From Buenos Aires around Cape Horn to Valparaiso, Chile, or in the reverse direction, "Round Cape Horn" cruises are the most popular South America cruises.
Cape Horn
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cape Horn (
Dutch:
Kaap Hoorn (help·info),
Spanish:
Cabo de Hornos), named after the city of
Hoorn in the
Netherlands, is the southernmost
headland of the
Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern
Chile, and is located on the small
Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of
South America (which are the
Diego Ramírez Islands), Cape Horn marks the northern boundary of the
Drake Passage and marks where the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans collide. For decades it was a major milestone on the
clipper route, by which
sailing ships
carried trade around the world. The waters around Cape Horn are
particularly hazardous, owing to strong winds, large waves, strong
currents and
icebergs; these dangers have made it notorious as a sailors' graveyard.
The need for ships to round Cape Horn was greatly reduced by the opening of the
Panama Canal in 1914. Sailing around the Horn is widely regarded as one of the major challenges in
yachting. Thus, a few recreational sailors continue to sail this route, sometimes as part of a
circumnavigation
of the globe, and almost all of these choosing routes through the
channels to the north of the Cape. (Many take a detour through the
islands and anchor to wait for fair weather to visit Horn Island, or
sail around it to replicate a rounding of this historic point). Several
prominent ocean
yacht races, notably the
Volvo Ocean Race, the
VELUX 5 Oceans, and the
Vendée Globe,
sail around the world via the Horn. Speed records for round-the-world
sailing are recognized for following this route. There have been a
number of small boat roundings of the Horn but one in particular stands
out:
Howard Rice
sailed and paddled a 15-foot (4.6 m) wood canvas folding canoe doubling
the Horn. In 1987 The British Cape Horn Expedition, headed by Nigel H
Seymour, rounded Cape Horn in the worlds first ever 'sailing kayaks'
called 'Kaymaran' two sea going kayaks which could link together with
two sails mountable in any four of the sailing positions between the two
kayaks...
Geography and ecology
Cape Horn, seen from the Chilean Navy station location. The small lighthouse can be seen as a white spot close to the seaside
Cape Horn is located at
55°58′48″S 067°17′21″W, on
Isla Hornos in the
Hermite Islands group, at the southern end of the
Tierra del Fuego archipelago.
[1][2] It marks the north edge of the
Drake Passage, the
strait between South America and
Antarctica. It is located in
Cabo de Hornos National Park.
Cape Horn was originally given the Dutch name
Kaap Hoorn, in honor of the Dutch city of
Hoorn. In a typical example of
false cognates,
the Hoorn became known in English as "Cape Horn", and in Spanish as
"Cabo de Hornos" (which literally means "Cape of Ovens"), a typical
example of
false friend.
[3] It is commonly known to English-speaking sailors as "The Horn."
[4]
The cape lies within what are now Chilean territorial waters, and the
Chilean Navy maintains a station on Hoorn Island, consisting of a
residence, utility building, chapel, and lighthouse.
[5] A short distance from the main station is a memorial, including a large sculpture made by Chilean sculptor
José Balcells featuring the silhouette of an
albatross,
in remembrance of the sailors who died while attempting to "round the
Horn". It was erected in 1992 through the initiative of the Chilean
Section of the Cape Horn Captains Brotherhood.
[6]
The terrain is entirely treeless, although quite lush owing to
frequent precipitation. Cape Horn is the southern limit of the range of
the
Magellanic penguin.
[7]
Lighthouses
Two
lighthouses
are located near or in Cape Horn. The one located in the Chilean Navy
Station is the more accessible and visited, and is commonly referred to
as
the Cape Horn lighthouse. However, the Chilean Navy station, including the lighthouse (
ARLS CHI-030,
55°57′48.5″S 67°13′14.2″W)
and the memorial, are not located on Cape Horn (which is difficult to
access either by land or sea), but on another land point about one mile
east-northeast.
[8]
On Cape Horn proper is a smaller 4 m (13 ft) fiberglass light tower,
with a focal plane of 40 m (131 ft) and a range of about 21 km (13 mi).
This is the authentic Cape Horn lighthouse (
ARLS CHI-006,
55°58′38.3″S 67°15′45.5″W), and as such the world's southernmost traditional lighthouse.
[9] A few minor
aids to navigation are located farther south, including one in the
Diego Ramírez Islands and several in
Antarctica.
