Sailingsteps Kees Bouten in Cape Horn

Around the world: Cape Horn

In sailingsteps of my ancestor captain Jacob Bouten




1 Kees Bouten © 2012 Sailingsteps

Sailingsteps Cape Horn

In the Sala Cap Horniers ot the Museo Maritimo in Valparaiso, I found:

“Jacob Le Maire and Willem Schouten

(Voyage from 1615 to 1616). Isaac Le

Maire, an Anvers’ businessman

founded the “Southern Company”

which organized an expedition,

consisting in two vessels, the

EENDRACHT and the HOORN, that

under the direction of Jacob, son of

Isaac and under the command of JAN

and WILLEM SCHOUTEN brothers,

got underway from Holland in the

middle of 1615. After many loses,

including the lost of the HOORN, they

continued South discovering the Staten

Island (STAATEN EYLAND) and the

gap of this and the Tierra del Fuego

which they denominated the Strait of Le Maire.

On 31st of January of 1616 they saw the great rock that marks the most Southern part of America which

they named CAP HOORN (Cape Horn). Le Maire and Schouten were the first Europeans to cross the

Cape Horn, demonstrating that the Tierra del Fuego was not the mythical “Tierra Australis Incognita”,

but a great island that separated the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean.”

The Strait Magellan (Estrecho Magallanes, 600km long and on which Punta Arenas is located) was

discovered 85 years before, in 1520 by the Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan.

“After the discovery of Cape Horn by the Dutch, these did not use the route very much. The most well

known vessels that crossed the cape were the vessels of four masts JEANETTE FRANCOISE (1892) and

the GEETRUID GERARDA (1904) and other five vessels of three masts built outside Holland after the

beginning of the 19th century called VAN GALEN, EUROPA, AMSTERDAM, NEDERLAND and

ADRIANA.”

and this was while Jacob Bouten sailed around the Cape both in 1849 as in 1852 with the “Jan van

Hoorn”.

Jacob Bouten writes when he was appointed to go on his voyage of 1849:

I don’t know why they chose me for this job (to sail to Valparaiso), because I was the youngest

captain of the fleet and it is a voyage, not been sailed that many times before yet.

About sailing around the Cape he did not write much either. About the first time in 1849 he wrote:

Sailing around Cape Horn we had quite some storms and we passed several ‘ijsbergen’ (I

suppose this was drifting ice, coming from the Southpole) with flogs of wales around those.

About the second voyage in 1852 he wrote:

While sailing around Cape Horn we experienced havy storms during many days and due to

this we came between the Ice-islands, where we had lots of problems with all the wales there.

Coming from Ancud on Chiloé, I flew on the 10th of April 2010 from Puerto Montt to Punta Arenas

where I boarded the ship “Mare Australis” from Cruceros Australis, the cruise company. The only

possibility I could find to get to Cape Horn, was with a 5-day cruise from Punta Arenas in Chile to

Ushuaia in Argentina and because I did not like the idea of a cruise, I was not very enthusiastic about it.

But now, after I have been on the cruise I can recommend it to everybody!

http://www.australis.com/site/en/Default.aspx

As soon as we were on board we were introduced to the crew, i.e.:

http://www.australis.com/site/en/Default.aspx




I am on the “Mare Australis”, built in 2002 in Valdivia and registred in Valparaiso (as all ships of more than 500

tons). The captain is Enrique Emilio Rauch Strauch and the crew is (right to left at the picture): 1st Piloto Adolfo

Javier Navarro Flores, 2nd

Piloto Juan Pablo Alvarado Lecaros, 3rd

Pilote Rodrigo Almagro Silva Zamora. Next

the Jefe Maquinas Bruno Eduardo Siclari Bravo and 1st, 2

nd en 3

rd technicians Marcelo Arturo Morales Vera,

Sergio Osvaldo Rojas Barcelo and Victor Erwin Navarro Mansilla. In the photo next is captain Enrique. Left

from the captain the Gerente Hotel Juan Patricio Alamos Reinoso, the Jefe Expedicion Mauricio Rolando Guelno

Vera and the guides Pedro Francisco Cardenas Marusic (1), Pablo Sebastian Vega Avendano (6), Rodrigo

Alberto Perez Angeli (4), Haron Josue Ailklon Neumann (5) and Carolina Manzanares Concha(3). Paula Giraudi

Muriel is Guia Expedicion (2), she is not ont the picture because she received the Spanish speaking group.

