Essex Marshes

" ...the very mist on the Essex marshes" (Conrad, 2).

The Essex marshes are salt marshes that line the banks of the Thames River near the Ocean. This is another site that the ship must have seen right before they headed out into the Atlantic Ocean. (Edit) Conrad is not only using real places to enhance his setting but to add a sense of reality to the novel.

Links:

http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk/essex/essexmarshes.html