Joseph Conrad, 1939 (WIX)
ex-HM Georg Stage
Builder: Burmeister & Wain, Copenhagen, Denmark
Length: 165' 6"
Beam: 25' 3"
Draft: 13' 1"
Displacement: 500 tons
Cost: N/A
Commissioned: 30 November 1939 (USCG); originally launched in 1882
Decommissioned: 31 August 1942 (USCG)
Disposition: Turned over to the War Shipping Administration
Machinery: Diesel engine; 160 BHP; single propeller
Performance & Endurance:
Max: 11.0 knots
Cruising: 6.0 knots; 2,000 mile range
Complement: 35
Armament: 2 x 2" brass muzzle-loading saluting cannons
Electronics: Probably none.
History:
The Joseph Conrad was the former Danish merchant marine training vessel Georg Stage, which had entered service in 1882. She was acquired by the Coast Guard in 1939 for use as a training vessel for the merchant marine. She was stationed at Jacksonville, Florida.
She participated in a training cruise through the Caribbean beginning in December, 1939 and sailed with the St. Petersburg to Havana Yacht race in early 1941. The Coast Guard turned the vessel over to the Maritime Administration when the merchant marine training functions of the Coast Guard were transferred to the newly created War Shipping Administration on September 1, 1942.
After the war, the Joseph Conrad was transferred to the Mystic Seaport Mariner's Museum at Mystic, Connecticut for use as an exhibit.
Sources:
Cutter History File. USCG Historian's Office, USCG HQ, Washington, D.C.
Robert Scheina. U.S. Coast Guard Cutters & Craft of World War II. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1982.