# The Most Dangerous Ocean Crossing on Earth

An episode of [Scary Interesting Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1705969819), 15 Sep 2026, 27 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/75125746/the_most_dangerous_ocean_crossing_on_earth.mp3

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/scary-interesting-podcast--5945096/support.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: This is Cape Horn. It is the southernmost tip of
[0:04] Speaker 1: South America, but also the northernmost edge of the infamous
[0:08] Speaker 1: Drake Passage. But while the Drake Passage spans hundreds of
[0:11] Speaker 1: miles between South America and Antarctica, most ships traveling between
[0:15] Speaker 1: the Atlantic and Pacific had little reason to venture far
[0:18] Speaker 1: into it. Their real challenge was to round this point.
[0:23] Speaker 1: As a result, this is where centuries of maritime traffic
[0:25] Speaker 1: became concentrated. Hundreds of ships have been lost throughout the
[0:29] Speaker 1: broader Cape Horn region, and unlike many of the vessels
[0:32] Speaker 1: that disappeared farther south, some left behind detailed accounts. This
[0:37] Speaker 1: includes crews fighting storms for months, ships vanishing without explanation,
[0:41] Speaker 1: and survivors stranded among the islands at the end of
[0:44] Speaker 1: the world. So in this video, we're going to look
[0:46] Speaker 1: at why rounding Cape Horn was so dangerous, the harrowing
[0:49] Speaker 1: incidents that gave it and even the broader Drake Passage's reputation,
[0:53] Speaker 1: and why sailors continue to fear it to this day.
[0:56] Speaker 1: As always, viewer discretion is strongly advised. In 1913, a
[1:11] Speaker 1: strange report began moving through newspapers around the world, and
[1:14] Speaker 1: it was exactly the kind of story that seemed made
[1:16] Speaker 1: for Cape Horn. Somewhere near Punta Arenas, close to the
[1:20] Speaker 1: southern end of South America, a vessel was reported to
[1:22] Speaker 1: have come upon a ship adrift in those cold, violent waters.
[1:26] Speaker 1: Those aboard tried to make contact with anyone on the
[1:28] Speaker 1: drifting ship, but there was no answer or even movement spotted.
[1:32] Speaker 1: As the sailors drew closer, the details became stranger. The
[1:35] Speaker 1: drifting ship's sails were torn and hanging in strips. Its
[1:39] Speaker 1: rigging sagged and its masts and yards were worn and weathered.
[1:42] Speaker 1: It looked as though the sea and wind had spent
[1:44] Speaker 1: years pulling the ship apart, and it wouldn't be long
[1:46] Speaker 1: before it was lying at the bottom of the ocean. Somehow, though,
[1:49] Speaker 1: it was still afloat in one of the most punishing
[1:51] Speaker 1: regions of the ocean on Earth. When the sailors climbed aboard,
[1:55] Speaker 1: they found no signs of life at all. Instead, all
[1:57] Speaker 1: they found was death. There was a skeleton near the wheel,
[2:01] Speaker 1: as if the helmsman had remained there until there was
[2:03] Speaker 1: no one left to steer. Others were found near a hatchway,
[2:06] Speaker 1: and still more skeletons lay below in the mess room.
[2:09] Speaker 1: All told, the sailors were said to have found the
[2:11] Speaker 1: skeletal remains of 20 men on board that floating ghost ship.
[2:15] Speaker 1: After looking around further, they discovered the ship's name was
[2:17] Speaker 1: still visible on its bow, reading Malboro. This was a
[2:21] Speaker 1: stunning revelation. If this truly was the Marlborough, then it
[2:25] Speaker 1: had been missing for more than 20 years. Built for
[2:29] Speaker 1: the long trade between Britain and New Zealand, it had
[2:31] Speaker 1: crossed the Southern Oceans repeatedly, and by 1890, it had
[2:33] Speaker 1: completed 14 successful voyages. On January 11th, 1890, the Marlborough
[2:38] Speaker 1: sailed from Lyttelton on New Zealand's South Island, bound for London.
[2:42] Speaker 1: On board were 29 crewmen and one passenger. Two days
[2:45] Speaker 1: after departing, on January 13th, the Marlborough made contact with
[2:48] Speaker 1: another vessel, known as the Falkland Hill. After that, though,
[2:51] Speaker 1: there was just nothing, The Marlboro simply disappeared without a word.
[2:56] Speaker 1: As the week stretched into months, the reasonable explanations for
[2:58] Speaker 1: its absence began to thin out, and the most likely
[3:00] Speaker 1: explanation was the southern route the ship was on. A
[3:04] Speaker 1: homeward passage from New Zealand would take the vessel through
[3:06] Speaker 1: dangerous waters on the way toward Cape Horn. Ice had
[3:09] Speaker 1: been reported in the region around the time the Marlboro
[3:10] Speaker 1: would have been making that crossing, and the captain was
[3:13] Speaker 1: set to favor a far southern course. In bad weather, darkness,
[3:17] Speaker 1: or even heavy seas, ice could appear too late to
[3:19] Speaker 1: maneuver away from, and a collision could tear open the
[3:21] Speaker 1: hull in an instant. Still, this was only a theory.
[3:25] Speaker 1: No one could say for sure when or how the
[3:27] Speaker 1: crew of the Marlboro met their end, but it might
[3:29] Speaker 1: have been this uncertainty that gave the story of a
[3:30] Speaker 1: found ghost ship a stable footing. According to the story,
[3:34] Speaker 1: the Marlboro endured and drifted long after those aboard were dead.
