Joseph Conrad:

Master Mariner

By Peter Villiers

Sea History 120, Autumn 2007:

“Conrad scholars have known for years that this study by master mariner and distinguished sea writer Alan Villiers was in the works but not finished. When Villiers died in 1982, it lay dormant for many years until his son Peter took up the task of finishing it.  This elegantly designed and illustrated volume is the result of his efforts and will be of interest to Conrad scholars, maritime historians, and readers of sea literature alike. Everyone will enjoy the reproductions of Mark Meyers’s paintings of the twelve ships that form the core of Conrad’s sea experience.  My concern about who was writing, father Alan or son Peter, disappeared as the difference in their styles emerged.  Alan Villiers’s distinctive style is both easygoing and full of vitality because he avoids sea jargon, explains only what he has to be explained, and captures the essence of ships, men and experience at sea with fresh memorable phrases. 

The context of deteriorating conditions in commercial sail or accepted practice in handling square rigged ships appears casually as needed, never in blocks that interrupt the narrative flow. (…) the blend of narrative and explanation is seamless because the simple but effective structure of the book tells the story of Conrad’s involvement with the dozen ships during his twenty year sea career.

The book’s focus falls on Conrad the seaman (Konrad Korzeniowski) rather than Conrad the novelist, so both Alan and Peter Villiers adopt the strategy of dealing with this Polish identity throughout, bridging frequently to ‘Joseph Conrad’ as the sea experience resurfaces in fictional form.  Beyond Conrad’s fans, anyone interested in understanding life at sea in the larger decades of commercial sail trade will appreciate the father insight and the son’s unobtrusive but helpful additions.”

Good Old Boat, June 2007:

"Joseph Conrad, the 19th-century novelist, was a master mariner whose life at sea was nearly as eventful as his novels. That is the premise of this exquisitely written biography of Conrad—which breaks new ground because it was based on a hitherto unpublished study by the export sailor, Alan Villiers—whose work was completed after his death by his son, Peter Villiers. Although the book mentions points of contact between Conrad’s life at sea and his novels, the focus is firmly on Conrad as a sailor, rather than as a writer. One need not like Conrad’s novels to enjoy the biography.

Despite the books wealth of detail about 19th-century sailing, its very accessible. The book includes a glossary of sailing terms and is illustrated by color reproductions of paintings of ships on which Conrad sailed. As a scholarly book with color reproductions, it would be equally at home on a coffee table, on the shelf of a yacht or in the office of a Conrad scholar. The book, however, contains no charts, so paragraphs on navigational routes will require some readers to consult a globe.

Conrad, after commanding a deep-water ship, took on a very different navigational task. In 1890 he steered a boat on familiarity. Conrad was appalled at the Belgians’ exploitation of Africans and this experience led Conrad to write the pessimistic, nightmarish novella Heart of Darkness. Any sailor with a genuine interest in the realities—economic, navigational and experiential, of 19th-century merchant sailing will enjoy this book."

WoodenBoat, January/February 2007:

"The author is the son of maritime historian Alan Villiers, and this volume completes a study of author Joseph Conrad's experience at sea that the elder Villiers left unfinished at the time of his death in 1982."

Reference & Research Book News, February 2007:

"Late in his life, deep water mariner, photographer, and author Alan Villiers (1903-1982) decided to write the story about the Polish mariner's 20 years at sea before he changed his name and became an English novelist. He died with the manuscript incomplete, but his son Peter has finished it at the request of many Conrad fans. Artist Mark Myers, who sailed with Alan, provides paintings of the ships Conrad was on."

Latitudes & Attitudes, January 2007:

The Nautical Magazine, December 2006:

“This book of 128 pages, measuring 200 x 260 mm, is printed on very high quality paper and includes prints of twelve ships that the author has sailed on.

“Born 3rd December 1857, in Berdichev in Podolia, in the Ukrainian province of Poland, Jozef Teodor Konrad Naiecz Korzeniowski, eventually changed his name to Joseph Conrad, and chose a life at sea instead of a life in rural Poland.

“In 1874, Conrad spent some two months in Marseille in the pilot cutters, this being an introduction to the sea, prior to his first voyage in a Delastange-owned vessel, the 400-ton barque MONT BLANC, as an apprentice.

“Reports of his second trip aboard the SAINTE ANTOINE, suggested that the vessel may have been involved in gun running. However, after leaving this ship, Conrad spent some time ashore running up debts, and it appears he attempted suicide by shooting himself in the chest.

“After this grim period, he left French vessels and joined the British Merchant Navy, his first ship being the SKIMMER OF THE SEAS, a small vessel of 320 tons, carrying coal from Newcastle to Lowestoft.

