Joseph Conrad in a "writers walk" commemorates Conrad's visits to Australia between 1879 and 1892. The plaque notes that "Many of his works reflect his 'affection for that young continent.'" In San Francisco in 1979, a small triangular square at Columbus Avenue and Beach Street, near Fisherman's Wharf, was dedicated as "Joseph Conrad Square" after Conrad. The square's dedication was timed to coincide with release of Francis Ford Coppola's "Heart of Darkness"-inspired film, "Apocalypse Now". In the latter part of World War II, the Royal Navy cruiser "HMS Danae" was rechristened ORP "Conrad" and served as part of the Polish Navy. Notwithstanding
Heart of Darkness the Belgian soldier Léon Rom is the most important influence on the character. Aboard the "Nellie", anchored in the River Thames near Gravesend, England, Charles Marlow tells his fellow sailors about the events that led to his appointment as captain of a river steamboat for an ivory trading company. As a child, Marlow had been fascinated by "the blank spaces" on maps, particularly by the biggest, which by the time he had grown up was no longer blank but turned into "a place of darkness" (Conrad 10). Yet there remained a big river, "resembling an immense snake uncoiled, with its