18 Facts About Cape Horn

Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island.

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.

Need for boats and ships to round Cape Horn was greatly reduced by the opening of the Panama Canal in August 1914.

Cape Horn is located on Hornos Island in the Hermite Islands group, at the southern end of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago.

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Cape Horn is the southern limit of the range of the Magellanic penguin.

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.

Cape Horn is part of the Commune of Cabo de Hornos, whose capital is Puerto Williams; this in turn is part of Antartica Chilena Province, whose capital is Puerto Williams.

The open waters of the Drake Passage, south of Cape Horn, provide by far the widest route, at about 800 kilometres 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.

However, the Chilean Navy station, including the lighthouse) 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.

On Cape Horn proper is a smaller 4-metre fiberglass light tower, with a focal plane of 40 metres (130 feet) and a range of about 21 kilometres (13 miles).

The first person to successfully circumnavigate the world single-handed via Cape Horn was Argentinian Vito Dumas, who made the voyage in 1942 in his 33-foot ketch Lehg II; a number of other sailors have since followed him, including Webb Chiles aboard "" who in December 1975 rounded Cape Horn single-handed.

In 1987 The British Cape Horn Expedition, headed by Nigel H Seymour, rounded Cape Horn in the world's first ever 'sailing kayaks', called 'Kaymaran'; two seagoing kayaks which could link together with two sails mountable in any of the four sailing positions between the two kayaks.

In 1526 the Spanish vessel the San Lesmes commanded by Francisco de Hoces, member of the Loaisa expedition, was blown south by a gale in front of the Atlantic end of Magellan Strait and reached Cape Horn, passing through 56° S where they thought to see Land's End.

At the time it was discovered, the Cape Horn was believed to be the southernmost point of Tierra del Fuego; the unpredictable violence of weather and sea conditions in the Drake Passage made exploration difficult, and it was only in 1624 that the Cape Horn was discovered to be an island.

The Cape Horn exacted a heavy toll from shipping, however, owing to the extremely hazardous combination of conditions there.

Cape Horn has been an icon of sailing culture for centuries; it has featured in sea shanties and in many books about sailing.

Cape Horn, however, demanded his tribute, and before night sent us a gale of wind directly in our teeth.