Climate
The climate in the region is generally cool, owing to the southern
latitude. There are no weather stations in the group of islands
including Cape Horn; but a study in 1882–1883, found an annual rainfall
of 1,357 millimetres (53.42 in), with an average annual temperature of
5.2 °C (41.4 °F). Winds were reported to average 30 kilometres per hour
(8.33 m/s; 18.64 mph), (5
Bf), with squalls of over 100 kilometres per hour (27.78 m/s; 62.14 mph), (10 Bf) occurring in all seasons.
[10] There are 278 days of rainfall (70 days snow) and 2000 mm of annual rainfall
[11]
Cloud coverage is generally extensive, with averages from 5.2 eighths in May and July to 6.4 eighths in December and January.
[12] Precipitation is high throughout the year: the weather station on the nearby
Diego Ramirez Islands, 109 kilometres (68 mi) south-west in the
Drake Passage,
shows the greatest rainfall in March, averaging 137.4 millimetres
(5.41 in); while October, which has the least rainfall, still averages
93.7 millimetres (3.69 in).
[13] Wind conditions are generally severe, particularly in winter. In summer, the wind at Cape Horn is
gale
force up to 5% of the time, with generally good visibility; however, in
winter, gale force winds occur up to 30% of the time, often with poor
visibility.
[14]
Many stories are told of hazardous journeys "around the Horn," most describing fierce storms.
Charles Darwin wrote: "One sight of such a coast is enough to make a landsman dream for a week about shipwrecks, peril and death."
[15]
Political
Cape Horn is part of the
Commune of
Cabo de Hornos, whose capital is
Puerto Williams; this in turn is part of
Antártica Chilena Province, whose capital is also Puerto Williams. The area is part of the
Magallanes y la Antártica Chilena Region of Chile.
[16] Puerto Toro, a few miles south of Puerto Williams, is the closest town to the cape.
Sailing routes
A number of potential sailing routes may be followed around the tip of South America. The
Strait of Magellan,
between the mainland and Tierra del Fuego, is a major — although narrow
— passage, which was in use for trade well before the Horn was
discovered. The
Beagle Channel (named for the ship of Charles Darwin's expedition), between Tierra del Fuego and
Isla Navarino,
offers a potential, though difficult route. Other passages may be taken
around the Wollaston and Hermite Islands to the north of Cape Horn.
[17]
All of these, however, are notorious for treacherous
williwaw winds, which can strike a vessel with little or no warning;
[18]
given the narrowness of these routes, vessels have a significant risk
of being driven onto the rocks. The open waters of the Drake Passage,
south of Cape Horn, provide by far the widest route, at about 800
kilometres (500 mi) wide; this passage offers ample sea room for
maneuvering as winds change, and is the route used by most ships and
sailboats, despite the possibility of extreme wave conditions.
[3]
Shipping hazards
View from an unidentified sailing ship during a storm at Cape Horn, between 1885 and 1954
Several factors combine to make the passage around Cape Horn one of
the most hazardous shipping routes in the world: the fierce sailing
conditions prevalent in the Southern Ocean generally; the geography of
the passage south of the Horn; and the extreme southern latitude of the
Horn, at 56° south. (For comparison,
Cape Agulhas at the southern tip of
Africa is at 35° south;
Stewart Island/Rakiura at the south end of
New Zealand is 47° south.)
The
prevailing winds in latitudes below 40° south can blow from west to east around the world almost uninterrupted by land, giving rise to the "
roaring forties"
and the even more wild "furious fifties" and "screaming sixties". These
winds are hazardous enough that ships traveling east would tend to stay
in the northern part of the forties (i.e. not far below 40° south
latitude); however, rounding Cape Horn requires ships to press south to
56° south latitude, well into the zone of fiercest winds.
[19] These winds are exacerbated at the Horn by the funneling effect of the
Andes and the
Antarctic peninsula, which channel the winds into the relatively narrow Drake Passage.
The strong winds of the Southern Ocean give rise to correspondingly
large waves; these waves can attain great height as they roll around the
Southern Ocean, free of any interruption from land. At the Horn,
however, these waves encounter an area of shallow water to the south of
the Horn, which has the effect of making the waves shorter and steeper,
greatly increasing the hazard to ships. If the strong eastward current
through the Drake Passage encounters an opposing east wind, this can
have the effect of further building up the waves.
[20] In addition to these "normal" waves, the area west of the Horn is particularly notorious for
rogue waves, which can attain heights of up to 30 metres (100 ft).
