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Cape Horn

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Central & South American
Geography

   Cape Horn from the South.
   Enlarge
   Cape Horn from the South.
   The Hermite Islands (center) and Cape Horn (lower right) as seen from
   space.
   Enlarge
   The Hermite Islands (centre) and Cape Horn (lower right) as seen from
   space.

   Cape Horn (Dutch: Kaap Hoorn; Spanish: Cabo de Hornos; named for the
   city of Hoorn in the Netherlands) is the southernmost headland of the
   Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile. It is widely considered
   to be the southern tip of South America. Cape Horn is the most
   southerly of the great capes, and marks the northern boundary of the
   Drake Passage; for many years it was a major milestone on the clipper
   route, by which sailing ships carried trade around the world. However,
   the waters around the cape are particularly hazardous, due to strong
   winds, large waves, and icebergs; these dangers have made it notorious
   as a sailors' graveyard.

   Today, the Panama Canal has greatly reduced the need for cargo ships to
   travel via the Horn. However, sailing around the Horn is widely
   regarded as one of the major challenges in yachting, and a number of
   recreational sailors continue to sail this route, sometimes as part of
   a circumnavigation of the globe. Several prominent ocean yacht races,
   notably the Vendée Globe, sail around the world via the Horn, and speed
   records for round-the-world sailing follow the same route.

Geography

   The southern part of South America, including Cape Horn, the Drake
   Passage, and the South Shetland Islands.
   Enlarge
   The southern part of South America, including Cape Horn, the Drake
   Passage, and the South Shetland Islands.

   Cape Horn is the southernmost point of land closely associated with
   South America; it is located at 55°59′00″S, 067°16′00″W, on Isla Hornos
   the Hermite Islands, at the southern end of the Tierra del Fuego
   archipelago. It marks the north edge of the Drake Passage, the strait
   between South America and Antarctica. The dividing line between the
   Atlantic and Pacific oceans runs along the meridian of Cape Horn, from
   Tierra del Fuego to the Southern Ocean.

   Cape Horn was originally given the Dutch name "Kaap Hoorn", in honour
   of the Dutch city of Hoorn; in a typical example of false friends, the
   Horn became known in English as "Cape Horn", and in Spanish as "Cabo de
   Hornos" (which literally means "Cape of Ovens"). It is commonly known
   to sailors simply as The Horn.

   The cape is widely considered to be the southernmost point of South
   America; it is not a true cape of the American mainland, however, as it
   is actually situated on a small island, Hoorn Island (Isla Hornos),
   which is the most southerly of the Hermite Islands. (The southernmost
   point on the South American mainland is Cape Froward; the southernmost
   point of land on the continental shelf of South America is in the Diego
   Ramirez Islands.) A cape on nearby Hoste Island, 56  kilometres (35
   mi) to the northwest, is called False Cape Horn, as sailors approaching
   from the west would see it in a similar configuration to the real Cape
   Horn; since the Wollaston Islands are due east of the false cape, this
   mistake caused several shipwrecks.
   The main building of the Chilean lighthouse station.
   Enlarge
   The main building of the Chilean lighthouse station.

   The cape lies within Chilean territorial waters, and the Chilean Navy
   maintains a station on Hoorn Island, consisting of a residence, utility
   building, chapel, and lighthouse; the navy supports a lighthouse keeper
   and his family (the only residents of the island). A short distance
   from the main station is a memorial, including a large sculpture
   featuring the silhouette of an albatross, in honour of the sailors who
   died while attempting to "round the Horn". The terrain is entirely
   treeless, although quite lush due to the frequent precipitation.

Climate

   The climate in the region is generally cool, due to the southern
   latitude. There are no weather stations in the group of islands
   including Cape Horn; however, 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 (19  mph), with squalls of over 100 kilometres per
   hour (62 mph) occurring in all seasons.

   Contemporary weather records for Ushuaia, 146 kilometres (91 mi) north,
   show that summer (January–February) average temperatures range from
   highs of 14 °C (57 °F) to lows of 5 °C (42 °F); in winter (July),
   average temperatures range from 4 °C (40 °F) to −2 °C (29 °F). Cloud
   cover is generally high, with averages from 5.2 eighths in May and July
   to 6.4 eighths in December and January. 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). 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.

Political

   The islands around Cape Horn.
   Enlarge
   The islands around Cape Horn.

   Cape Horn is part of the commune of Cabo de Hornos (formerly Navarino),
   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.