[3:37] Speaker 1: Decade after decade, the ship carried the dead through storms
[3:40] Speaker 1: and currents until it finally crossed paths with another crew
[3:42] Speaker 1: that discovered it drifting aimlessly. The problem with this is
[3:46] Speaker 1: that the story is almost certainly not true, at least
[3:48] Speaker 1: part of it anyway. The supposed discovery of the ship
[3:51] Speaker 1: was shaky from the start since the ship that allegedly
[3:53] Speaker 1: found the Malboro was never verified. There were versions of
[3:56] Speaker 1: the story that changed important details and others that described
[3:59] Speaker 1: a different ship than the Malboro entirely. The most significant
[4:02] Speaker 1: problem though was that it was almost impossible to imagine
[4:04] Speaker 1: that a derelict ship could survive for more than 20
[4:07] Speaker 1: years around Cape Horn without being destroyed and eventually sunk.
[4:10] Speaker 1: The story of the ghost ship filled with skeletons was
[4:13] Speaker 1: probably just a myth that sold a lot of newspapers
[4:15] Speaker 1: back when it was plastered across front pages worldwide. The truth, though,
[4:19] Speaker 1: is that the myth did grow from something that actually happened.
[4:22] Speaker 1: The Marlboro was a real ship that did vanish. It
[4:24] Speaker 1: left Littleton with 29 people aboard and made contact two
[4:27] Speaker 1: days later with the Falkland Hill before seemingly disappearing off
[4:29] Speaker 1: the face of the earth. The ghost ship's story was
[4:32] Speaker 1: believable not because the public was gullible, but because of
[4:34] Speaker 1: where the Marlboro was believed to have disappeared. That was
[4:37] Speaker 1: the thing with Cape Horn. In waters with that fierce
[4:40] Speaker 1: of a reputation, almost no story sounded too sensational to believe.
[4:44] Speaker 1: A vessel found floating aimlessly with a literal skeleton crew
[4:47] Speaker 1: aboard may have been little more than folklore, but ships
[4:49] Speaker 1: really did disappear at an astounding rate. Cape Horn sits
[4:53] Speaker 1: at the southern end of South America on Hornos Island,
[4:56] Speaker 1: where the continent breaks apart into islands, channels, rocks, and
[4:59] Speaker 1: then finally, nothing but cold, open water. On a map,
[5:03] Speaker 1: it looks like just a point, but in reality, it
[5:05] Speaker 1: acts more like a boundary line. North of it are
[5:07] Speaker 1: the broken islands of Tierra del Fuego, and south of
[5:10] Speaker 1: it is the Drake Passage, which is the infamous stretch
[5:12] Speaker 1: of ocean between South America and Antarctica. To the east
[5:16] Speaker 1: is the Atlantic, and to the west is the Pacific.
[5:18] Speaker 1: And all around it is the Southern Ocean, where wind
[5:21] Speaker 1: and current have plenty of room to build with very
[5:23] Speaker 1: little land around to get in the way. It's this
[5:25] Speaker 1: geography that marks the beginning of Cape Horn's reputation. Before
[5:29] Speaker 1: the Panama Canal opened in 1914, there were only a
[5:32] Speaker 1: few options for ships looking to travel between the Atlantic
[5:34] Speaker 1: and Pacific Oceans. A vessel could try to pass through
[5:37] Speaker 1: the Strait of Magellan and thread its way through the
[5:39] Speaker 1: narrow channels and difficult winds. It could make the long
[5:42] Speaker 1: voyage around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa
[5:44] Speaker 1: and across the Indian and Pacific Oceans, but that would
[5:47] Speaker 1: add enormous distance depending on the route. The final option
[5:51] Speaker 1: was that the ship could round to Cape Horn. None
[5:53] Speaker 1: of those options were easy, but Cape Horn became the
[5:55] Speaker 1: most famous and popular because it was so direct, yet
[5:58] Speaker 1: so dangerous. European sailors first rounded the Horn, as the
[6:02] Speaker 1: feat was sometimes called, in 1616. This is when Dutch
[6:06] Speaker 1: navigators Willem Schutten and Jacob Lemaire found the route while
[6:08] Speaker 1: searching for a way into the Pacific that avoided the
[6:11] Speaker 1: established passages controlled by powerful trading interests. The Cape was
[6:15] Speaker 1: named for Horn, the Dutch city connected to the expedition,
[6:17] Speaker 1: and from then on, Cape Horn became one of the
[6:19] Speaker 1: great gateways of global sailing. Everyone used it, from merchant
[6:23] Speaker 1: ships and whalers to naval vessels and passenger ships. Any
[6:26] Speaker 1: ship that had to move between the Atlantic and Pacific
[6:28] Speaker 1: before the modern canal age might eventually find itself facing
[6:31] Speaker 1: Cape Horn, but the passage had a way of making
[6:33] Speaker 1: every voyage feel like a risk. There are many potential
[6:36] Speaker 1: dangers around the Cape, many of which it shares with
[6:38] Speaker 1: the Drake Passage itself, because Cape Horn is technically within
[6:41] Speaker 1: it at the far northern edge. But among these dangers,
[6:44] Speaker 1: the wind is one of the biggest ones. The latitudes
[6:47] Speaker 1: around the Horn sit in the path of powerful westerly
[6:50] Speaker 1: winds that circle the globe in the Southern Ocean. These
[6:53] Speaker 1: winds were known by sailors through names that sound almost theatrical,
[6:56] Speaker 1: including the Roaring Forties, the Furious Fifties, and the Screaming Sixties.