[21]
The prevailing winds and currents create particular problems for
vessels trying to round the Horn against them, i.e. from east to west.
This was a particularly serious problem for traditional sailing ships,
which could make very little headway against the wind at the best of
times;
[22]
modern sailing boats are significantly more efficient to windward and
can more reliably make a westward passage of the Horn, as they do in the
Global Challenge race.
Ice is a hazard to sailors venturing far below 40° south. Although the ice limit dips south around the horn,
icebergs
are a significant hazard for vessels in the area. In the South Pacific
in February (summer in Southern Hemisphere), icebergs are generally
confined to below 50° south; but in August the iceberg hazard can extend
north of 40° south. Even in February, the Horn is well below the
latitude of the iceberg limit.
[23]
These hazards have made the Horn notorious as perhaps the most
dangerous ship passage in the world; many ships were wrecked, and many
sailors died attempting to round the Cape.
History
Discovery
Approaching Cape Horn from the south-west.
In 1525 the vessel
San Lesmes commanded by
Francisco de Hoces, member of the
Loaísa Expedition, was blown south by a gale in front of the Atlantic end of
Magellan Strait and reached 56° S where
they thought to see Land's End.
In September 1578, Sir
Francis Drake,
in the course of his circumnavigation of the world, passed through the
Strait of Magellan into the Pacific Ocean. Before he could continue his
voyage north his ships encountered a storm, and were blown well to the
south of
Tierra del Fuego.
The expanse of open water they encountered led Drake to guess that far
from being another continent, as previously believed, Tierra del Fuego
was an island with open sea to its south. This discovery went unused for
some time, as ships continued to use the known passage through the
Strait of Magellan.
[24]
By the early 17th century the
Dutch East India Company was given a monopoly on all Dutch trade via the Straits of Magellan and the
Cape of Good Hope, the only known routes at the time to the
Far East. To search for an alternate route and one to the unknown
Terra Australis,
Isaac Le Maire,
[25] a wealthy Amsterdam merchant and
Willem Schouten,
a ship’s master of Hoorn, contributed in equal shares to the
enterprise, with additional financial support from merchants of Hoorn.
[26] Jacob Le Maire,
Isaac’s son, went on the journey as “chiefe Marchant and principall
factor,” in charge of trading aspects of the endeavor. The two ships
that departed Holland at the beginning of June 1615 were the
Eendracht[27] of 360 tons with Schouten and Le Maire aboard, and the
Hoorn of 110 tons, of which Schouten’s brother Johan was master. It was
Eendracht then, with the crew of the recently wrecked
Hoorn aboard,
[28] that passed through the
Le Maire Strait and Schouten and Le Maire made their great discovery:
- “In the evening 25 January 1616 the winde was South West, and that
night wee went South with great waves or billowes out of the southwest,
and very blew water, whereby wee judged, and held for certaine that ...
it was the great South Sea, whereat we were exceeding glad to thinke
that wee had discovered a way, which until that time, was unknowne to
men, as afterward wee found it to be true.”[29]
- “... on 29 January 1616 we saw land againe lying north west and
north northwest from us, which was the land that lay South from the
straights of Magelan which reacheth Southward, all high hillie lande
covered over with snow, ending with a sharpe point which wee called Cape
Horne [Kaap Hoorn] ...”[3][30]
At the time it was discovered, the Horn was believed to be the
southernmost point of Tierra del Fuego; the unpredictable violence of
weather and sea conditions in the Drake Passage made exploration
difficult, and it was only in 1624 that the Horn was discovered to be an
island. It is a telling testament to the difficulty of conditions there
that
Antarctica,
only 650 kilometres (400 mi) away across the Drake Passage, was
discovered only as recently as 1820, despite the passage having been
used as a major shipping route for 200 years.
[1]
Trade route
The clipper route followed by ships sailing between the United Kingdom and Australia/New Zealand passed around Cape Horn.
From the 18th to the early 20th centuries, Cape Horn was a part of the clipper routes which carried much of the world's trade.
Sailing ships sailed round the Horn carrying wool, grain, and gold from
Australia back to Europe;
[31]
much trade was carried around the Horn between Europe and the Far East;
and trade and passenger ships travelled between the coasts of the
United States via the Horn.
[32][33] The Horn exacted a heavy toll from shipping, however, owing to the extremely hazardous combination of conditions there.
The only facilities in the vicinity able to service or supply a ship, or provide medical care, were in the
Falkland Islands. The businesses there were so notorious for price-gouging that damaged ships were sometimes abandoned at
Port Stanley.