Admirality Fjord at 7:25 am




The first night I could not sleep and I was on the upperdeck untill 3 am, on a ship in the most southern

area of America (and the world, except for the Southpole), in a severe wind under a clear sky of the

southern atmosphere, in the Strait of Magellan. Very impressive! Next morning I was back on deck again

before 7 am to have a coffee first, before sunrise at 7:22 am.

The second day (officially, the first day we boarded at 6 pm) we were in Ainsworth Bay first, where we

went ashore to walk through an area where only 80 years before, a glacier was located and we were told

about the vegetation that could be found there nowadays. On shore at Ainsworth Bay we saw a flog of

Sea-elephants, partially in the water (fighting with each other) as well as on shore (sleeping).

During lunch we sailed to Brookes Bay to visit one of the glaciers overthere. At this place the glacier still

come into the fjord, because it was part of a very big one and with ice (originally snow) from the last Ice-

era from 10 to 15.000 years ago. Due to this extremely old snow and the high pressure of the enormous

amounts high in the mountains, the ice reflected blue in the sun (or light, because there was no sun).

The “Mare Australis” in Brookes Bay

From Brookes bay we sailed during late evening through the narrows of Canal Gabriel and during the

night through Ballanero and O’Brien Channels to the Pia Fjord in the NW arm of the Beagle Channel.

There we went ashore to see the Pia Glacier, consisting of ice from 300-400 years ago, where we heard

very loud crackings in the glacier and saw some parts breaking down into the fjord.

Very nice to have seen all this, but nothing compared to what I experienced being on Cape Horn the day

after. From Pia Glacier we sailed to Cape Horn during the night of 12 April 2010, through the Beagle

Canal and Canal Murray to Islas Wolloaston, Parque National de Cabo de Hornos.




From Punta Arenas to Cape Horn

Captain Enrique Rauch on the bridge of the “Mare Australis”

Log of the “Mare Australis”to Cape Horn (13 April 2010)




Near Cape Horn before 7:00 am

Before sunrise which was at 7:18 am we came from between the islands of Herschel and Deceit, heading

to the island of Hornos, where we anchored on the eastside of the island at 6:42 am.

I was lucky that the weather and the sea were quite, because it was not at all certain that we could go on

land at Cape Horn during the cruise (which risk I had to accept). The weather conditions were not that

bad with a NW-wind of 15 Knots and the sea looked calm.

However, we managed to get ashore at 7:00 am on Isla de Hornos.

Scale model of Isla de Hornos [MMV]

To be on Cape Horn was a very impressive experience for me and before leaving, I stood for a couple of

minutes in silence next to the memorial

“Au nom de l’amicale internationale des capitaines au long cours “Cap Horniers” en souvenir

de tous nos passages de ce Cap. Nov 1889.”

to realize that I had been at the monument of the Albatross, to memorize the more than 10.000 seamen

who lost their lives at Cape Horn, where more than 800 ships were shipwrecked. Next poem from near

the monument, remembers these seamen




where I have been in the lighthouse and written in

their guestbook:

Kees Bouten from The Netherlands was at

Cape Horn on 13 April 2010, sailing 10-14

April 2010 from Punta Arenas to Ushuaia, in

the sailingsteps of my greatgreatgrandfather

Captain Jacob Bouten, who sailed around

Kaap Hoorn in 1849 with the “Jan van Hoorn”

and again in 1852.

“I am the albatross who awaits you at the end of the world.

I am the forgotten soul of the dead seamen who sailed across Cape Horn from all the

seas of the world.

But, they have not died in the fury of the waves, today they fly on my wings, towards eternity, in

the last crevice of the antartic winds.”

Sara Vial, 1992 (Poem in memorial of sea men who

Lost their lives crossing Cape Horn)




Yes, this had made me emotional, and again when I stood at the memorial, looking around me over the

ocean southwards, to the monument, the lighthouse and the chapel, and the flag where somebody took a

picture of me.

Cape Horn, where I was as a descendant of captain Jacob Bouten, my anscestor who made it around Cape

Horn twice some 160 years ago. A very emotional experience for me.

About how the sailing in those times must have been I got some more idea when I found a video later on

when I was in San Francisco. This video (or DVD) is from much later (otherwise it could never have

been filmed of course) and from a much larger ship, but it is sailing around Cape Horn through heavy

weather and it gives a realistic idea about the circumstances on board of a ship like that.

