Let's join the officers and crew of the sailing ship, Parma, in their race with twenty other grain ships from Australia to England, around South America's Cape Horn, as told in the 1933 National Geographic Magazine article, The Cape Horn Grain-Ship Race. . . We left them in a life-threatening storm close to Cape Horn in the dark of night, hoping to see the morning.
FYI: In a severe storm, a sailing ship can have as much as 500 TONS of water wash onto her deck with every wave that pounds her.
Could the sailing conditions get even worse? Yes! "A mighty squall struck us with a ferocity that, for the moment, seemed to frighten even the sea," (p. 19). Four men were at the wheel trying unsuccessfully to turn the quaking ship. "We knew that we were trapped like rats. If she went it was the end - the end of the Parma and us all," (p. 20). They could see that the mainsail was in shreds but there was nothing they could do but wait. "Still nothing serious carried away; her mast stood and her hatches held. . . The whole ship was in the hands of God Almighty. What could we do? We waited for her to go. She did not go," (pp. 19-20).
At last the Captain, "scarce able to stand, clung with bloody hands" (p. 20) and grabbed the wheel to try to steer the Parma into the wind where she would have a better chance. After more hours of misery, there was a lull in the storm. The Captain was so exhausted, he had to be carried 'below.' Everything not part of the ship had been lost, including a live pig they had so hoped to roast. They sailed on but were worried about their companion ships in the race, none of whose fate they knew.
On their 31st day at sea, 5,000 miles from their starting point, they at last approached Cape Horn. They had suffered severe storms the entire way and were hoping for strong winds to blow them across the Cape. Yet then the sea was unexpectedly calm!
"We fretted and fumed and could do nothing, the while we kept pessimistic lookout," for any of the other ships. "Without wind, the best of sailing ships, and the best of sailors may achieve nothing," (p. 26).
Finally, "Early on the morning of the 37th day, Saturday, April 23rd, still going slowly before a light breeze," they passed Cape Horn. "It was all wrong. We would have preferred a gale," (p. 26). Amazing!!
Next blog: onward toward England!
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