A Sailing Ship Journey

Today we have the opportunity to compare sailing around The Two major Capes in the world: The Cape of Good Hope, around the southern tip of the African continent, and Cape Horn, around the South American continent's southernmost areas.  In the November, 1927, National Geographic Magazine article, we joined Vasco da Gama in 1497 on a trip from Portugal sailing around  the Cape of Good Hope to India (please see this blog, Monday, July 1, 2013, "Another Faraway Adventure Begins!").

Mr. A.J. Villiers writes of his sailing adventures in "Rounding the Horn in a Windjammer," National Geographic Magazine, February, 1931.  The author first establishes that there is only a rare necessity of a boat needing to use the route around Cape Horn.  Usually the Panama Canal can be used or, "In the unusual event of a steamer passing to the south of the American Continent - say, on passage from Buenos Aires to Tacahuan - nine times out of ten she will use the Magellan passage" (p. 191).  This is an alternate route through the southern islands of South America from Atlantic Ocean to Pacific Ocean.

Villiers actually made two trips around Cape Horn in sailing ships.  The first trip was made on the sailing ship, Herzogin Ceirlie.  The author conceived the idea of sailing the same route in a sailing ship with a film crew.  Together with his friend, a reporter-photographer, the author signed on the full-rigged ship, Grace Harwar, as sailors.  No one knew their intentions to film the journey.

Grace Harwar was a Finnish three-master, laden with wheat, that sailed from Wallaroo, Australia, "across the South Pacific around Cape Horn, and across the Atlantic, finally reaching her destination in the British Isles in 138 days - days of tragedy and indescribable suffering" (p. 192).  Let's see what this entailed!

The ship carried a crew of 19 sailors, one dog, and one pig.  The majority of the sailors were Finns with an average age of 19 years.  Most of the few sailing ships in 1931 "are great cargo-carrying steel wagons, wall-sided and heavy-lined, with bluff bows (the forward part) and heavy sterns (the rear end), oversparred (a heavy wooden piece of a mast) and undermanned. . .They run on the borderline, with crews of inexperienced boys; their gear is old; sometimes their plate leaks a little, here and there, and they are badly off for sails" (p. 196).

There were many other shortcomings listed.  It concluded with, "Real sailors are scarce; in any case, they will not go in sailing ships!! (p. 196).  Yet Mr. Villiers embarked! - Twice!!

"Like neophytes in some fraternity initiation, those who sail over "the Line" (the Equator) for the first time must perform certain rites.  The custom is known on ships of all flags.  After the ceremony and horseplay, the initiates are dunked in a tank of water" (photo caption, p. 215).

"In bad weather, off Cape Horn, the ship sprung a leak."  The water had to be pumped out.  "On steamers, machines do this work; on windjammers sailors must either pump or sink" (p. 207).

Before reaching the Cape, the storms were fierce and unrelenting.  In the dark preceding daybreak, his friend and another man climbed the sails up to nearly the top to fix one. In the process, a spar fell and killed his friend.  The crew thought he was unconscious and had a difficult time lowering him to the deck.  When he reached the deck, the captain knew, "He's dead."  The next day, he was buried at sea.  This had a near-disastrous effect on the rest of the men.  There was no communication with nor sight of any ship for several months.  His parents in Australia didn't know of his death for three months, till the Grace Harwar reached the British Isles.

After passing around  Cape Horn, the crew's food supply was dwindling.  They finally killed the pig on board only to find it was diseased and couldn't be eaten.  Finally, several weeks later, they spotted a steamer, rowed over to it, and were given a good supply of food which lasted the rest of their trip.

Villiers summarized the trip: April 17, 1929 to September 3: "In the interval one of us was killed; a second one went out of his mind; a third went overboard.  We were short of food. . .We tried to make for Cape Town in distress but could not. We saw black albatrosses and endured indescribable suffering off the Horn in the dead of winter" (p. 205).

My conclusion: the experienced sailors who wouldn't sail on a sailing ship (using only sails for power) were smart!