The film is from 1929, the ship is the fourmast barque “Peking”, with 3.800 tons empty weight and 5.000

tons cargo, sailing on the Nitrate trade from Hamburg in Germany to Talcahuano in the north of Chili,

under the command of capatain Jürgen Jürs in 93 days. It took them 17 days to cross the Northsea

Channel in a tremendous storm (December 1929) durin which 68 ships were wrecked. At the Horn they

had a storm with winds over 100 miles per hour and waves of 80 ft high, according to Irving Johnson

who made the pictures and narrated them in 1980.

If you've ever wondered what it was like to sail around Cape Horn in a clipper

ship, this video is probably the closest you're going to get. It was filmed in 1929

by Captain Irving Johnson, then a young man, aboard the Peking, one of the

great sailing ships of the time. It is an extraordinary record of a bygone era.

Johnson's narration is informative if, at times, annoying. Around twelve minutes

from the end, the Peking is beset by storms at the Cape, as ships have been for

centuries. It's a good example of how relatively recently it was still possible to

get a glimpse into what seems like the distant past.

Launched in 1911 at the shipyard of Blohm & Voss, Hamburg, the “Peking” has been docked at the

South Street Seaport in New York City since 1975, where she acts as a Marine Museum. You can visit

the ship, it was of not much interest to me and they did not even show or sell the film there. Very strange.

The fourmast barque “Peking” in New York City

At 9:12 am we left the Horn on a course of 025° back to between island Herschel and Deceit, where we

headed with a speed of 10,5 Knots nearly right into the wind of 15 Knots. In an apparent wind of over 25

Knots I stayed on deck for quite some time untill Cape Horn could not be seen anymore.




Island Horn from between Herschel and Deceit, half an hour after we left the Horn

Navigation chart to and from Cape Horn Albatross Monument

During our sail to Ushuaia I got some pictures from Mauricio,

the Expedition leader, of the Regata Bicentenario 1810-

2010 that had been sailing around Cape Horn March 24th, a

couple of weeks ago. So, that’s why I had seen the ships in

the bay of Ancud! They had been waiting there before

continuing their voyage from 31 January 2010 in Rio de

Janeiro (Brasil) all around South-America to Veracruz

(Mexico, 27 June 2010).

Fourteen tallships (three twomast ships from Argentina),

mostly from South- American countries, participated

in the regatta, but also three from Europe: Holland (I had

never heard of the “Europa” as a Dutch ship), Spain

and Portugal.




The “Cisne Branco” (Brasil) and “Cuatemoc” (Mexico) aproaching

Cape Horn

The “Esmeralda” (Chile), parades under the Horn

The “Europa” (Netherlands) south of Cape Horn




Nice to have seen some of the ships (in Ancud) and Cape Horn, and to get these pictures of some of the

ships around Cape Horn!

The last evening of the cruise, I had a very emotional experience again. Chuck, one of my tablemates

during the cruise, bought the nautical chart used to navigate towards Cape Horn, at an auction during this

farewell evening. And he did not buy it for himself, no, he bought it for “the only person on this cruise to

whom it should belong, the greatgreatgrandson of a captain who sailed the Horn 160 years ago ” as he

told the whole audience and then he gave it to me. For the second time that day I got emotional, due to

meeting people like him as in my group as on the cruise, how everybody applauded and the many

congratulations I received.

“Cruceros Australis and all of the crew and passengers: many thanks for some wonderful days, I

had a great time that I will never forget !”

Last thing I’d like to show is the kind of nautical chart of how the “Apollo” navigated around Cape Horn.

This reproduction was made by the Library of the Maritime Museum in San Francisco [Ref 4] and

although I don’t know anything about the ship nor when it sailed the Horn, I include it as an example of

how they had to navigate and how much days or weeks it could take them, dependant on changing winds

every time.

A ship with the name of “Apollo” is one of the

many ships buried in Yerba Buena Cove (see San

Francisco).

So probably the “Apollo” that sailed around Cape

Horn from May 4th to May 29

th was sailing there

in 1849 or 1850 ?

The “Apollo” buried

in San Francisco close

to the Niantic, was

used as a storeship,

boarding house and

later on saloon. The

hulk of the Apollo,

which was originally

121 feet in length, was

discovered "again" at the northwest corner of

Sacramento and Battery. It had previously been found

before in 1901 and 1921. According to a newspaper

article, "...Among the rotting timbers were coins from

1840, an American penny from 1825, a British penny

from 1797, pipes, a large nugget, a sextant, ship's

fittings and pieces that are a delight to those who love

rare things." The Apollo still lies at the site.

Sailingsteps Kees Bouten in Cape Horn

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