A 103-year-old schooner on a round-the-world cruise carrying a snapped boom, danger money and a treasure chest brimming with sea tales has berthed in Port Elizabeth.

Having circumnavigated half the globe and crossed the Indian Ocean via Madagascar without incident besides stopoffs to tighten rivets and touch up varnish, the Joseph Conrad was sailing off Jeffreys Bay on its way to Cape Town when it crested a swell and the boom broke with a noise like a gunshot...