cause or the devoted labor that went tO keeping a ship fit for sea. But in Mystic in 1970, a new rededication tO the challenge of shipkeeping was under way. Thank heavens, they had begun this vital effort with the Conrad. She was in seamanlike condition, satisfying even Villiers's eagle eye. He was awed by the girls' bathroom below, but glad that you ng women were part of the ship's training program. His ship was living on tO good purpose. Villiers was in shaky health and didn ' t want t0 meet any people he could avoid, but he did want tO see Francis E. Bowker, generally known as "Biff," who had sailed in coasting schooners, and wrote good books about it, while serving as skipper of Mystic's schooner yacht Brilliant, employed in sail training. BiffandAlan had agrand ya rn in a cornerof the Seamen's Inne, with Tommy and myself listening wide-eyed tO their talk. One was glad tO be alive in such company. Well, the gap had been closed. T he day of the sailing ships wo uld live on. The traditional learning would continue, as it must in each generation, tO keep a vital heritage alive. And wday the ships of the experience are being saved, and new ships are bringing new crews int0 the sailing experience in square rig. Operation Sail summons these ships t0 American waters on major hiswrical occasions, and America and the world pay attention. Some people can't quite see why these tall ships sail. I hope these words of"The Cape Horn Road" go some little way tO make that clearer and encourage the yo ung at heart tO enter int0 this most vital and challenging heritage. A Little Ceremony in a Great Harbor Alan Villi ers had intended the sh ip Joseph Conrad tO be an "ambassador of intelligent friendship " in her voyage around the world. In keeping with this high ideal, he made a special trip in her across New York Harbor before she left New York on the last day of January 1935. He had arranged a little occasion that spoke volumes about the character of the venture. The Conrad put her lines ashore at the Battery, at the foot of Manhattan, and a small group assembled aboard, t0 dedicate the new figurehead the artist Bruce Rogers had carved as a present tO the ship . T he figurehead, of course, was of Joseph Conrad, sea captain, seer and master of the English language. Rogers, a leader in the fine arts movement in typography, had intended tO sail from England aboard the little ship, working a hand press in the rweendecks tO produce examples of the typographer's art tO commemorate the voyage as it was taking place. T. E. Lawrence-the famous Lawrence of Arabia, whose classic work The Seven Pillars of Wisdom had reawakened the shining so norities of the English language-was to wo rk with Rogers, one presumes tO supply the words. T his was a project of which Joseph Conrad, whose partn er Ford Madox Hueffer had once called "the las t Don Quixo te de la
Joseph Conrad, shipmaster, and master ofthe English Language and seafaring heritage, gazes out from the bow ofthe ship Joseph Conrad as she plows the world ocean in her voyage of rediscovery under sail. The Conrad carries her message to young people today at Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut-an ever-renewed message of vital import to present and coming generations. (From Villiers, Cruise of the Conrad)
SEA HISTORY 91, WINTER 1999-2000
Mancha of Le mot Juste (the fitting word) ," would surely have approved. But it was not tO be. Lawrence, always drawn tO danger, was killed speeding on his mot0rcycle on a country road, just before the voyage began. This killed the project. So Rogers had come tO Tebo's in icy Gowan us Creek, tO carve and fit his figurehead tO the ship's bow as his contribution tO the voyage. This moved Villiers (who might be called the last Don Quixote of the righteous act), tO summon the British ConsulGeneral tO dedicate the new figurehead. Speeches were short, because it was wo cold for long ones. The Consul-General "unveiled the figurehead before a small crowd of shivering literati and mariners, " Villiers tells us, "and afterwards there was hot grog in the galley." What a good place tO be, among people ofletters and the sea!-t0 say nothi ng of the hot rum and wa ter in the little ship's galley, as the Conrad stirred tO the harbor swell and the winter breeze wh ispered the promises that have always drawn men seaward, playing through the rigging aro und her questing spars.
* * * * * This is a good place t0 say goodbye, at the end of this narrative of the ship and her people, as the Joseph Conrad faces her greatest voyage, a voyage she continues wday at Mystic Seaport. There will be an epilogue in our next installment, but here this passage in the continuing voyage ends. .t