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Cabo de Hornos
KNOWLEDGE OF Cabo de Hornos
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. Several prominent ocean yacht races sail around the world via the Horn, notably the Vendée Globe, and speed records for round-the-world sailing follow the same route.
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, in 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 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.
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.
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. Several prominent ocean yacht races sail around the world via the Horn, notably the Vendée Globe, and speed records for round-the-world sailing follow the same route.
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, in 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 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.
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.
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