Pole Joseph Teodor Conrad Korzenieowski was 16 years old when he went to sea. He sailed mostly on frigates in all the world’s oceans. He became a sailor on French merchant ships that were sailing in the Carribean. He went through difficult times. Starting out as a deck boy, he steadily progressed and eventualy became a captain in the English fleet. He had to give up his sea faring career after he contracted malaria on the river Congo. He settled in England and devoted himself to literary work. He was a keen observer and years spent at sea provided him with an inexhaustible source of inspiration. Joseph Conrad died on the 3rd of August 1924 in the county of Kent at the age of 66. Since then, his literary achievements have grown to the size of a pyramid which is symbolically resting on the masts of sailing ships on which he plowed through the world’s oceans.