Cape Horn is a headland on the Chilean island of Isla Hornos. Except the
remote, even more southern Diego Ramirez Islands, Cape Horn forms the southernmost point of South America. The rock cape was first circumnavigated in 1616 by the Dutch navigator Willem Cornelisz Schouten and named after his hometown Hoorn. 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 to the west coast of South America from Europe. The circumnavigation of the cape was one of the most feared passages of the ship.