[7:00] Speaker 1: In the Northern Hemisphere, large landmasses break up weather systems
[7:03] Speaker 1: and interrupt the flow of wind. In the far southern latitudes, however,
[7:07] Speaker 1: there's much less land, meaning that wind can sweep around
[7:09] Speaker 1: the planet with fewer obstacles and build strength across thousands
[7:12] Speaker 1: of miles of open ocean. By the time those systems
[7:15] Speaker 1: reach the waters near Cape Horn, they can arrive as gales,
[7:18] Speaker 1: full storms, or hurricane-force winds. For a sailing ship, wind
[7:22] Speaker 1: of that strength was both a blessing and a curse.
[7:25] Speaker 1: A favorable wind could drive a vessel quickly toward its destination,
[7:28] Speaker 1: but a counterwind could stop it cold and even cause
[7:30] Speaker 1: it to lose ground. Ships sailing westward often had to
[7:33] Speaker 1: fight the prevailing winds head on, and that was one
[7:35] Speaker 1: of the big reasons why the westbound passage was so feared.
[7:39] Speaker 1: A square-rigged ship, for example, could not point into the
[7:41] Speaker 1: wind and sail forward as a modern engine-driven vessel could.
[7:45] Speaker 1: It had to do something known as tack, working back
[7:47] Speaker 1: and forth across the wind to gain distance at difficult angles.
[7:50] Speaker 1: In good conditions, that could be slow work, but around
[7:53] Speaker 1: Cape Horn, a ship might struggle for days to gain
[7:55] Speaker 1: forward ground, only to be driven back by the next storm,
[7:58] Speaker 1: meaning progress in the region could actually be measured in
[8:00] Speaker 1: miles not lost. And the wind is only part of
[8:03] Speaker 1: the story. The sea itself is dangerous because of how
[8:06] Speaker 1: the water moves through it. The Antarctic circumpolar current sweeps
[8:10] Speaker 1: around Antarctica and pushes through the Drake Passage. This is
[8:13] Speaker 1: one of the strongest ocean current systems on Earth, and
[8:15] Speaker 1: near Cape Horn it meets the complicated geography of islands, shelves, channels,
[8:19] Speaker 1: and changing depths. When powerful winds drive across these waters,
[8:23] Speaker 1: the result could be steep, violent seas. These aren't always
[8:26] Speaker 1: clean ocean swells rolling from one direction. Around the cape,
[8:30] Speaker 1: waves can come in broken, irregular patterns, causing heavy water
[8:33] Speaker 1: to smash on the bow, sweep the deck, damage deckhouses,
[8:35] Speaker 1: or injure anyone caught in the open. For the men
[8:39] Speaker 1: who worked the sailing ships, this made every task dangerous.
[8:42] Speaker 1: For starters, the sea crashing of our ship made everything wet,
[8:45] Speaker 1: and in the region's cold air, vital equipment and ropes
[8:47] Speaker 1: could freeze solid. This would also affect the hands and
[8:51] Speaker 1: feet of the crewmen trying to make that vital equipment
[8:53] Speaker 1: function properly, creating a challenge just to keep the ship operating.
[8:57] Speaker 1: Ships could also encounter icebergs, and sometimes much farther north
[8:59] Speaker 1: than expected. In daylight and clear weather, that wasn't too
[9:03] Speaker 1: much of a problem, but snow, fog, darkness, and heavy
[9:05] Speaker 1: seas could conceal ice until it was far too late
[9:07] Speaker 1: to do anything about it. To a wooden or even
[9:10] Speaker 1: an iron sailing ship, striking ice could be a fatal blow,
[9:13] Speaker 1: but so could inadvertently colliding with land. The coasts of
[9:16] Speaker 1: Tierra del Fuego, Staten Island, the Falklands, Navarino Island, and
[9:20] Speaker 1: the channels around the southern tip of the continent were
[9:22] Speaker 1: full of rocks, reefs, cliffs, and hard shores. Being blown
[9:26] Speaker 1: off course or having visibility obscured in any way could
[9:28] Speaker 1: cause a ship to smash into any number of underwater obstructions.
[9:33] Speaker 1: And all of this was made worse by the isolation
[9:35] Speaker 1: around the Horn. For most of the great age of sailing,
[9:38] Speaker 1: ships approached in the area were alone in a way
[9:39] Speaker 1: that is hard to imagine nowadays. There were no radios
[9:43] Speaker 1: or rescue helicopters back then, so once a ship was
[9:45] Speaker 1: in trouble, any help depended completely on chance. Other vessels
[9:49] Speaker 1: might pass by to assist, or more often than not,
[9:52] Speaker 1: they simply wouldn't. As a result of all this, through
[9:55] Speaker 1: the centuries, Cape Horn became more than just a geographic
[9:57] Speaker 1: landmark in a map. It was a measure of sea
[10:01] Speaker 1: The sailors who rounded it had passed through one of
[10:02] Speaker 1: the hardest routes in the world, and they'd speak of
[10:04] Speaker 1: the Horn with a mix of pride, fear, and respect.
