Rounding the Horn: Being a Story of Williwaws and Windjammers, Drake, Darwin, Murdered Missionaries and Naked Natives--a Deck's-eye View of Cape Horn

Portada
Basic Books, 2004 M05 11 - 358 páginas
Literally, Cape Horn is a buttressed pyramid of crumbly rock, standing 425 meters above the sea at the very bottom of South America - 55 degrees 59 minutes south by 67 degrees 16 minutes west. Metaphorically, however, Cape Horn stands for the ultimate in ocean violence. There is no other land to the east, none to the west - all the way around the world. To the south, there is only Antarctica. The water in between rises up in chaos when Force 10 storms roll in from the west. For centuries, to round the Horn stood as the supreme test of sailors and ships. It still does. While treacherous conditions were enough to secure its place in legend, a geographical accident secured its place in history. From the Arctic Circle to the sub-Antarctic, there is no natural break in the continental coastlines through which big ships could sail, except at Cape Horn. Western explorers and merchants, daredevils and missionaries, long sought to master the Cape, their will for profit and dominance wreaking havoc on those already there - an indigenous (and unclothed) population of marine nomads called the Yahgan, one of the simplest cultures ever to live on earth. In the austral autumn of 2000, aboard a 53-foot steel sloop called Pelagic, Dallas Murphy sailed down by the Horn. He weaves stories of his own nautical adventures together with tales of those who braved Cape Horn before him, from Francis Drake to Charles Darwin, and breathtaking descriptions of the surrounding wilderness. The result is a beautifully crafted, immensely enjoyable expedition.

Dentro del libro

Contenido

Introduction
xi
From Ushuaia to Puerto Williams
1
SeaStruck
23
Wind
39
Discovering Seas
51
Drake
73
From Puerto Williams to Caleta Martial
95
A Glorious Failure
115
Back Home Again
175
To Cape Horn
197
From Hermite to Duck
215
The Death and Life of the British Isles
237
How to Round Cape Horn
253
The Undiscovered Land
267
A Fjord for the Naming
283
The Martyrs Insisted
295

Discovering People
131
FitzRoys Fuegians
145
Too Much Skylark
159
At Wulaia
315
The Wet and Cold Life
329
Derechos de autor

Otras ediciones - Ver todas

Términos y frases comunes

Acerca del autor (2004)

Dallas Murphy is a novelist, playwright, and marine journalist. His plays have been produced Off Broadway, and his series of three novels featuring the reluctant sleuth Artie Deemer have been critically acclaimed. His most recent book, an account of Cape Horn, Rounding the Horn, was published in 2004 by Basic Books. He lives in New York City.

Información bibliográfica