Cape Horn is a headland on the Chilean island of Isla Hornos. Cape Horn is, apart from the remote, even more southerly Diego Ramirez Islands, the southernmost point of South America. Until the opening of the Panama Canal in August 1914, the route around Cape Horn was an important shipping route. It was the only way to get from Europe to the west coast of South America. The circumnavigation of the Cape was one of the most feared ship passages, as evidenced by the formation of the community of Cape Horniers. Commanding captains, who capped Cape Horn on a freighter without cargo engine, became honorary members of this international community. It is estimated that the extremely difficult sea off Cape Horn has made more than 800 ships and more than 10,000 people the doom and the largest ship graveyard in the world. To commemorate these sailors, a monument was erected on the Cape depicting a stylized albatross. A poem by the Chilean poet Sara Vial for the drowned can be found on a nearby board: "I am the albatross waiting for you at the end of the world. I am the forgotten soul of the dead sailors who sailed to Cape Horn, from all the seas of the earth. But they did not die in the raging waves, for now they fly forever on my wings into eternity, where the deepest abyss howls the Antarctic storm. "
Where the Atlantic and Pacific meet lies the most notorious rock in the world. Dutch explorers rounded it for the first time over 400 years ago.
Many followed them. Mostly successfully, but by no means always!
Cape Horn - a name like thunder, a synonym for deprivation, danger.
The weather conditions are brutal: cold, wet and sudden changes in the weather make the place one of the most inhospitable corners of the seven seas. In winter there is a risk of collision with icebergs. Due to the prevailing westerly wind drift, the passage from east to west can be a hell of a ride.
The largest ship graveyard in the world is located at Cape Horn. Over 800 ships sank there, 10,000 sailors found their watery grave in the area. It is the most significant of the three great capes. A myth that still frightens and fascinates people today.