It has since been refitted several times, most recently with the installation of a Volvo Penta main propulsion engine on 368 kilowatts (493 hp) in 2007.

In 1989 Georg Stage made its first cross Atlantic Ocean voyage and paired up with its predecessor that was renamed the Joseph Conrad.

The ship had a 50 metric horsepower (49 hp) auxiliary engine and a crew of 80 sailors in training and 10 officers.

It was bought and saved by an Australian, Alan Villiers, who renamed the ship Joseph Conrad after the Polish novelist.

It went on a two-year-long tour starting in Ipswich (England) on 22 October 1934 and visit cities such as New York City (United States), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Cape Town (South Africa) and Sydney (Australia) as well as islands such as New Zealand and Tahiti.

Villiers went into bankruptcy following the tour and the ship was sold to the American millionaire George Huntington Hartford.

Hartford updated the engine and for three years used the ship as yacht and participating in a race between the USA and Bermuda and bavc.