Tales Of The Notorious Cape

by Volvo Ocean race on 10 Feb 2002

Rounding Cape Horn (or Cape Hoorn as originally named) is still the
ultimate achievement for every sailor on the planet. No other stretch of
water on this planet has cost so many lives of brave seaman, has
challenged and broken the best and rewarded the ones who succeeded with
the highest honours. Rounding Cape Horn is regarded as the pinnacle of
round the world racing in the days when the shipping lanes of the world
prefer to lead through the Panama Canal. The crews in the Volvo Ocean Race
are the heirs of the sailors of the old days, “when the ships were of wood
and the men of steel”.

The sailing history of Cape Horn started less than 30 years after
Christopher Columbus succeeded in his first Atlantic crossing. Spain’s
King Charles approved Magellan's plan to get to the Spice Islands by
sailing west and granted him generous funds on March 22, 1518. In
September 1519, he set sail with 270 men, crossed the Atlantic and
followed the South American coastline to Patagonia. There he spent the
cold winter months and finally in the latter half of August 1520, Magellan
decided it was time to move south to look for a passage. Eventually in
October, the fleet sighted a strait and started through it. Magellan named
it the Strait of All Saints, but it later was named after him. The strait
was a tricky passage that took the fleet 38 days to pass through. While
sailing at night, the crew saw countless fires from distant Indian camps.
They called the land Tierra del Fuego (land of fire). During the last week
of November the three ships emerged from the strait to the open sea of the
Pacific. On September 6, 1522, almost three years from the day it began
its historic journey, the Victoria and 18 crew members, (without Ferdinand
Magellan, who was killed in the Pacific Ocean) arrived in Spain. It was
the first vessel to circumnavigate the globe.

50 years later, Francis Drake set sail from England in [1577] with 165
crewmen and five ships for the first English led circumnavigation. Drake's
voyage helped to give a more accurate picture of the true geography of the
world. During the course of the voyage, Drake discovered that Tierra del
Fuego, the land seen to the south of the Magellan Strait, was not part of
a southern continent as had been believed previously, but an archipelago,
or group of islands. Francis Fletcher, the chaplain on Drake's ship
described it like this:

In passing along we plainly discovered that same Terra Australis to be no
continent, but broken islands and large passages amongst them....

This meant that if the American continent was not connected to a southern
continent, the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans met at Cape Horn. It should
be possible to sail ships around the bottom of South America, south of
Tierra. This was the Cape Horn route, eventually discovered in 1616. The
Dutch navigator Willem Cornelis Schouten, the first to sail around the
cape (1616), named it for his birthplace, Hoorn, Netherlands.

While Francis Drake circumnavigated the globe, sailing along a more
southern course, James Cook and his 'Resolution' safely rounded the Cape
and continued its journey to explore Oceania. The stretch of water around
Cape Horn became really crowded from the start of the Gold Rush in
California until the completion of the railway lines. The clippers sailed
one after the other along the New York-San Francisco route, the same route
followed by the best sailors today. That was the era of the 'Cape Horners',
of those who had rounded the terrible Cape Horn. Many vessels have
rounded the cape, but many others have failed. William Bligh, who later
demonstrated to be an able seaman when captain of the Bounty, failed to
round the cape in 1788. He reached Polynesia by rounding the Cape of Good
Hope.

The four-masted vessel 'Edward Sewall” rounding of the Cape lasted from
March 10th to May 8th in 1904. 'Cambronne' took 92 days to go from one
to the other ocean. The rounding of this Cape has not been more perilous
than other well-known capes around the world, yet the passage from the
Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean is complete only after having sailed the
1,000 miles or so that separate the Falkland Islands from Wellington,
along the Chilean coast. Whoever arrived from the Pacific Ocean had to
overcome the danger represented by the false Cabo de Hornos as the
Chileans, who own the area, call it. This cape is sighted twenty miles
ahead and, when surrounded by big breakers and foamy waves that carry
powered snow along their crests, it may confuse the helmsman who may
choose the tragically wrong route.

Joshua Slocum onboard 'Spray' was not the first yachtsman to round the
cape, he preferred to go through the Magellan's Strait despite the
difficulties and the hostile natives. The first yachtsman who really tried
circumnavigation was the Australian Clio Smenton who, as a prize after the
wreckage of his 'Pandora', received a copy of Slocum's boat. The first
yachtsman who really conquered the great Cape Horn was Connor O'Brien, who
rounded it with three friends on board the 42-footer 'Saoirse', during the
circumnavigation between 1923 and 1925 becoming the first cap-horner in
history.

Prior to the first Whitbread Round the World Race in 1973 -74, less than
10 private sports yachts had ever rounded Cape Horn successfully. But
thanks to the Royal Navy the racers were not entirely alone. HMS Endurance
was stationed nearby to keep a watch on the racers as they rounded the
Horn. Happily, she wasn't needed. One by one the battered Whitbread boats
made their way past the treacherous Horn and headed north. By the time the
entire fleet had rounded they had more than doubled the number of sporting
yachts to do so.

In the 1977 - 78 race GBII (Great Britain II) had the honour of rounding
the Cape first, being pushed from astern by a Force 7 gale. Flyer was
next, rounding in a blinding snowstorm. By 18 January, most of the fleet
was safely around the Horn and heading for Rio. The Roaring 40s weren't
ready to quit, though, and 33 Export had no sooner rounded than she got
another blast. Whilst running under a spinnaker the boat suddenly
broached. Water surged across her decks, slamming crewman Eric Letrosne
against life-rails with such force it fractured his leg. It was an ugly
break. When the call for medical help went out, Japy-Hermes, with Dr.
Sarbarly aboard, responded. When it proved too rough to transfer Letrosne
to Japy-Hermes, Sarbarly swam through the ice cold water to 33 Export to
treat him.

The next race saw the first modern maxi yachts battling around Cape Horn.
Flyer, the yacht of the eventual winner Cornelis van Rietschoten rounded
the Cape Horn in January 13, 1982 just 30 minutes in front of his main
rival Ceramco with Peter Blake in charge. They raced the leg from Auckland
to Mar del Plata within sight of each other for most of the time.
In 1985 -86, The first boat to round Cape Horn was UBS Switzerland, on 4
March. One by one they rounded. In order were Cote d'Or, Atlantic
Privateer, Drum and Lion New Zealand. As they sailed north toward Punta
del Este, the boats were rewarded for the ordeal thy had to endure through
the Southern Ocean and Cape Horn with such natural wonders as Halley's
Comet, and hundreds of dolphins, from which streamed green trails of
phosphorescence at night.

In his last Whitbread Round the World Race, Peter Blake crowned his
historic victory with leading around Cape Horn. The two New Zealand yachts
Steinlager II and Fisher & Paykel rounded Cape Horn on 22 February. The
other Maxis followed a day behind, and three days behind them came Maiden
and Esprit de Liberté. It was a uneventful rounding by Cape Horn
standards. The weather, though mostly grey and cold, was not its usual
vicious self.

When the boats finally reached the dreaded Cape in the 1993 -94 race, it
failed to live up to its fearsome r