[10:07] Speaker 1: And it's said that more than 800 ships had been
[10:09] Speaker 1: lost in the Cape Horn region, with more than 10,000
[10:11] Speaker 1: sailors meeting their demise as a result. But take these
[10:14] Speaker 1: with a grain of salt. Exact numbers are difficult because
[10:17] Speaker 1: records vary and many ships, like the Marlboro, disappeared without
[10:20] Speaker 1: anyone knowing precisely where they were lost. All of this
[10:24] Speaker 1: is to say that for generations, it's been considered one
[10:26] Speaker 1: of the world's great maritime graveyards. And in the winter
[10:29] Speaker 1: of 1905, Cape Horn was having one of its worst
[10:32] Speaker 1: seasons in years. From June to October, low pressure systems
[10:36] Speaker 1: moved in again and again through the southern latitudes, and
[10:39] Speaker 1: westerly storms blocked the ships that were trying to round
[10:41] Speaker 1: the Horn from east to west. Many vessels were simply
[10:44] Speaker 1: forced to turn back, while others barely made it into ports.
[10:48] Speaker 1: And one ship in particular became the extreme example of
[10:50] Speaker 1: what Cape Horn could do without actually sinking a vessel.
[10:54] Speaker 1: The Susanna was a German ship launched in 1892, and
[10:57] Speaker 1: by 1905, like many large ships of its time, the
[11:00] Speaker 1: vessel was carrying heavy cargo across long distances. On its
[11:04] Speaker 1: outbound voyage that year, it was loaded with coal from
[11:06] Speaker 1: Port Talbot in Wales, bound for the nitrate ports of
[11:09] Speaker 1: northern Chile. At the helm was Christian Simons Juergens, a
[11:13] Speaker 1: man from the island of Foer, off the north coast
[11:15] Speaker 1: of Germany. Christian had gone to sea as a teenager
[11:17] Speaker 1: and worked his way through the hard world of commercial sailing.
[11:20] Speaker 1: By the time he took command of the Susanna, he
[11:22] Speaker 1: had served on ships from major German sailing companies and
[11:25] Speaker 1: had experience in exactly that kind of demanding, long-distance trade.
[11:29] Speaker 1: On June 11th, 1905, the Susanna left Wales with 25
[11:32] Speaker 1: men aboard. In the hold were about 3,000 tons of
[11:35] Speaker 1: coal and ahead of them was the long-run south through
[11:37] Speaker 1: the Atlantic. For the first part of the voyage, the
[11:40] Speaker 1: Susanna made its way toward the far southern latitudes like
[11:43] Speaker 1: countless other ships had, and by August, it was approaching
[11:45] Speaker 1: the dangerous waters around Cape Horn. On August 19th, the
[11:49] Speaker 1: Susanna crossed 50 degrees south in the Atlantic, which was
[11:51] Speaker 1: a meaningful line for Cape Horn sailors. The ship made
[11:54] Speaker 1: progress through the remainder of August, but September came in
[11:57] Speaker 1: very differently. One after another, storms blew in from the
[12:00] Speaker 1: northwest and west, which was exactly the wrong kind of
[12:03] Speaker 1: weather for a ship trying to sail westward. The ship
[12:06] Speaker 1: would fight its way forward just to be forced off again.
[12:08] Speaker 1: Christian and his crew tried to use every shift in
[12:10] Speaker 1: the wind to their advantage, but the weather gave them little.
[12:13] Speaker 1: When the wind was favorable enough to tempt them into
[12:15] Speaker 1: using more sail, it was often too strong to use safely.
[12:18] Speaker 1: When the storms became severe, survival mattered more than progress,
[12:21] Speaker 1: and the canvas had to be reduced. And soon enough,
[12:24] Speaker 1: it became clear to Christian that the weather itself was
[12:26] Speaker 1: literally holding the ship in place. Day after day, it
[12:29] Speaker 1: remained in the southern ocean, trying to get around the
[12:31] Speaker 1: horn and failing to break free. The track of its
[12:34] Speaker 1: voyage was not the clean arc around South America that
[12:36] Speaker 1: it should have been, Instead, it became a long, ugly
[12:39] Speaker 1: struggle across the map, with the ship pushed back and
[12:41] Speaker 1: driven in different directions. By early October, the Susanna came
[12:45] Speaker 1: dangerously close to Cape Horn itself, which may sound like progress,
[12:48] Speaker 1: but if the ship was driven toward the coast, rocks
[12:50] Speaker 1: and breaking seas could overwhelm it quickly, so Christian took
[12:53] Speaker 1: the safer option and directed the ship even further south.
[12:57] Speaker 1: This kept them away from land, but it also pulled
[12:59] Speaker 1: them deeper into the cold, open southern waters. As the
[13:03] Speaker 1: weeks dragged on and the storms kept coming, the physical
[13:05] Speaker 1: strain aboard the ship became apparent. The crew was working
[13:08] Speaker 1: almost constantly. Sail had to be shortened, reset, repaired, or
[13:11] Speaker 1: replaced whenever conditions allowed, and the ship had to be
[13:14] Speaker 1: steered through constant violent seas. Men who had already been
[13:17] Speaker 1: pushed hard had to fight even harder to maintain control
[13:19] Speaker 1: of the vessel. The second officer suffered a broken nose
[13:23] Speaker 1: and an injury near one of his eyes. The cook
[13:25] Speaker 1: was badly hurt with broken ribs and internal injuries. A
[13:28] Speaker 1: young seaman was nearly killed when the sea swept him
[13:30] Speaker 1: under spare spars in the deck and trapped him. The
[13:33] Speaker 1: captain would just manage to save him before he drowned,
[13:36] Speaker 1: though the sailor injured his legs in the ordeal. Meanwhile,
[13:38] Speaker 1: all this labor done in freezing cold temperatures caused some
[13:41] Speaker 1: of the men to develop frostbite. Others became sick with
[13:44] Speaker 1: scurvy and other diseases. And the longer the ship remained there,
[13:47] Speaker 1: the smaller its effective crew became. As if all of
[13:50] Speaker 1: this wasn't enough, by October 21st, the Susanna had no
[13:53] Speaker 1: fresh water left on board. This resulted in them having
[13:56] Speaker 1: to collect snow and melt it from then on out.