   The Argentine city of Ushuaia is the major municipality in the region,
   with a population of 50,000; Puerto Toro, a few miles south of Puerto
   Williams, is the closest town to the cape, and the southernmost town in
   the world. Depletion of the ozone layer is a significant problem for
   residents of the region, as the tip of South America is far enough
   south to be affected by the Antarctic ozone hole.

Sailing routes

   There are a number of potential sailing routes 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, between
   Tierra del Fuego and Isla Navarino, offers a potential, though
   difficult route; and there are various passages around the Wollaston
   and Hermite Islands to the north of Cape Horn.

   All of these, however, are notorious for treacherous williwaw winds,
   which can strike a vessel with little or no warning; given the
   narrowness of these routes, there is a significant risk of then being
   driven onto the rocks. The open waters of the Drake Passage, south of
   Cape Horn, provide by far the widest route, at about 650 kilometres
   (400 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.

Shipping hazards

   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 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 in themselves
   that ships travelling 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. These winds are further 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 enormous size 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. 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).

   The prevailing winds and currents create particular problems for
   vessels attempting to round the Horn against them, i.e. from east to
   west. Although this affects all vessels to some extent, it was a
   particularly serious problem for traditional sailing ships, which could
   make very little headway against the wind at the best of times; 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.

   Finally, 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, icebergs are generally confined to below 50° south; but in
   August the iceberg hazard can extend north of 40° south. Even in
   February, though, the Horn is well below the latitude of the iceberg
   limit. 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.
   Enlarge
   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 56º 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.

   By the early 1600s, the Dutch East India Company held a monopoly on all
   Dutch trade via the Strait of Magellan and the Cape of Good Hope, the
   only two known routes at the time to the Far East. In an effort to find
   an alternative route and hence break the monopoly, the Dutch merchant
   Jacob le Maire, together with navigator Willem Schouten, set off to
   investigate Drake's suggestion of a route to the south of Tierra del
   Fuego. Backed by the city leaders of the Dutch town of Hoorn, the
   expedition set off in two ships, Eendracht and Hoorn, in May, 1615.

   Hoorn was accidentally destroyed in Patagonia, but in January, 1616,
   Eendracht passed through the Le Maire Strait, as it is now known, and
   sighted a high island to the south. They named the new cape "Kaap
   Hoorn", in honour of the expedition's sponsors. 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 an
   interesting testament to the difficulty of conditions there that
   Antarctica, only 650 kilometres (400 mi) away across the Drake Passage,
   was discovered as recently as 1820, despite the passage having been
   used as a major shipping route for 200 years.

Trade route

   The clipper route followed by ships sailing between England and
   Australia/New Zealand passed around Cape Horn.
   Enlarge
   The clipper route followed by ships sailing between England and
   Australia/New Zealand passed around Cape Horn.

   From the 1700s to the early 1900s, Cape Horn was a part of the clipper
   routes which carried much of the world's trade. Clipper ships sailed
   round the horn carrying wool, grain, and gold from Australia back to
   Europe; 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. The Horn exacted a heavy toll from
   shipping, however, due to the extremely hazardous combination of
   conditions there.

   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.

   The transcontinental railroads in North America, as well as the Panama
   Canal in Central America, led to the gradual decrease in use of the
   Horn for trade. As steamships replaced sailing ships, Pamir became the
   last commercial sailing ship to round Cape Horn laden with cargo, en
   route from Australia to Finland in 1949.

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. Due 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 out for its own sake.

   The first small boat to sail around Cape Horn was the 42-foot (13 m)
   yacht Saoirse, sailed by Connor O'Brien with three friends, who rounded
   it during a circumnavigation of the world between 1923 and 1925. 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. The first
   person to successfully circumnavigate the world single-handed via Cape
   Horn was 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.

   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. 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 (ie. somersaulted end-over-end). Although
   they survived, and were able to make repairs in Chile, they attempted
   the passage again, only to be rolled over, and dismasted for a second
   time, by another rogue wave.

Literature and culture

   Cape Horn has been an icon of sailing culture for centuries; it has
   featured in sea shanties 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.

   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.

   Alan Villiers, a modern-day expert in traditional sailing ships, wrote
   many books about traditional sailing, including By way of Cape Horn.
   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; or with small crews.

   In the latter category, Hal and Margaret Roth did much to popularise
   ocean sailing with several books, including Two against Cape Horn,
   describing their voyage around the Horn; and the father-son team of
   David and Daniel Hays describe their voyage as a bonding experience in
   My Old Man and the Sea.

   Bernard Moitessier made two significant voyages round the horn; once
   with his wife Françoise, described in Cape Horn: The Logical Route, 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 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.

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