It was unveiled in 1976, Gdynia's tribute to Poland's most famous sea-faring author (born Teodor Józef Konrad Korzeniowski, 1857 - 1924).

Joseph Conrad is regarded as one of the greatest novelists to write in the English language.
He was born in Polish nobleman family in the Russian part of what had once been the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (Poland was then devided and annected by three empires). When he was 17 he left Poland and worked on a variety of ships for many years, until eventually achieving captain's rank. At the age of 36 he had decided on a literary career and since living in England, he was writing in English. He was granted British nationality in 1886, but always considered himself a Pole. Though he did not speak English fluently until he was in his twenties (and always with a marked accent), he was a master prose stylist who brought a distinctly non-English sensibility into English literature.
His most popular novels are Heart of Darkness (1899) and Lord Jim (1900).

http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Joseph_Conrad