[13:59] Speaker 1: And around the same time, the ship also began leaking,
[14:01] Speaker 1: Pumping then became part of the ship's daily fight for survival,
[14:04] Speaker 1: which only wore the battered crew down even further. There
[14:07] Speaker 1: was also a new problem with the navigation. The officers
[14:10] Speaker 1: suspected that the ship's chronometer was wrong. A chronometer was
[14:13] Speaker 1: an essential device for determining longitude, and a mistake could
[14:16] Speaker 1: leave the ship unsure of its true position east or west.
[14:19] Speaker 1: This situation alone could have been deadly around Cape Horn,
[14:21] Speaker 1: leaving Christian with a decision. He could keep going with
[14:24] Speaker 1: the belief that he had more room than he actually
[14:26] Speaker 1: did and possibly drive the Susanna right into land. or
[14:29] Speaker 1: you could take a more cautious line that might add
[14:31] Speaker 1: days or weeks to the voyage. Christian would end up
[14:34] Speaker 1: choosing the latter, keeping the Susanna farther west than might
[14:36] Speaker 1: otherwise have been necessary to make sure it was clear
[14:38] Speaker 1: of the coast. But finally, on November 26th, the Susanna
[14:42] Speaker 1: crossed 50 degrees south latitude in the Pacific and successfully
[14:45] Speaker 1: made it around Cape Horn. In all, the ship had
[14:48] Speaker 1: spent 99 grueling days fighting through the passage. 80 of
[14:53] Speaker 1: those days included stormy winds, and for hundreds of hours,
[14:55] Speaker 1: it had been battered by severe storm force conditions. For
[14:58] Speaker 1: many more of these, it had endured hurricane-force winds. To
[15:02] Speaker 1: even get around the Horn, the ship had to cover
[15:04] Speaker 1: about 7,200 nautical miles, which is almost as much distance
[15:08] Speaker 1: as the voyage from England to Cape Horn in the
[15:10] Speaker 1: first place. When they emerged on the other side, the
[15:12] Speaker 1: crew was nearly spent. Of the 25 men who had left,
[15:16] Speaker 1: only eight were still fit for duty by the end
[15:17] Speaker 1: of the struggle. The rest were either injured, sick, frostbitten, exhausted,
[15:21] Speaker 1: or otherwise unable to work. On December 17th, the Susana
[15:25] Speaker 1: reached Caleta Buena, Chile after being at sea for 189 days,
[15:29] Speaker 1: which was far longer than planned. Some accounts even say
[15:32] Speaker 1: that three men died during the fight against Cape Horn,
[15:34] Speaker 1: but others claim that no one died. In either case though,
[15:37] Speaker 1: the death toll could have and possibly should have been
[15:39] Speaker 1: much higher. To this day, it has never taken a
[15:42] Speaker 1: vessel a longer amount of time than it took the
[15:44] Speaker 1: Susana to travel around Cape Horn. By the 1930s, the
[15:48] Speaker 1: age of the great commercial sailing ship was nearly over
[15:50] Speaker 1: as steamships and engine-driven vessels had taken over major trade routes.
[15:54] Speaker 1: Engines made ships less dependent on wind, and radio made
[15:57] Speaker 1: it possible to send messages over long distances. Weather reporting
[16:00] Speaker 1: had also improved, so in theory, the old dangers of
[16:02] Speaker 1: the Cape Horn route should have been less severe than
[16:04] Speaker 1: they had once been. Apparently, no one informed Cape Horn
[16:07] Speaker 1: of that. In 1938, a German four-masted bark named the
[16:12] Speaker 1: Admiral Karpfinger set out on a voyage that would take
[16:14] Speaker 1: it around the Horn. In the beginning of January that year,
[16:17] Speaker 1: it arrived in South Australia, where it loaded two tons
[16:19] Speaker 1: of wheat for the voyage back home. On February 8th,
[16:22] Speaker 1: the ship left port bound for Europe with 60 people
[16:24] Speaker 1: on board, including officers, crewmen, and cadets. For an eastbound
[16:28] Speaker 1: sailing ship, the strong westerly winds of the southern ocean
[16:31] Speaker 1: could have been useful, but the route still carried serious risks.
