung in one large open
–one is a full-rigged ship and the other is a little “flat” below deck. Most graduates of the Georg
lighthouse tender—but they share a spirit. What is Stage went on to careers on merchant ships, more
their story, and how did they come to harbor here at and more often on steam-driven vessels, where their
Mystic Seaport? These questions lead us back, across hard-earned sailing skills continued to serve them
many decades, to consider how geography shaped well. The Georg Stage herself remained relevant
the character and valuable. Even after tragedy struck in 1905,
of a people, and she sank in Copenhagen harbor after colliding
and how their with another vessel with the loss of twenty-two
character cadets, she was salvaged and completely rebuilt with
shaped the safety improvements such as four new transverse
course of a watertight bulkheads. Within months, she was
great war. sailing again.
now-retired Georg Stage and saw that “she was no
ordinary ship.” He set about readying her for a trip
around the world. As he had promised the sellers,
he changed her name to Joseph Conrad and at her
bow he installed a portrait figurehead of this much-
admired writer. With a mixed crew of paid sailors
and paying teenage cadets, the Joseph Conrad set
sail, and in 555 days traveled 57,800 miles. Once
again, she was teaching young people how to sail.
Later, a new owner, Huntington Hartford, converted
her to a luxury yacht, winning a race from Newport
to Bermuda. By 1939, she changed owners yet
again and during World War II, under the U.S
Maritime Commission, she served as a training,
classroom and berthing ship for young American
merchant seamen.
With the war over, however, the United States
government declared the Joseph Conrad surplus.
Who would ever want an old, worn, sailing ship?
Their names were Carl C. Cutler, Philip R. Mallory
and Clifford D. Mallory, Jr. They had a vision for their
museum: to train young men and women in “the
ways of the sea”. In July 1947, President Harry S.
Truman signed a law transferring the Joseph Conrad
to the museum now called Mystic Seaport, and by
June 1949, the Mariner Training Program had begun.
Today, sixty-five years later, more than 35,000
young people have benefited from this vision, a
fitting tribute to a fine little full-rigged training ship
once named Georg Stage.

The Joseph By 1934, a larger Georg Stage had been built to

Conrad replace her, her career as a training ship for young
Some people Danes came to an end, and she was put up for
respond to sale. Who would ever want to buy an old, worn,
loss with sailing ship? His name was Alan Villiers, he was an
generosity, Australian, and he had a dream. He looked at the

Did You Know
1) Children and youth still have the unique opportunity to sleep about the
Joseph Conrad at Mystic Seaport in our overnight summer sailing camp and
as part of our school overnight program called “Ship to Shore”! For more
information about both these programs visit http://www.mysticseaport.org/
learn/summer-camps/conrad/, and
http://www.mysticseaport.org/learn/k-12-programs/ship-to-shore/.
2) Sailors sometimes use the expression “learning the ropes”. On a sailing
vessel like the full-rigged Joseph Conrad, this literally means learning the
name and function of every working line on the ship. On the Joseph Con-
rad, working lines (the lines that control the sails) are belayed (secured)
on wooden belaying pins, then neatly coiled to avoid entanglement. If
the Captain gives the order “to shorten the buntlines of the fore-topsail”, a
young sailor needs to have “learned the ropes”!
C
Math, Science, Literature and Art
onnections
i) Isn’t it every kitten’s dream to go to sea? When the Joseph Conrad
stopped in the Solomon Islands on her round-the-world voyage, two
kittens were presented to Captain Villiers and his crew. Named “Joseph
“ and “Conrad”, they sailed for 336 days and 26,000 miles from
home – all the way to New York City! The rig-climbing little ginger
cat, nicknamed “Little Joey”, had so many adventures on board that
Captain Villiers was inspired to write a book about him: “Little Joey
Goes To Sea” by Alan Villiers, Mystic Seaport, The Museum of America
and the Sea.
2) Video Recordings:
• To hear the voice of Alan Villiers:http://www.mysticseaport.org/
locations/vessels/conrad/ and click on Hauling the Conrad video