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

by Dallas Murphy (Author)

• New

  Paperback
  2005

  $30.25

  Fifty-five degrees 59 minutes South by 67 degrees 16 minutes West: Cape Horna buttressed pyramid of crumbly rock situated at the very bottom of South Americais a place of forlorn and foreboding beauty that has captured the dark imaginations of explorers and writers from Francis Drake to Joseph Conrad. For centuries, the small stretch of water between Cape Horn and the Antarctic Peninsula was the only gateway between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Its a place where the storms are bigger, the winds stronger, and the seas rougher than anywhere else on earth. Dallas Murphy has always been sea-struck. In Rounding the Horn he undertakes the ultimate maritime rite of passage, and brings the reader along for a thrilling, exuberant tour. Weaving together stories of his own nautical adventures with long-lost tales of those who braved the Cape before himfrom Spanish missionaries to Captain Cookand interspersing them with breathtaking descriptions of the surrounding wilderness, Murphy has crafted an immensely enjoyable read.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2004

  $4.56

  With the heart of a sailor and the narrative skill of a novelist, Dallas Murphy explores the enduring allure of the mythic Cape Horn. Located at the southernmost tip of the Andes, Cape Horn is a place where the storms are bigger, the winds stronger, the geography more dangerous for a seafarer than anywhere else in the world. From when it was named in 1611 until the present day, Cape Horn has had a rich history filled not only with the horrors of sailing disasters but also with the pleasures of Darwinian research into flora and fauna. The author uses his own voyage around Cape Horn to weave together the history of explorations, along with tales of Indians who lived there, the oceanography and meteorology of the region (with echoes of The Perfect Storm), the science of navigation and the natural history of the area. The result is the story of a sailor testing his own limits as well as a truly captivating depiction of one of the most usual areas on earth.