[16:34] Speaker 1: And for a few weeks, the ship remained in contact
[16:36] Speaker 1: with the outside world. On March 1st, it reported its
[16:39] Speaker 1: position to the Awarua radio station near the southern end
[16:42] Speaker 1: of New Zealand, placing the ship far to the south
[16:44] Speaker 1: on the long run toward Cape Horn. Its final wireless
[16:47] Speaker 1: message was received on March 12th, and after that, the
[16:50] Speaker 1: Admiral Karpfinger went silent. Around the time the ship would
[16:53] Speaker 1: have been moving through the Southern Ocean, other ships encountered
[16:56] Speaker 1: ice unusually far north that year. A vessel named Durham
[16:59] Speaker 1: reported large icebergs, including one massive berg seen from miles
[17:02] Speaker 1: away and other ships nearby. The captain of the Durham
[17:06] Speaker 1: later reasoned that if the Admiral Karpfinger was still afloat
[17:08] Speaker 1: with working wireless, it should have received warnings or had
[17:10] Speaker 1: been heard from. The fact that no one aboard was
[17:13] Speaker 1: answering made the silence even worse. Still, no one knew
[17:16] Speaker 1: exactly what happened to the ship. It may have struck
[17:18] Speaker 1: ice or may have been overwhelmed in the heavy weather.
[17:21] Speaker 1: Either of the possibilities would have been believable in the area.
[17:24] Speaker 1: Searches followed, but for months they found nothing. Ships looked
[17:27] Speaker 1: for signs that it had been stranded on remote islands
[17:29] Speaker 1: or had been disabled somewhere along its expected path. Newspapers
[17:33] Speaker 1: reported on the mystery, often noting the presence of cadets
[17:35] Speaker 1: aboard and the fear that the ship had gone down. Then,
[17:38] Speaker 1: in October of 1938, possible wreckage was finally found near
[17:42] Speaker 1: Navarino Island in the Cape Horn region. There wasn't much,
[17:45] Speaker 1: pieces of a door, part of a nameplate and other fragments,
[17:47] Speaker 1: but the debris was enough to suggest that the ship
[17:49] Speaker 1: had not merely lost ease of its radio or had
[17:51] Speaker 1: been delayed. The ship had vanished and seemingly in a
[17:54] Speaker 1: violent fashion. Maritime Corps in Hamburg later considered the possible
[17:58] Speaker 1: causes and treated the loss as the quote, result of
[18:01] Speaker 1: overwhelming force. That was probably as close to certainty as
[18:04] Speaker 1: anyone could get. There were no survivors and no bodies
[18:07] Speaker 1: of those on board were ever located. Two decades later,
[18:11] Speaker 1: in December of 1957, an American clipper named the John
[18:14] Speaker 1: Gilpin left Honolulu, Hawaii, headed for Massachusetts. It was carrying
[18:18] Speaker 1: cargo from the Pacific whaling trade, including oil, whalebone, and ivory,
[18:22] Speaker 1: and the route home would take it through the high
[18:24] Speaker 1: southern latitudes and around Cape Horn before turning north into
[18:27] Speaker 1: the Atlantic. By late January of 1858, the ship was
[18:30] Speaker 1: in the southern ocean, having reached about 58 degrees south.
[18:34] Speaker 1: On one of these nights, the conditions were poor as
[18:36] Speaker 1: snow and darkness reduced the visibilities. The ship was moving
[18:39] Speaker 1: under a shortened sail since the crew was already cautious
[18:41] Speaker 1: considering the part of the world they were in. Around
[18:44] Speaker 1: 9 o'clock though, the men aboard saw breakers ahead. In
[18:47] Speaker 1: most waters, that might suggest land or reef, but in
[18:50] Speaker 1: the far south, they could also mean ice. As it
[18:53] Speaker 1: would turn out for them, water was breaking around a
[18:55] Speaker 1: field or mass of ice directly in the ship's path.
[18:58] Speaker 1: Captain John P. Ropes ordered the ship brought around, but
[19:01] Speaker 1: there wasn't enough time and the John Gilpin struck the ice.
[19:04] Speaker 1: The impact was devastating and the bow tore open and
[19:06] Speaker 1: water began rushing in. The onboard pumps were started, but
[19:09] Speaker 1: the damage was too severe for them to overcome. The
[19:12] Speaker 1: ship was taken on water faster than the crew could
[19:14] Speaker 1: remove it, and before long, it was clear that the
[19:16] Speaker 1: John Gilpin could not be saved. It's hard to imagine
[19:19] Speaker 1: the fear of knowing your ship is sinking in water
[19:21] Speaker 1: just a few degrees above freezing. Through the night, the
[19:24] Speaker 1: crew and passengers prepared to abandon ship, gathering what provisions
[19:27] Speaker 1: and water they could, but there was only so much time.
[19:30] Speaker 1: The ship was settling, the water was bitter, and they
[19:32] Speaker 1: were surrounded by the same field of ice that had
[19:34] Speaker 1: destroyed the vessel. At the first sign of daylight, they
[19:37] Speaker 1: lowered the boats and left the wreck, which was usually
[19:39] Speaker 1: a moment when many Cape Horn shipwrecks became long survival stories.
[19:43] Speaker 1: The survivors of the John Gilpin, however, were extremely lucky.
