On the picture H. E. Maria Teresa Infante, Ambassador of Chile.
By Ellen Brager.
In January 1616, two Dutch sailors, Le Maire and Schouten, were the first ever to round the southernmost tip of Chile, a milestone in the history of navigation. In honor of their hometown, Hoorn, they gave it the name of Cape Horn. Their epic voyage not only opened a new route for trade between Europe and the Americas and enabled the many geographic discoveries of the 17th century, but it also created a permanent bond between Chile and The Netherlands.
It was not a surprise, then, that the commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the event, organized by the Maritime Museum in Rotterdam included collaboration with the Chilean Embassy and the Chilean Navy.
Despite the harsh winter weather, the event sold out early and extra chairs had to be added to accommodate the tremendous interest in this alluring lecture.
After a few opening words by Frits Loomeijer, the Director of the museum, the guests were greeted by the Deputy Mayor of Hoorn, Mr. Ben Tap. He expressed how proud he was that two citizens of his town had made the name Hoorn world famous and informed the listeners about the Stichting Nederlandse Kaap Hoorn Vaarders, an association established in the town of Hoorn with the purpose of keeping the memory of the grand sailors, and especially those around Cape Horn, alive. Before giving the microphone to her Excellency Ambassador María Teresa Infante, he handed a beautiful book with maps made in the last 400 years of the area around Cape Horn to Mr. Loomeijer as a gift to the museum.
For a photo album on the exhibition opening, please click here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/121611753@N07/albums/72157665191712726
Ambassador Infante praised the bravery and courage of the Dutch sailors and underscored the importance of the event for trade and navigation back then, now and in the future. She then introduced the Defense and Navy Attaché of Chile, Captain Ronald Baasch.
At one period during his career, he was stationed in Puerto Williams, the nearest port to Cape Horn and the southernmost city of the world. Therefore he knows the area very well. He himself has rounded Cape Horn more than two dozen times, bringing replenishments to the people who lived there and going out on rescue missions.
He described Puerto Williams as a sleepy town with no traffic lights and only one stop sign, a stop sign he once failed to obey, which made him the first and only person in town to get a traffic ticket for this particular infraction. He went on to explain that Directemar, an acronym that refers to a specific branch of the Navy, has three main responsibilities: assuring the safety of navigators, protecting life at sea, and preserving a healthy marine environment. A member of this branch is the Sea Mayor of Cape Horn, who is stationed there for an entire year with his family, not an office for the faint at heart!
Since the waters around Cape Horn are particularly hazardous, owing to strong winds, large waves, strong currents and icebergs, Captain Baasch had many interesting search and rescue stories to tell. One was about a sports sailor whose boat capsized during the Vendée Globe yacht race and initially went missing, and one was about a family with three small children whose boat suffered a broken mast in rough seas and high winds.
The weather was so bad that a large tanker had to provide shelter from the wind for the smaller rescue boats to get close to the yacht. In both cases everybody was brought to shore safe and sound, but many in history have not been that lucky, making the area notorious as a sailors’ graveyard.
The need for ships to round Cape Horn was greatly reduced by the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914. Now it is mostly recreational sailors who continue to sail this route, sometimes as part of circumnavigating the globe.
Several prominent ocean yacht races, notably the Vendée Globe, the Barcelona World Race, the Jules Verne Trophy and the Volvo Ocean Race sail around the world via the Horn. Speed records for round-the-world sailing are recognized for following this route within very specific parameters and requirements.
One of those round-the-world sailors is Stefan Coppers, a Dutch crew member of Team Brunel during the Volvo Ocean Race of 2014-2015 and present at the event. Dressed in his sailor’s overalls, he delighted the audience with anecdotes, pictures and video clips of the nine months he sailed around the world as an onboard reporter.
With a lot of humor he recalled how he knew next to nothing about sailing when he started this adventure. He made all the beginners’ mistakes in the book and was sure not to be selected to be part of the final crew. To his surprise, he was offered the job, and even more to his surprise, he accepted! He told gruesome stories about horrible weather, lack of comfort, seasickness and being cold and wet 24 hours a day, but also about the great bond that grew between the eight sailors on board and himself, and about team spirit and endurance.
The evening ended in style with drinks, including very nice Chilean white and red wines, offered by the Embassy of Chile. A special exhibit about the Heroes of Cape Horn can be visited until the 25th of September. Maps, pictures, stories and artifacts about the brave sailors to the Tierra Incógnita will appeal to visitors young and old.
And for those who want to dig in even deeper there is the book Cape Horn and Other Stories from the End of the World, written by Francisco Coloane, a Chilean novelist, and Never Give Up, the Epic Journey of Bouwe Bekking, seven-time participant of the Volvo Ocean Race.
More information about the exhibit can be found on the museum’s website at www.maritiemmuseum.nl/en.
Embassy of Chile in The Hague: http://www.chileabroad.gov.cl/paises-bajos/
Photography by the Embassy of Chile in The Hague and Maritime Museum in Rotterdam
