LEFT: Joseph Conrad the literary giant on the SS Tuscania, New York 1923. Photograph reproduced courtesy of the Library of CConradonrad Congress BELOW: Circular Quay panorama, photographer Charles Pickering 1871. Ordinary seaman Conrad’s ship Duke of Sutherland is at far right. iinn AustraliaAustralia ANMM collection

It’s 150 years since the birth of Jozef Teodor Konrad I did go to Minlacowie. The farmers based on his bleak voyage down the River on with an Australia-bound wool clipper, around were very nice to me, and I gave Congo in 1890. Fewer are aware of his the Duke of Sutherland, as an ordinary Korzeniowski (1857–1924), the Polish mariner who, their wives (on a never-to-be-forgotten connections with, and indeed affection seaman at one shilling a month. The writing as Joseph Conrad, became one of English day) a tea party on the dear old ‘Otago’ for, Australia. Conrad fi rst visited as outward voyage was uneventful but after then lying alongside the God-forsaken a young seaman in 1878 and returned the vessel reached Sydney the company literature’s greatest novelists. Curator Lindl Lawton’s jetty there. (Letter from Joseph Conrad to regularly in the ensuing decade. While the spent fi ve months locating a cargo for A T Saunders, 14/06/1917, State Library antics of Minlacowie’s tea-sipping ladies the return passage. Most of the crew new Tasman Light display looks at the seafaring life of South Australia) may not have slipped into his fi ction, abandoned ship, fed up with paltry pay Conrad’s experiences on ships carrying and meagre rations. Penniless, 20-year- that inspired so much of his writing, and at Conrad’s IN THIS LETTER to an Australian cargo to and from the Antipodes inspired old Joseph signed on for the return acquaintance, novelist Joseph Conrad connections with Australia. a cache of works including The Shadow- voyage, living on board and eking out an refl ects on a voyage to the tiny South Line, Chance, The Secret Sharer, Falk and existence as night watchman. Australian port of Minlacowie in 1889. The Mirror of the Sea. At that time he had not yet started to In The Mirror of the Sea (1906), Conrad write but was master of the Otago, Conrad was born Jozef Teodor Konrad captured the heartbeat of Circular Quay an Australian-owned barque trading Korzeniowski at Berdyczow, Poland as the sun set and its seedier characters along the coast. The letter is one of (then part of the Ukraine) on 3 December seeped from the shadows: four originals written by Joseph Conrad 1857. Orphaned at the age of 10, he was The night humours of the town descended that are held in Australian collections. raised by his maternal uncle Tadeusz from the street to the waterside in the still Two of these are exhibited for the fi rst Bobrowski. Even as a boy Jozef was watches of the night: larrikins rushing time as part of Conrad in Australia, a determined to go to sea and at 16 down in bands to settle some quarrel by display of photographs, paintings and travelled to the French port of Marseilles a stand-up fi ght away from the police, in documents exploring Conrad’s links with to join the merchant marine. Before he an indistinct ring half hidden by piles of the continent and celebrating the 150th put pen to paper, Conrad spent the next cargo with the sounds of blows, a groan anniversary of his birth. 20 years sailing the world with the French now and then, the stamping of feet and and later British merchant navy. Many people are familiar with Conrad as the cry of ‘Time!’ rising suddenly above the author of Heart of Darkness – a story On the 12 October 1878 Conrad signed the sinister and excited murmurs.

