Cape Horn (, ) 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 is Águila Islet), Cape Horn marks both the northern boundary of the Drake Passage and where the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans meet.
Cape Horn was identified by mariners and first rounded in 1616 by the Dutchmen Willem Schouten and Jacob Le Maire, who named it after the city of Hoorn in the Netherlands. For decades, Cape Horn 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.
The need for boats and ships to round Cape Horn was greatly reduced by the opening of the Panama Canal in August 1914. Sailing around Cape Horn is still 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. Almost all of these choose 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, Velux 5 Oceans Race, and the solo Vendée Globe and Golden Globe Race, sail around the world via the Horn. Speed records for round-the-world sailing are recognized for following this route.
Geography and ecology
Cape Horn is located on Hornos Island in the Hermite Islands group, at the southern end of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago. It marks the northern edge of the Drake Passage, the strait between South America and Antarctica. It is located in Cabo de Hornos National Park, Core of the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve.
The cape lies within Chilean territorial waters, and the Chilean Navy maintains a station on Horn Island, consisting of a residence, utility building, chapel, and lighthouse, as well as the southern neighborhood of the Diego Ramírez Islands and the waters of the Diego Ramirez Islands & Drake Passage National Park . 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. Due to severe winds characteristic of the region, the sculpture was blown over in 2014. A 2019 research expedition found the world's southernmost tree growing, a Magellan's beech mostly bent to the ground, on a northeast-facing slope at the island's southeast corner. Cape Horn is the southern limit of the range of the Magellanic penguin.
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 , with an average annual temperature of . Winds were reported to average , (5 Bf), with squalls of over , (10 Bf) occurring in all seasons. There are 278 days of rainfall, (70 days snow) and of annual rainfall. Cloud coverage is generally extensive, 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 Ramírez Islands, south-west in the Drake Passage, shows the greatest rainfall in March, averaging ; while October, which has the least rainfall, still averages . Wind conditions are generally severe, particularly in winter. In summer, the wind at Cape Horn is gale force up to 5 percent of the time, with generally good visibility; however, in winter, gale-force winds occur up to 30 percent of the time, often with poor visibility.
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."
The region experiences barely 7 hours of daylight during the June solstice, with Cape Horn itself having 6 hours and 57 minutes. The region experiences around hours of daylight during the December solstice, and experiences only nautical twilight from civil dusk to civil dawn. White nights occur during the week around the December solstice.
Cape Horn yields a polar climate (ET), with abundant precipitation—much of which falls as sleet and snow.
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. Cabo de Hornos designado Reserva de la Biósfera, from CONAF. Retrieved February 5, 2006. Puerto Toro, a few miles south of Puerto Williams, is the closest town to the cape.
Modern navigation There are no regular commercial routes around the Horn, and modern ships carrying cargo are rarely seen. However, a number of cruise ships routinely round the Horn when traveling from one ocean to the other. These often stop in Ushuaia or Punta Arenas as well as Port Stanley. Some of the small passenger vessels shuttling between Ushuaia and the Antarctic Peninsula will pass the Horn too, time and weather permitting.
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.Sailing the Patagonian channels , Yachting Club CERN, 2005. Retrieved February 5, 2006.
All of these, however, are notorious for treacherous williwaw winds, which can strike a vessel with little or no warning;Winds of the World: The Williwaw, Weather Online. Retrieved February 5, 2006. 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 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.Perilous Cape Horn , by P.J. Gladnick; from eSsortment, 2002. Retrieved January 19, 2012.
"Rounding" vs "Doubling" the Horn Rounding Cape Horn can be done on a day trip by helicopter or more arduously by charter power boat or sailboat, or by cruise ship. "Doubling the Horn" is traditionally understood to involve sailing from a point above 50 degrees South in the Pacific around the Horn to a point above 50 degrees South in the Atlantic, and then sailing back against the prevailing westerly winds to a point above the 50th parallel south again back in the Pacific—a considerably more difficult and time-consuming endeavor having a minimum length of for each leg . The fastest time on record for a commercial sailing ship working westward around the Horn, from 50 degrees South in the Atlantic to 50 degrees South in the Pacific, is 5 days and 14 hours, made in 1938 by the 4-mast barque Priwall of the Flying P-Line under Captain Adolf Hauth [Stark, p. 147] The 50th parallel south on both coasts of South America represent a set of benchmark latitudes of a Horn run,The Last Time Around Cape Horn. The Historic 1949 Voyage of the Windjammer Pamir by William F. Stark. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers. 2003; p. 147 and is a region of the ocean that according to Herman Melville, "takes the conceit out of fresh-water sailors, and steeps in a still saltier brine the saltiest".The World in a Man-o-War by Herman Melville. Chicago: Northwestern Univ. Press and The Newberry Library. 1970
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 / Rakiura at the south end of New Zealand is 47° south; Edinburgh 56° north).
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.Along the Clipper Way, Francis Chichester; p. 134. Hodder & Stoughton, 1966. 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. South of the Horn, however, these waves encounter an area of shallow water, 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 westerly wind, this can have the effect of further building up the waves.Along the Clipper Way; pp. 151–52. 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 .
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;Along the Clipper Way; pp. 72–73. 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.Atlas of Pilot Charts: South Pacific Ocean; Lighthouse Press, 2001. These hazards have made the Horn notorious as perhaps the most dangerous ship passage in the world; many ships have been wrecked, and many sailors have died attempting to round the Cape.
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, ) 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.