While most companies switched to steamers and later used the
Panama canal, German steel-hulled sailing ships like the
Flying P-Liners
were designed since the 1890s to withstand the weather conditions
around the Horn, as they specialized in the South American nitrate trade
and later the Australian grain trade. None of them were lost travelling
around the Horn, but some, like the mighty
Preußen, were victims of collisions in the busy English channel.
Traditionally, a sailor who had rounded the Horn was entitled to wear
a gold loop earring — in the left ear, the one which had faced the Horn
in a typical eastbound passage — and to dine with one foot on the
table; a sailor who had also rounded the
Cape of Good Hope could place both feet on the table.
[34][35]
One particular historic attempt to round the Horn, that of
HMS Bounty in 1788, has been immortalized in history due to the subsequent
Mutiny on the Bounty. This abortive Horn voyage has been portrayed (with varying historical accuracy) in three major motion pictures about Captain
William Bligh's
mission to transport breadfruit plants from Tahiti to Jamaica. The
Bounty made only 85 miles of headway in 31 days of east-to-west sailing,
before giving up by reversing course and going around Africa. Although
the 1984 movie portrayed another decision to go round the Horn as a
precipitating factor in the mutiny (this time west-to-east after
collecting the breadfruits in the South Pacific), in fact that was never
contemplated out of concern for the effect of the low temperatures near
the Horn on the plants.
[36]
The
transcontinental railroads in North America, as well as the
Panama Canal that opened in 1914 in Central America, led to the gradual decrease in use of the Horn for trade. As
steamships replaced sailing ships, Flying P-Liner
Pamir
became the last commercial sailing ship to round Cape Horn laden with
cargo, carrying grain from Port Victoria, Australia to Falmouth, England
in 1949.
Many modern tankers are too wide to fit through the Panama Canal, as
are a few passenger ships and several aircraft carriers. But there are
no regular commercial routes around the Horn, and modern ships are
rarely seen.
Recreational and sport sailing
Despite the opening of the
Suez
and Panama Canals, the Horn remains part of the fastest sailing route
around the world, and so the growth in recreational long-distance
sailing has brought about a revival of sailing via the Horn. Owing to
the remoteness of the location and the hazards there, a rounding of Cape
Horn is widely considered to be the yachting equivalent of climbing
Mount Everest, and so many sailors seek it for its own sake.
[37][38][39]
Joshua Slocum was the first
single-handed
yachtsman to successfully pass this way (in 1895) although in the end,
extreme weather forced him to use some of the inshore routes between the
channels and islands and it is believed he did not actually pass
outside the Horn proper. If one had to go by strict definitions, the
first small boat to sail around outside Cape Horn was the 42-foot (13 m)
yacht Saoirse, sailed by
Conor O'Brien with three friends, who rounded it during a circumnavigation of the world between 1923 and 1925.
[1]
In 1934, the Norwegian Al Hansen was the first to round Cape Horn
single-handed from east to west — the "wrong way" — in his boat
Mary Jane, but was subsequently wrecked on the coast of Chile.
[40] The first person to successfully circumnavigate the world single-handed via Cape Horn was Argentinian
Vito Dumas, who made the voyage in 1942 in his 33-foot (10 m)
ketch Lehg II; a number of other sailors have since followed him,
[41] including
Webb Chiles aboard "
EGREGIOUS" who in December 1975 rounded Cape Horn single-handed. On March 31, 2010, 16-year-old
Abby Sunderland became the youngest person to single-handedly sail around Cape-Horn in her attempt to circumnavigate the globe.
Today, there are several major yacht races held regularly along the old clipper route via Cape Horn. The first of these was the
Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, which was a single-handed race; this inspired the present-day
Around Alone race, which circumnavigates with stops, and the
Vendée Globe, which is non-stop. Both of these are single-handed races, and are held every four years. The
Volvo Ocean Race is a crewed race with stops which sails the clipper route every four years. Its origins lie in the
Whitbread Round the World Race first competed in 1973-4. The
Jules Verne Trophy
is a prize for the fastest circumnavigation of the world by any type of
yacht, with no restrictions on the size of the crew (no assistance,
non-stop). Finally, the
Global Challenge race goes around the
world the "wrong way", from east to west, which involves rounding Cape
Horn against the prevailing winds and currents.
