The "original" sail training ship Georg Stage

A picture of the first sail training ship Georg Stage
(photograped before the collision in 1905).

The present Danish sail training ship Georg Stage (launched in 1934), one of the the "regulars" at international tall ship races, had a predecessor carrying the same name. The original Georg Stage, (launched in 1882) was somewhat smaller than the present one, with a length of 36 m, compared to 54 m of the successor. The ship had a crew of 80 sailors in training an 10 officers. 

On 25 June 1905 Georg Stage collided with the English steamship Ancona in Øresund, not far from Copenhagen, causing the death of 22 sailors in training. 

The damage was not as extensive as was first thought.

The sunken ship was not as badly damaged as first thought, and it could be raised and repaired. The first Georg Stage continued as a training ship until 1934, when it was replaced by the present ship with the same name. 

The famous Australian novelist, adventurer and Master Mariner Allan Villiers bought the full-rigger, thus saving it from the scrapyard. Villiers renamed the ship Joseph Conrad, after the famous Polish novelist, and embarked on a tour around the globe which lasted for two years. (Villiers described the tour in two books, The Cruise of the 'Conrad' and Stormalong). 

In 1936 Villiers went into bankruptcy and had to sell the ship to the American millionaire George Huntington Hartford, who used it as a personal yacht for three years. In 1939 the Maritime Commission of USA aquired the Joseph Conrad, which again become a training ship, serving until 1945. Two years later the original Georg Stage reached its final destination, the Museum of America and the Sea, Mystic Seaport in Connecticut, where it still continues to educate visitors about the rich history of sail.