“Throughout his seagoing career, he sailed worldwide in various ranks on many well known sailing ships, from DUKE OF SUTHERLAND, LOCK ETIVE of the famous Scots ‘Loch Line’ and the full-rigged ship RIVERSDALE and the three-masted ship TILKHURST, to name but a few, these interspersed among steam tramp vessels.

“He did take on some awesome passages, including the PALESTINE, which he joined in London and sailed for North Shields to load 557 tons of coal for Bangkok. It took a month to get to the Tyne, when the ship sailed and got as far as the South China Sea, heading towards the Gulf of Siam, when the cargo caught fire and the ship eventually blew up and sank.”

“After spending 8 years in Lowestoft, CONRAD became a British subject and had sat his Masters certificate. In February 1887, he joined the HIGHLAND FOREST in Amsterdam, as Mate loading general cargo for Samarang. It was on this voyage he sustained an injury to his back and was hospitalized in Singapore. After recovering, he joined the steam coaster VIDAR, of 400 tons.

“His first command was the 400-ton iron hulled barque OTAGO, loading teak logs from Bangkok to Australia, then a coastal voyage with wheat before a trip to Mauritius for sugar, and once again for Australia. After this voyage, he returned home to England as a passenger, and worked on his first story, ‘Almayers Folly,’ and many of his experiences were included in this book.

“A chance came his way, and he decided that a trip on the Congo River dismay he found that his ship had been wrecked. However, he then went understudy Master on the river boat ROI DES BELGES.

“Unfortunately, he developed fever and dysentery, and returned home in a state of very poor physical health and profound nervous depression, which kept him eight months from sea activity.

“In November 1891, luck did come his way and he took up the Mate’s position on the famous sailing ship TORRENS, eventually leaving her in July 1893. Finding himself jobless in January 1894, he then devoted his full attention to the manuscript of ‘Almayers Folly.’ His sailing days over, writing became his passion.

“He met and married Miss Jessie George, settled down near Canterbury and had two sons, Borys and John, and continued writing books and articles.

“At the end of the book is an appendix (The Merchant Navy in Conrad’s Day) and, finally, a glossary of terms.

“This book tells the life of Captain Korzeniowski, later to become Joseph Conrad. A truly salty dog story book in the finest traditions of the seafarer’s life at sea towards the end of the sailing ship era.

“The book is exceptionally well written by the author, Alan Villiers. A special note must be added about the beautifully reproduced photographs of the 12 ships painted by Mark Myers, a Californian-born marine artist, sailor and historian, now living in England since 1971.

“The paintings are stunning, and go hand-in-hand with this wonderful publication.”

“Thoroughly recommended and a joy to read.”

Traditional Boats and Tall Ships, August/September 2006:

"Towards the end of his life, the renowned write Alan Villiers decided to write a book about Joseph Conrad’s career as a merchant seaman. There are, of course, many books on Conrad the novelist but these only really saw his life as a sailor as a preamble to his career as a novelist. Sadly, in 1982 Villiers died with his manuscript on Conrad unfinished , and so it remained until 2005 when his son, Peter, decided that his father’s work needed to be completed.

"Here is Peter writing in the Preface to the book: “It has been an enduring challenge to have completed this work in the spirit which my father would, I hope, have wished. I have not sought to imitate his inimitable style, or to assume his voice… Some of my father’s original material, therefore, remains in this text as he wrote it. I have added information which would not have been available to my father, where it serves to assist the purpose of the book; and I have needed to complete what he left unfinished and to edit what was unclear.”

"Well, the end result is a book that finally does justice to Conrad’s time at sea, a time which lasted from 1874 when he sailed as a passenger from Marseille to Martinique aboard the 400-ton barque MONT BLANC to 1893 when he paid off as mate from the full –rigged ship TORRENS. Over those intervening years he experienced much, eventually obtaining his master’s ticket and commanding the barque OTAGO in which he sailed a notable passage from Sydney to Mauritius. Nor was his time at sea without incident; he was injured on the HIGHLAND FOREST, burned out of the PALESTINE, falsely  censured for professional misconduct by the master of the RIVERSDALE, and survived a brief and dangerous posting as a river boat captain on the Congo.

"In Alan Villiers, Conrad could not have wished for a more knowledgeable biographer, indeed it is not going too far to say that in Villiers the great novelist got the only man who could do his career as a sailor of sail justice. Nor is this to underrate Peter Villier’s contribution either. In completing and enlarging his father’s work he has done a very fine job indeed, a job, this reviewer feels, of which his father would have been well pleased. Finally, a word about the 12 paintings of Conrad’s ships by Mark Myers which are used to illustrate Joseph Conrad: Master Mariner: they are quite simply superb."

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