Page 8 SIGNALS 81 December 2007–February 2008 SIGNALS 81 December 2007–February 2008 Page 9 Perched on the rails of the old Duke of The ship, brought-to and bowing under The barque Otago in full sail, H Percival, new seamen were employed before the Sharer were all partly inspired by this Reefi ng sail on the Loch Etive. Sutherland, Conrad became intimately enormous fl ashing seas, glistened wet watercolour, about 1877. ship continued to Sydney. voyage. Photograph reproduced courtesy of the Brodie from deck to trucks; her one set sail stood Reproduced courtesy of the National Library of Collection, La Trobe Picture Collection, State Library familiar with his surrounds – the Kings After rounding Cape Leeuwin off the Conrad held command of the Otago for 14 out a coal-black shape upon the gloomy Australia of Victoria Head pub ‘patronised by the cooks and Western Australian coast the Otago months. Eight of those months were spent blueness of the air. I was a youngster then stewards of the fl eet’, bawdy cabmen encountered a heavy gale which Conrad in extended voyages, six in trading along awaiting the bi-weekly ASN Company’s and suffering from weariness, cold and ever shone upon …’ (The Mirror of the Sea). Conrad’s words are now etched on a recalled in The Mirror of the Sea. The the Australian coast. He grew bored with Simpson & Sons consented and the Otago passenger boat, and George Street’s imperfect oilskins which let water in at plaque on the Sydney Writers’ Walk, not passage captures his utter delight in the routine of coastal trading and for his sailed from Sydney on 7 August 1888. As noisy saveloy vendors and cheap Chinese every seam. (The Mirror of the Sea) far from where he spent his shore leave. the dynamic between the sea and a second long voyage sailing from Sydney to he took a bearing on Possession Island in eateries. It was while confi ned to the quay In 1880 Conrad gained his second mate’s ship supremely built for taking on its Mauritius for a cargo of sugar, he proposed the Torres Strait, Conrad envisaged his Conrad’s only command and one of his that Conrad encountered the handless ticket in the British merchant navy and challenges: an unconventional course. hero Cook – ‘a lonely fi gure in a three- most memorable ordeals at sea was on cornered hat and square-skirted lace coat, the Otago, an iron barque owned by the Conrad signed on with an Australia-bound wool Literary pilgrims pilfered souvenirs while pacing to and fro slowly on the rocky Port Adelaide fi rm of Henry Simpson shore.’ (Last Essays) clipper, the Duke of Sutherland, as an ordinary & Sons. The British Consul General Hobart sightseers continued to visit the ship appointed him master in January 1888 The Otago went on to have a long and seaman at one shilling a month after the previous master, Captain until it was fi nally broken up illustrious career long after Conrad Snadden, had died suddenly at sea. resigned his command in 1889. It sailed The solemn thundering combers caught Almost without refl ection I sat down and French sailor who kept a tobacco shop spent three months scouring London’s Conrad was marooned in Singapore the world until 1900 before being her up from astern, passed her with wrote a letter to my owners suggesting in George Street. This curious character shipping offi ces for a vessel. By a quirk having just resigned from the Vidar, a converted into a coal lighter in Sydney a fi erce boiling up of foam level with that, instead of the usual southern route, I of fate (recounted at length in the novel steamer trading between Borneo and and later in Hobart. In 1931 the vessel provided the inspiration for the villainous bulwarks, swept on ahead with a swish should take the ship to Mauritius via way Chance) he was appointed third mate on Sulawesi. In the novel The Shadow-Line, was sold to a wrecker and scuttled in the Man without Hands in his 1912 story and a roar; and the little vessel, dipping of Torres Strait. I ought to have received the Loch Etive, a sleek new iron clipper published in 1917, he recounted his fi rst Derwent River where the remnants of its Because of the Dollars. her jib-boom into the tumbling froth, a severe rap on the knuckles, if only for destined for Australia. The ship departed tantalising glimpse of the Otago, who rusting hull can still be glimpsed today. would go on running in a smooth glassy wasting their time in submitting such an The Duke of Sutherland eventually England in August 1880 and docked at ‘… amongst her companions moored to Literary pilgrims pilfered souvenirs hollow, a deep valley between two ridges unheard-of proposition. secured a mixed cargo of wheat and Dibbs Wharf in Sydney in November. the bank appeared as an Arab steed in a while Hobart sightseers continued to of the sea, hiding the horizon ahead (Last Essays, 1926) wool and embarked for London on 6 July This time offi cer Conrad had respectable string of cart horses …’ Conrad sailed visit the ship until 1960 when it was and astern. There was such fascination 1879. On the homeward voyage the ship earnings to spend and relished his time from Bangkok on 9 February with a As a boy, Conrad had devoured books on fi nally broken up. American novelist in her pluck, nimbleness, the continual rounded Cape Horn during a ferocious in port. He remained enchanted with the cargo of teak but the ship was becalmed exploration and was lured to the sea in Christopher Morley requisitioned the exhibition of unfailing seaworthiness … gale. Conrad’s visceral descriptions of Quay’s spider web of masts and rigging: and the crew struck down with fever, part by the prospect of following in the Otago’s teak wheel, installing it at that I could not give up the delight of facing the ocean’s fury from the deck ‘… no walled prison-house of a dock that, dysentery and cholera. Diverting to wake of the ‘great shades’ of his youth the headquarters of the Honourable watching her … of a clipper remain some of the most but the integral part of one of the fi nest, Singapore, all were hospitalised bar the – Luis Váez de Torres, Captain Cook Company of Master Mariners located on evocative in English literature: most beautiful, vast and safe bays the sun robust cook with a gammy heart, and six The Shadow-Line, Falk, and The Secret and Abel Tasman. To his surprise, Henry the ship Wellington on the Thames. The

