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Cape Horn
CAPE HORNCAPE HORN is at the southernmost tip of South America, on Horn Island, one of Chile's Wollaston Islands, which are part of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago. Storms, strong currents, and icebergs make passage of the cape extremely dangerous. The Dutch navigators Jakob Le Maire and Willem Schouten were the first to sail through Cape Horn, in 1616. Schouten named the point "Cape Hoorn" after the town of Hoorn in Holland, where he was born. The discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill, California, in 1848, stimulated the use of the cape as a passageway from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast. Because of the rigors of Cape Horn on coast-to-coast voyages, American shipbuilders were compelled to produce fast, weatherly, and immensely strong vessels. The rapid growth of California trade stimulated production of American square-rigged ships. Famous Cape Horn ships of this period include the Andrew Jackson, which shared the record of eighty-nine days from New York to San Francisco, and the James Baines, which logged twenty-one knots, the fastest speed ever recorded under sail. By the early 1900s, the rigors of the Horn passage, the growth of intercontinental trade, the greater development of the U.S. Navy, and the difficulty of adequately protecting the Pacific and the Atlantic coasts focused U.S. attention on the building of the Panama Canal, which opened in 1914. From that time, the importance of the route around Cape Horn, used previously only by freight ships, rapidly declined. The last American sailing ship to round Cape Horn was probably the schooner Wanderbird in 1936. Since that time, travel around the cape has mostly been limited to daring crews or individual sailors participating in races around the world. BIBLIOGRAPHYKnox-Johnston, Robin. Cape Horn: A Maritime History. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1994. Rydell, Raymond A. Cape Horn to the Pacific: The Rise and Decline of an Ocean Highway. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1952. AlanVilliers/h. s. See alsoChile, Relations with ; Panama Canal ; Schooner . |
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"Cape Horn." Dictionary of American History. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 28 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Cape Horn." Dictionary of American History. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (May 28, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3401800667.html "Cape Horn." Dictionary of American History. 2003. Retrieved May 28, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3401800667.html |
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Cape Horn
Cape Horn (Spanish: Cabo de Hornos), ChileCape of Hoorn The most southern point of South America, Willem Schouten† claimed to have discovered it in 1616; he named it after his home town, Hoorn ‘Horn’. However, Sir Francis Drake (c.1540–96) had reached the Cape in 1578 and named it Elizabetha after Queen Elizabeth I†. His discovery was kept as a state secret by Elizabeth to prevent knowledge of this new passage into the Pacific becoming public.
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JOHN EVERETT-HEATH. "Cape Horn." Concise Dictionary of World Place-Names. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 28 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. JOHN EVERETT-HEATH. "Cape Horn." Concise Dictionary of World Place-Names. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. (May 28, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O209-CapeHorn.html JOHN EVERETT-HEATH. "Cape Horn." Concise Dictionary of World Place-Names. 2005. Retrieved May 28, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O209-CapeHorn.html |
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Cape Horn
Cape Horn headland, 1,391 ft (424 m) high, S Chile, southernmost point of South America, in the archipelago of Tierra del Fuego. It was discovered and first rounded by Willem Schouten, the Dutch navigator, on Jan. 29, 1616, and named for Hoorn in the Netherlands. Lashing storms and strong currents made "rounding the Horn" one of the great hazards of sailing-ship days. With its cold and windy climate, it is still a formidable challenge to navigation. |
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"Cape Horn." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. 28 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Cape Horn." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. (May 28, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Horn-Cap.html "Cape Horn." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Retrieved May 28, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Horn-Cap.html |
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Horn, Cape
Horn, Cape the southernmost point of South America, on a Chilean island south of Tierra del Fuego. The region is notorious for its storms, and until the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 constituted the only sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. It was named after Hoorn, the birthplace of the Dutch navigator William C. Schouten who discovered it in 1616.
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ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Horn, Cape." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. 28 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Horn, Cape." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. (May 28, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-HornCape.html ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Horn, Cape." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Retrieved May 28, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-HornCape.html |
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Cape Horn
Cape Horn Southernmost point of South America in s Chile. It was sighted by Francis Drake in 1578, and first rounded in 1616 by Cornelis van Schouten.
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"Cape Horn." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 28 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Cape Horn." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. (May 28, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-CapeHorn.html "Cape Horn." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Retrieved May 28, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-CapeHorn.html |
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