After stops in Sydney, New Zealand, and Tahiti, Joseph Conrad rounded Cape Horn and returned to New York on 16 October 1936, having traveled a total of some 57,000 miles (92,000 km).

Villiers was bankrupted as a result of the expedition (although he did get three books out of the episode - Cruise of the Conrad, Stormalong, and Joey Goes to Sea), and sold the ship[1] to Huntington Hartford, heir to the A&P supermarket fortune, who added an engine and used her as a yacht.

She participated in a training cruise through the Caribbean beginning in December, 1939 and sailed in the St. Petersburg to Havana Yacht Race in early 1941, a few months before the United States entered World War II.

[2] After being laid up for two years, the ship was transferred to Mystic Seaport in Stonington, Connecticut on July 9, 1947, for "museum and youth training purposes", where she has remained ever since as an exhibit.

In addition to her role as a museum, she is also a static training vessel and is employed by Mystic Seaport to house campers attending the Joseph Conrad Sailing Camp.