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The Cape Horn route around South America is one of the most dangerous nautical passages in the world. Both sailors and passengers fear it because of the many sailing mishaps that have occurred there.
Cape Horn was discovered because of commercial restrictions imposed by the Dutch East India Company early in the 17th Century. The East India Company’s charter forbade any other Dutch trading company from traveling to the East Indies using either the Straits of Magellan or the Cape of Good Hope.
A wealthy Dutch merchant, Isaac Le Maire, was convinced that there was another route around South America located south of the Straits of Magellan. The land south of the Straits of Magellan was Tierra Del Fuego. Most sailors at that time believed that that Tierra Del Fuego was another continent but Le Maire was convinced that it was just a large island and could therefore be rounded to the south. Also Sir Francis Drake, years earlier, reported sailing in open ocean far south of the Straits of Magellan. If an alternate route to the Straits of Magellan could be found then Le Maire could legally travel to the East Indies to establish trade without violating the East India Company charter.
Le Maire therefore obtained the services of an experienced navigator, Willem Schouten. He also formed a trading company known as the Goldseekers consisting of city leaders of the Dutch town of Hoorn. Money was raised for two ships, the Eendracht and the Hoorn, to find the new route.
In May 1615, the two ships began their expedition, sailing from England. Unfortunately, while the ships were outfitting in Patagonia, the Hoorn accidentally caught fire and was completely burned. The Eendracht continued on alone and in January 1616 it passed through a route south of the Straits of Magellan. This new route is now called Strait Of Le Maire. As the Eendracht passed through this strait, a high point on an island to the south was noted and named Cape Hoorn in honor of the town that raised funds for the expedition as well as for their recently lost ship. The English later changed this name to Cape Horn.
The good news for the expedition was that they found an alternate route to the Magellan Straits. The bad news was that when they reached the Dutch settlement of Batavia in the East Indies, no one believed them and they were imprisoned for violating the East India Company Charter because they were accused of actually using the forbidden Straits of Magellan.
Their claims of finding a new route around South America were later verified. This route through the waters of Cape Horn became more popular than sailing the Straits of Magellan since the new route was much wider.
However, due to the violent weather in the Cape Horn area, sailors navigated this route only with the greatest of apprehension. These hazards became well known to sailors in the 18th century as this route came to be sailed more often. The waves in this area often reached heights of over 65 feet. There are also an average of 200 days per year with gale storms and about 130 days per year with heavy clouds. Most of the rest of the year the winds are and the waves are high. As a result, there were frequent shipwrecks in the Cape Horn area during the 18th and 19th Centuries. Captain Bligh aboard the HMS Bounty even tried to cross this route on three attempts in 1788 to reach Tahiti but finally had to give up and continue his journey by rounding Cape Hope in Africa instead.
The Cape Horn route became most popular following the California Gold Rush in 1849. This route was considered to be preferable to crossing the dangerous prairie of North America. After the opening of transcontinental railroad in 1869, passenger traffic around Cape Horn began to taper off in favor of the safer and quicker method of train travel to cross the continent. The opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 further cut back travel around Cape Horn. Today, many sailors choose to travel the Cape Horn route simply for the challenge of it due to the hazards involved.
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