Page 10 SIGNALS 81 December 2007–February 2008 SIGNALS 81 December 2007–February 2008 Page 11 timber companion hatchway is displayed on this voyage that Conrad gave a young at the Maritime Museum of Tasmania student from Cambridge, W H Jacques, a and its rusting anchor is located at the copy of his unfi nished manuscript seaside town of Bicheno. Almayer’s Folly to read. His encouraging remarks convinced Conrad to keep At the Festival Pontoon In 1890 Conrad travelled to Africa – lured writing. On January 1893 the Torrens Australian National Maritime Museum by his connections with the region and the docked in Adelaide and, ill again, Conrad chance of exploring the vast uncharted spent the seven weeks in port spaces that still existed on the continent. recuperating, several in the hills to escape He served as fi rst mate on the steamer Roi the city heat. On the return passage des Belges under Captain Koch voyaging Conrad met the writer John Galsworthy up the River Congo to Stanley Falls. After who became a lifelong friend. Galsworthy the captain fell ill to dysentery and provides one of the few personal accounts malaria, Conrad was appointed master for of Conrad’s prowess as a mariner and the return trip to Kinshasa. The seven- talents as a raconteur. In his book Castles week voyage destroyed Conrad’s health in Spain and other Screeds (1927) he and he abandoned his three-year contract, describes Conrad as ‘a good seaman, making his way back to London by watchful of the weather, quick in handling January 1891. The ‘merry dance of death the ship; considerate with the apprentices and trade’ that Conrad witnessed in the … Many evening watches in fi ne weather Belgian Congo inspired his most famous we spent on the poop. Ever the great teller story, Heart of Darkness. of a tale, he had already nearly 20 years After Africa, Conrad was affl icted with of tales to tell. Tales of ships and storms, painful gout for the rest of his life. A Polish revolution, of his youthful Carlist photograph displayed of a melancholy gun-running adventure, of the Malay seas, Conrad gazing from the rails of the and the Congo’. Tuscania in 1923 depicts one hand Conrad was discharged from the bandaged (see page 8). One of the Torrens in October, several months after original Conrad letters exhibited is typed it reached London, and walked away (apart from the fl ourish of a signature), from his maritime career to become a For more information or to book contact 02 9280 1110 or www.sydneybysail.com Conrad apologising that ‘a bad attack of full-time novelist. In Last Essays he gout in my wrist prevents me from refl ected on that dramatic juncture in answering your letter in my own hand’. his life, when he ‘took a long look from (Letter to Captain Wade, 26/07/1918, the quay at that last of ships I ever had State Library of NSW) under my care, and, stepping around the Despite misgivings about his health, in corner of a tall warehouse, parted from November 1891 Conrad was appointed her forever, and at the same time chief offi cer of the Torrens, a magnifi cent stepped (in merciful ignorance) out of ship designed to carry both cargo and my sea life altogether.’ The ship, brought-to and bowing under enormous fl ashing seas, glistened wet from deck to trucks passengers and purpose-built for the In the 30-year writing career that Australian trade. In 1880 it completed followed, Joseph Conrad penned 13 the voyage from Plymouth to Adelaide in novels, 28 short stories and a series of 64 days – a feat never equaled by any memoirs and essays. Many of these works other sailing ship. The Torrens was drew on his sea years, and few authors Conrad’s last berth as a ship’s offi cer and since have managed to evoke this life as probably the vessel he loved the most (he vividly, honestly and poetically. While he penned a tribute to the Torrens in Last never returned to Australia, he cherished Essays published posthumously). Conrad his memories of his time on its ships and TOP: Joseph Conrad at the age of eight, made his fi rst passage on the Torrens in shore and maintained his links with the seated on a mule, 1865. November 1891, reaching Adelaide on people there. In a letter to an Australian Photograph reproduced courtesy of the Beinecke 28 February1892. The ship remained in correspondent written the year he died, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University port for fi ve weeks, returning to London Conrad conceded ‘I have acquired a great in September. ABOVE: A very rare photograph of Joseph affection for that Young Continent which Conrad at sea (he is at top row centre, Conrad’s ill health was much improved will endure as long my faculty of memory with beard), posing with apprentices on by his stint at sea and he decided to itself endures.’ (Letter to Walter B Rodd, the Torrens. remain with the ship, signing on for the 26/03/1924, National Library of Photograph reproduced courtesy of the Beinecke „ next voyage departing in October. It was Australia) Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University

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