The Horn remains a major hazard for recreational sailors, however. A classic case is that of
Miles and Beryl Smeeton, who attempted to round the Horn in their yacht
Tzu Hang.
Hit by a rogue wave when approaching the Horn, the boat pitchpoled
(i.e. somersaulted end-over-end). Although they survived, and were able
to make repairs in
Talcahuano,
Chile, they attempted the passage again, only to be rolled over, and
dismasted for a second time, by another rogue wave, which again they
miraculously survived.
[42]
Literature and culture
Cape Horn has been an icon of sailing culture for centuries; it has featured in
sea shanties[43] and in many books about sailing. One of the classic accounts of a working ship in the age of sail is
Two Years Before the Mast, by
Richard Henry Dana, Jr., in which the author describes an arduous trip from Boston to California via Cape Horn:
| “ |
Just
before eight o'clock (then about sundown, in that latitude) the cry of
"All hands ahoy!" was sounded down the fore scuttle and the after
hatchway, and hurrying upon deck, we found a large black cloud rolling
on toward us from the south-west, and blackening the whole heavens.
"Here comes Cape Horn!" said the chief mate; and we had hardly time to
haul down and clew up, before it was upon us. In a few moments, a
heavier sea was raised than I had ever seen before, and as it was
directly ahead, the little brig, which was no better than a bathing
machine, plunged into it, and all the forward part of her was under
water; the sea pouring in through the bow-ports and hawse-hole and over
the knightheads, threatening to wash everything overboard. In the lee
scuppers it was up to a man's waist. We sprang aloft and double reefed
the topsails, and furled all the other sails, and made all snug. But
this would not do; the brig was laboring and straining against the head
sea, and the gale was growing worse and worse. At the same time sleet
and hail were driving with all fury against us. We clewed down, and
hauled out the reef-tackles again, and close-reefed the fore-topsail,
and furled the main, and hove her to on the starboard tack. Here was an
end to our fine prospects.[44] |
” |
Charles Darwin, in
The Voyage of the Beagle, a
journal of the five-year expedition upon which he based
The Origin of Species, described his 1832 encounter with the Horn:
| “ |
... we
closed in with the Barnevelts, and running past Cape Deceit with its
stony peaks, about three o'clock doubled the weather-beaten Cape Horn.
The evening was calm and bright, and we enjoyed a fine view of the
surrounding isles. Cape Horn, however, demanded his tribute, and before
night sent us a gale of wind directly in our teeth. We stood out to sea,
and on the second day again made the land, when we saw on our
weather-bow this notorious promontory in its proper form — veiled in a
mist, and its dim outline surrounded by a storm of wind and water. Great
black clouds were rolling across the heavens, and squalls of rain, with
hail, swept by us with such extreme violence, that the Captain
determined to run into Wigwam Cove. This is a snug little harbour, not
far from Cape Horn; and here, at Christmas-eve, we anchored in smooth
water.[45] |
” |
Alan Villiers, a modern-day expert in traditional sailing ships, wrote many books about traditional sailing, including
By way of Cape Horn.
[46] More recent sailors have taken on the Horn singly, such as
Vito Dumas, who wrote
Alone Through The Roaring Forties based on his round-the-world voyage;
[47] or with small crews.
Bernard Moitessier made two significant voyages round the Horn; once with his wife Françoise, described in
Cape Horn: The Logical Route,
[48] and once single-handed. His book
The Long Way
tells the story of this latter voyage, and of a peaceful night-time
passage of the Horn: "The little cloud underneath the moon has moved to
the right. I look... there it is, so close, less than 10 miles (16 km)
away and right under the moon. And nothing remains but the sky and the
moon playing with the Horn. I look. I can hardly believe it. So small
and so huge. A hillock, pale and tender in the moonlight; a colossal
rock, hard as diamond."
[49]
And
John Masefield wrote: "Cape Horn, that tramples beauty into wreck / And crumples steel and smites the strong man dumb."
[50]
A memorial presented in
Robert FitzRoy's bicentenary (2005) commemorates his landing on Cape Horn on 19 April 1830.
Canadian singer-songwriter
Gordon Lightfoot wrote a song entitled "Ghosts of Cape Horn."
'Rounding the Horn'
Visiting Cabo de Hornos can be done on a day trip by helicopter or
more arduously by charter power boat or sailboat, or by cruise ship.
"Rounding the Horn" is traditionally understood to involve sailing from
50 degrees South on one coast to 50 degrees South on the other coast, the two benchmark latitudes of a Horn run,
[51] a considerably more difficult and time-consuming endeavor having a minimum length of 930 miles (1,500 km).
