![In a past age without radio or GPS technology to alert rescuers, there was no more terrifying sight than a sailing ship helpless and in flames at sea. Inset: Author Joseph Conrad In a past age without radio or GPS technology to alert rescuers, there was no more terrifying sight than a sailing ship helpless and in flames at sea. Inset: Author Joseph Conrad](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/SZjBdCvXzdW4Ygt94axh3r/54211cf9-103d-4a76-978f-075f2138522f.jpg/r0_0_2313_1742_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
I'VE always been fascinated with famous writer Joseph Conrad ever since reading about his ship exploding on fire at sea.
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And I'm far from alone in being a fan. Fiction author Conrad had such a vivid imagination. Or did he instead often rely on his own incredible memories to ignite his creativity?
The Polish-born, English novelist (1857-1924) wrote about his maritime catastrophe in the short story Youth and I first learned about him, as did many others, while still at school.
Conrad couldn't have imagined though that after his death he would be lionised as one of the greats of 20th century literature.
And his influence has continued way beyond his lifetime.
For at least three ships in the popular Alien film franchise are named in works by Joseph Conrad. Remember familiar ship names like Nostromo and Patna?
Or perhaps, the 1979 film classic Apocalypse Now by Francis Ford Coppola, of the classic Godfather movie trilogy fame, is a link more familiar.
It's a harrowing film set in Asia during the Vietnam war, but it was inspired by source material provided by Conrad. His novella was originally set not in Asia, but in Africa, on a trip up the Congo River into deep, hostile jungle.
Called Heart of Darkness, the 1899 book was prompted by Conrad himself steaming up the Congo in 1890 as second-in-commander on a vessel. Its captain suddenly fell ill and Conrad briefly took command to see at first-hand colonial oppression in the mysterious continent.
In his story Youth, Conrad's alter ego/narrator Marlow drinks and says - "Wasn't that the best time when we were young at sea?" His listeners nodded. They were from all walks of life, but had once all been in the merchant service.
They talked drinking around a polished mahogany table, reminding Conrad of a still sheet of brown water, reflecting their world-weary faces "marked by toil, by deceptions, by success and by love."
This is writing by a man who had seen a lot of life - adventures and disappointments - and now wants to pass on his experience of 20 years spent at sea marked by lots of true-life yarn swapping with fellow sailors over a hatchway or on the quarterdeck.
In the book Youth, Conrad's narrator Marlow recalls seeing passage to the Far East on a vessel called Judea that catches fire and sinks off Sumatra.
In reality, Conrad sailed on the decrepit ship, Palestine, from London in late 1881. It was a 427-ton wooden sailing barque, already having been at sea for 23 years and considered old and accident-prone.
But the next day, as an unsuspecting Conrad took his deck watch, leaning on the carpenter's bench and smoking his pipe, the ship exploded.
Mid voyage, the coal cargo explodes, Conrad is superficially injured and the ship, "a mass of fire", is abandoned. Conrad takes command of the smallest of three lifeboats and his first sight of the mysterious East is from a 14-foot longboat.
For 23 hours his crewmen row on the open sea, in strange, shark-infested waters amid the heat, then suddenly deluged by rain squalls, to finally reach land.
Later, in his autobiographical adventure story, Conrad recalled his first inkling was this might be the last voyage of the Palestine judging by the smoke curling out of the main hatch from spontaneous combustion in the cargo.
Almost four tons of coal was thrown overboard as a precaution to prevent any further fire risk.
But the next day, as an unsuspecting Conrad took his deck watch, leaning on the carpenter's bench and smoking his pipe, the ship exploded.
Conrad later wrote that in the twinkling of an eye, he found himself flying through the air to land sprawled full length on the cargo.
He quickly scrambled out only to find the ship's deck was a "wilderness of smashed timbers, lying crossways like trees in a wood after a hurricane".
Fearing the masts were about to topple, Conrad raced to find the first mate who stared at him with "a queer kind of shocked curiosity".
Little wonder. Conrad/Marlow didn't realise that he had no hair, no eyebrows, no eyelashes, and that his moustache was burnt off.
His face was black, one cheek was cut open and his chin was bleeding.
He had also lost his cap, one of his slippers and his shirt "was torn to rags". He was lucky to have survived the coal gas explosion.
What a terrifying experience, no wonder he wanted to record it years later.
So, why my sudden interest in the writer Conrad? It's because a usually very reliable source believes a Conrad ship lies rusting in the Hunter River.
I searched and searched for any proof but without success. The yarn seems highly improbable, impossible even, but I'd be happy to be proved wrong.
Conrad's only sea-going command was the iron-hulled, three masted barque Otago, built in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1869. It came by sheer chance and he joined her in Bangkok in 1888.
He'd just turned 30, and he was the youngest man on the ship. Conrad held command for 14 months, six of these trading along the Australian coast.
(The same ship, but without Conrad, had earlier visited Newcastle and taken on some local seamen as crew.)
Unlike many other captains he dressed stylishly, carried a cane with a gold knob and he had the nickname, the "Russian Count".
He had also reached the professional peak of his career and was probably bored with the monotonous routine at sea.
He soon quit seafaring to write his stories, and finally became a best-selling novelist, with yarns like Lord Jim (in 1900).
Not a bad feat for a man who was orphaned at age 11, later embarking on a life at sea in 1874 and who later wrote his stirring tales in English, his third language.
The gutted, rusting remains of his former ship Otago now lie in a former shipbreakers' yard on the Derwent River in Hobart, opposite MONA art gallery.
Conrad's reputation even meant some of her hull was cut up by an enterprising businessman for commemorative medals in 1971.
Elsewhere, an iron-hulled sailing vessel from 1882 was renamed the Joseph Conrad to become a floating museum today at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut, US.
But you can't keep an adventurous old seadog down.
One forgotten tale of the famous author was when, at about age 60, he went to sea in late 1916 risking death in England's freezing North Sea to hunt and sink German U-boats (submarines) blockading Britain.
It was World War 1 and he volunteered for duty on a 'Q' decoy ship, the brigantine Ready.
This secretly heavily armed sailing ship's job was to lure German U-Boats to the surface.
But in reality, the ancient, leaky, patched-up merchantman was barely up to the task.
Conrad's late life adventure lasted two months with the ship crew only sighting three potential targets (two of them being British submarines).
A sailing companion then published the book At Sea with Joseph Conrad in 1922. Conrad was puzzled but didn't object to its publication.
Surprisingly, Conrad never wrote about this lost adventure. Maybe he didn't think anything exciting enough happened?