[19:46] Speaker 1: Soon after they abandoned the ship, another vessel appeared. It
[19:50] Speaker 1: was a British ship, the Herefordshire, which came close enough
[19:52] Speaker 1: to rescue the sailors before the lifeboats became the setting
[19:54] Speaker 1: for a second disaster. The survivors were then taken aboard
[19:58] Speaker 1: and eventually to eastern Brazil. But the ship was gone,
[20:01] Speaker 1: but those aboard all lived, and in the Cape Horn region,
[20:03] Speaker 1: that counted as extraordinary luck. As we've already seen though,
[20:07] Speaker 1: not all those who encounter trouble in these waters would
[20:09] Speaker 1: be so fortunate. The Manchester was an American ship from Nantucket, Massachusetts,
[20:14] Speaker 1: led by the ominously named Captain Alexander Hall Coffin. A
[20:18] Speaker 1: century earlier, in April of 1854, the ship left New
[20:21] Speaker 1: York for Valparaiso, Chile, carrying coal and lumber. By late August,
[20:26] Speaker 1: the Manchester had just barely passed Cape Horn, which should
[20:28] Speaker 1: have meant that the worst part of the southern passage
[20:30] Speaker 1: was in its rear view. On August 24th though, the
[20:33] Speaker 1: Manchester struck a rock at 55 degrees south latitude. The
[20:36] Speaker 1: nearest land was roughly 30 miles away, but the impact
[20:38] Speaker 1: had crippled the ship and made it impossible to control.
[20:41] Speaker 1: The crew tried to save the vessel, but just like
[20:43] Speaker 1: the John Gilpin, the Manchester's pumps were no match for
[20:46] Speaker 1: the water rushing in. In an effort to reduce the
[20:48] Speaker 1: strain on the ship as it filled, the crew cut
[20:50] Speaker 1: the main mast away, but it was all for nothing.
[20:53] Speaker 1: By midnight, the vessel was almost completely full of water.
[20:57] Speaker 1: The Manchester drifted throughout the night until about 5 o'clock
[20:59] Speaker 1: the next morning. Then, after passing a small island, it grounded,
[21:03] Speaker 1: and within less than 20 minutes, the ship broke into
[21:05] Speaker 1: two pieces, throwing everyone aboard into sea. Captain Alexander and
[21:09] Speaker 1: his wife were clinging together in the water, but they
[21:11] Speaker 1: were eventually driven under by the waves, and tragically, only
[21:14] Speaker 1: the captain resurfaced. Alexander were going to find a plank
[21:17] Speaker 1: to hang onto before managing to rescue his son. Together,
[21:21] Speaker 1: they drifted to the stern section of the wreck, which
[21:23] Speaker 1: remained above water until sunset. As they clung to the wreckage, though,
[21:27] Speaker 1: they realized they were the only ones aboard who had survived. Eventually,
[21:30] Speaker 1: the father and son made it ashore to an island
[21:32] Speaker 1: where they found two barrels from the wreck. One was
[21:35] Speaker 1: full of bread and the other was full of flour,
[21:36] Speaker 1: and in a place that offered almost nothing useful, those
[21:39] Speaker 1: barrels were a godsend if their ordeal was going to
[21:41] Speaker 1: last any considerable amount of time. Four days after the
[21:44] Speaker 1: initial shipwreck, they learned they actually were not alone. The
[21:47] Speaker 1: second mate and one seaman arrived at the same island
[21:50] Speaker 1: aboard a raft they had built after being cast onto
[21:52] Speaker 1: another island nearby. The small group then remained in the
[21:55] Speaker 1: area while Alexander worked to literally build a boat, and
[21:57] Speaker 1: when it was finished, they crossed to the island where
[21:59] Speaker 1: the second mate and the lone seaman had first landed,
[22:01] Speaker 1: because more wreckage, cargo, and provisions had come ashore there.
[22:05] Speaker 1: Considering the circumstances, it might have seemed like they were
[22:07] Speaker 1: set up to survive for a while, but time eventually
[22:09] Speaker 1: wore them down, and on November 3rd, the second mate
[22:11] Speaker 1: died of exhaustion. Several weeks later, the other three were
[22:15] Speaker 1: still trying to survive when something unexpected happened. On November 19th,
[22:19] Speaker 1: a canoe carrying indigenous people arrived on their island. Communication
[22:23] Speaker 1: was difficult because of the language differences, but the castaways
[22:25] Speaker 1: gave the indigenous people their clothing and other items. This
[22:28] Speaker 1: seemed to appease the small group, so they departed, leaving
[22:30] Speaker 1: the castaways behind, but later they returned with clubs and
[22:33] Speaker 1: demanded more. Three of the indigenous men that attacked Alexander,
[22:37] Speaker 1: while three others attacked the remaining seaman, Robert Wells. Robert
[22:40] Speaker 1: fought back and escaped to their makeshift boat, where Alexander
[22:43] Speaker 1: was being rained down upon with blows from clubs. Horrifyingly,
[22:46] Speaker 1: it was too late to save him, and the captain
[22:48] Speaker 1: died as a result of the attack. Thomas, meanwhile, was
[22:51] Speaker 1: hit by two arrows in his jacket but managed to
[22:53] Speaker 1: escape being wounded. At this point, down to just Thomas
[22:56] Speaker 1: and Robert, the two men were afraid to remain on
[22:58] Speaker 1: the island, so they took what provisions they could and
[23:00] Speaker 1: pushed along the coast. For weeks, they survived in the
[23:03] Speaker 1: wreckage of the disaster, but their food eventually ran out
[23:05] Speaker 1: and they were reduced to gathering shellfish from the rocks.
[23:08] Speaker 1: After more time doing this, another indigenous group arrived, but
[23:11] Speaker 1: by then, the two survivors had almost nothing to give. Thankfully,
[23:14] Speaker 1: this group was different and treated them kindly, and Thomas
[23:16] Speaker 1: and Robert remained with them until they were eventually brought
[23:18] Speaker 1: near a Chilean warship. There, the ship's commander took them aboard,
[23:22] Speaker 1: fed them and clothed them, and carried them to safety.