[52]
Further reading
- Around Cape Horn: A Maritime Artist/Historian's Account of His 1892 Voyage, by Charles G. Davis and Neal Parker. Down East Books, 2004. ISBN 0-89272-646-6
- Cape Horn. A Maritime History, by Robin Knox-Johnston. London Hodder&Stoughton ISBN 0-340-41527-4
- Cape Horn: The Story of the Cape Horn Region, by Felix Riesenberg and William A. Briesemeister. Ox Bow Press, 1994. ISBN 1-881987-04-3
- Cape Horn and Other Stories From the End of the World, by Francisco Coloane. Latin American Literary Review Press, 2003. ISBN 1-891270-17-6
- Gipsy Moth Circles the World, Sir Francis Chichester; International Marine, 2001. ISBN 0-07-136449-8
- Haul Away! Teambuilding Lessons from a Voyage around Cape Horn, by Rob Duncan. Authorhouse, 2005. ISBN 1-4208-3032-5
- Rounding the Horn: Being the Story of Williwaws and Windjammers,
Drake, Darwin, Murdered Missionaries and Naked Natives – A Deck's-Eye
View of Cape Horn, by Dallas Murphy. Basic Books, 2004. ISBN 0-465-04759-9
- En el Mar Austral, by Fray Mocho. University of Buenos Aires
Press (La Serie del Siglo y Medio), 1960. An incredible account of the
southern tip of South American by an Argentine Journalist.
- High Endeavours, by Miles Clark. Greystone, 2002. ISBN 1-55054-058-0
An account of the lives of the author's god-father Miles Smeeton, and
his wife Beryl, including a couple of spectacular trips to the Horn.
- A world of my Own by Robin Knox-Johnston. An account of the
first solo non-stop circumnavigation of the world via Cape Horn between
1968 and 1969.
- Expediciones españolas al Estrecho de Magallanes y Tierra de fuego, by Javier Oyarzun. Madrid: Ediciones Cultura Hispánica ISBN 84-7232-130-4.
- Storm Passage by Webb Chiles. Times Books ISBN 0-8129-0703-5
- The Last of the Cape Horners. Firsthand Accounts from the Final Days of the Commercial Tall Ships, edited by Spencer Apollonio. Washington, D.C.: Brassey's, Inc. 2000. ISBN 1-57488-283-X
- Cape Horn – a maritime history by Robin Knox-Johnston
See also
References
Chile
Magallanes y la Antártica Chilena Region
The islands around Cape Horn between South America and Antarctica
Cape Horn is located at 55°58′48″S 067°17′21″W, on Isla Hornos in the Hermite Islands group, at the southern end of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago.[1][2] It marks the north edge of the Drake Passage, the strait between South America and Antarctica. It is located in Cabo de Hornos National Park.Cape Horn, seen from the Chilean Navy station location. The small lighthouse can be seen as a white spot close to the seaside
Several factors combine to make the passage around Cape Horn one of the most hazardous shipping routes in the world: the fierce sailing conditions prevalent in the Southern Ocean generally; the geography of the passage south of the Horn; and the extreme southern latitude of the Horn, at 56° south. (For comparison, Cape Agulhas at the southern tip of Africa is at 35° south; Stewart Island/Rakiura at the south end of New Zealand is 47° south.)View from an unidentified sailing ship during a storm at Cape Horn, between 1885 and 1954
Approaching Cape Horn from the south-west.
In 1525 the vessel San Lesmes commanded by Francisco de Hoces, member of the Loaísa Expedition, was blown south by a gale in front of the Atlantic end of Magellan Strait and reached 56° S where they thought to see Land's End.The voyage of Willem Schouten and Jacob le Maire in 1615–1616
The clipper route followed by ships sailing between the United Kingdom and Australia/New Zealand passed around Cape Horn.
From the 18th to the early 20th centuries, Cape Horn was a part of the clipper routes which carried much of the world's trade. Sailing ships sailed round the Horn carrying wool, grain, and gold from Australia back to Europe;[31] much trade was carried around the Horn between Europe and the Far East; and trade and passenger ships travelled between the coasts of the United States via the Horn.[32][33] The Horn exacted a heavy toll from shipping, however, owing to the extremely hazardous combination of conditions there.Cape Horn as seen during the United States Exploring Expedition, depicted in watercolor by Alfred Thomas Agate
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