[23:25] Speaker 1: Forty years earlier, in 1815, a small schooner called the
[23:28] Speaker 1: Constitución became part of a much larger struggle for independence
[23:31] Speaker 1: in South America. The year before, Chilean patriot forces had
[23:35] Speaker 1: suffered a major defeat, forcing many supporters of independence to
[23:37] Speaker 1: flee across the Andes Mountains into exile. Some of these
[23:41] Speaker 1: people escaped only to save their lives, while others hoped
[23:43] Speaker 1: to regroup and find a way back into the fight.
[23:46] Speaker 1: One of the latter of these was Julian Uribe, a
[23:48] Speaker 1: Chilean priest and a patriot. Julian was a committed supporter
[23:51] Speaker 1: of the independence effort, and he became involved in a
[23:54] Speaker 1: privateering expedition connected to it. Their plan was to send
[23:57] Speaker 1: armed vessels into the Pacific to strike Spanish shipping and
[23:59] Speaker 1: help keep the independence cause alive. And the Constitución was
[24:03] Speaker 1: part of that effort. The full privateering flotilla left Buenos
[24:07] Speaker 1: Aires and Argentina in late 1815. It included larger vessels,
[24:11] Speaker 1: and among them was the Halcyon, which sailed with the
[24:13] Speaker 1: Constitución during the attempt to round Cape Horn. As with
[24:16] Speaker 1: so many other voyages, though, a long, violent storm struck
[24:19] Speaker 1: the vessels near the bottom of South America, and some
[24:21] Speaker 1: accounts describe it as lasting around two weeks. This would
[24:24] Speaker 1: be so violent that it actually drove the ships far
[24:26] Speaker 1: south toward the South Shetland Islands, almost the entire way
[24:29] Speaker 1: across the Drake Passage. Then, at dusk one evening during
[24:32] Speaker 1: the storm, men aboard the Halcyon saw the Constitution still
[24:35] Speaker 1: afloat but in bad condition. By morning, the ship was gone.
[24:39] Speaker 1: No wreckage, survivors, or bodies were ever found. the other
[24:43] Speaker 1: ships continued and later gathered near Mocha Island off the
[24:45] Speaker 1: coast of Chile, where the expedition carried on without the schooner.
[24:49] Speaker 1: This loss wasn't just a maritime disaster, it was also
[24:51] Speaker 1: the end of a mission before it had even begun.
[24:54] Speaker 1: Not only did the storm wipe out one of the
[24:55] Speaker 1: mission's vessels and part of its military supplies, it also
[24:58] Speaker 1: claimed the life of Julian, one of the main figures
[25:00] Speaker 1: who had pushed the effort forward. The collection of stories
[25:02] Speaker 1: that you heard in this video is hardly exhaustive, but
[25:05] Speaker 1: it gives a sense of what made the ghost ship
[25:06] Speaker 1: of the Malbro so believable. The tale of skeletons found
[25:10] Speaker 1: aboard an otherwise empty ship around Cape Horn isn't so
[25:12] Speaker 1: far-fetched when real-life stories of the day were just as harrowing.
[25:16] Speaker 1: The reason we don't hear many stories about shipwrecks in
[25:18] Speaker 1: the Cape Horn region today simply comes down to the
[25:20] Speaker 1: introduction of the Panama Canal in 1914. It allowed ships
[25:24] Speaker 1: to pass between the oceans without sailing thousands of miles
[25:26] Speaker 1: south into the worst waters on the planet. For commercial shipping,
[25:29] Speaker 1: that made Cape Horn far less necessary to encounter, and today,
[25:32] Speaker 1: regular cargo routes around the Horn are rare. With that said, though,
[25:36] Speaker 1: Cape Horn is far from irrelevant in the maritime world.
[25:39] Speaker 1: Cruise ships still round the horn on South American itineraries.
[25:42] Speaker 1: Expedition vessels and some passenger ships traveling between Argentina and
[25:45] Speaker 1: Antarctica may pass near when the weather allows. Tellingly though,
[25:49] Speaker 1: long-distance yacht sailors still treat a Cape Horn rounding as
[25:52] Speaker 1: one of the major accomplishments of the sport. Ocean races
[25:55] Speaker 1: and solo circumnavigation attempts continue to use the southern route
[25:58] Speaker 1: because for sailing around the world, Cape Horn remains one
[26:00] Speaker 1: of the great landmarks. These modern vessels have advantages that
[26:03] Speaker 1: earlier sailors could hardly imagine. Between engines, radar, satellite weather, GPS,
[26:08] Speaker 1: and a host of other advancements, ships are much better
[26:10] Speaker 1: prepared to round the Horn and avoid potential disaster. Even so,
[26:13] Speaker 1: the place itself has not changed at all. The waters
[26:16] Speaker 1: around Cape Horn are still ever dangerous. The difference is
[26:19] Speaker 1: that Cape Horn is no longer an ordinary passageway for
[26:21] Speaker 1: world trade. It's more often a destination, a challenge, or
[26:24] Speaker 1: route chosen by specialized vessels and sailors who understand what
[26:27] Speaker 1: they're attempting. And that may be the clearest measure of
[26:29] Speaker 1: its reputation. For centuries, people rounded Cape Horn because they
[26:32] Speaker 1: had to. Today, most people who go there do so
[26:35] Speaker 1: because they choose to, and even now, that choice is
[26:37] Speaker 1: treated with the utmost respect.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.