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| View Larger Image | 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
| | List Price: | $15.00 |  | | 5 New starting at: | $15.06 | | 8 Used starting at: | $5.23 | | | | | Sales Rank: | 1426513 | | Studio: | Basic Books | | | Binding: | Paperback | | Number Of Pages: | 358 | | Publication Date: | June 14, 2005 | | Publisher: | Basic Books |
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Product Description
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. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 15 reviews)
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Cape Horn at its wildest 
Cape Horn still holds surprises, even for one who has read a lot about it. The good maps are a real asset; it's amazing how many books on exploration lack maps to follow along. My only disappointment was that the author did not mention Rockwell Kent's paintings and account of his trip to the Horn, although he's mentioned in the bibliography.
September 21, 2008 | |
Safe to explore from the deck, as long as ship does not list!
There are many places that give us the impression that the land ends there, or we are at the edge of the continent. But perhaps nowhere else on Earth gives that real "land's end" feeling as the southern tip of South America, which tapers into the Southern Ocean in a most dramatic fashion--not as a single, simple tip of a peninsula but as a large conglomerate of islands--the Fuegian Archipelago--that do not seem to end until you hit Cape Horn, and then there's nothing beyond. Of course, land resumes hundreds of miles south, but this is Antarctica--an altogether different type of place that seems "out of this world". If you, however, choose to ignore Antarctica, then Cape Horn is the veritable land's end--the object of misery for many mariners and explorers and a subject of intrigue for the geographically curious and the adventurous in us.
Just the cover alone prompted me to know more about the interesting physical geography and the history of human habitation and exploration of this area that was driven by necessity, economy, or the strong drive to civilize and Christianize the indigenous people. The writer starts with a riveting account of what makes this region the bane of sailors, mariners, explorers, and whalers, and the reader can pause to realize why the building of the Transcontinental Railroad and the Panama Canal made a world of a difference for people who needed to save not only time but also their lives. He sets out with a small group of friends and guides from Ushuaia, Argentina and, with the permission of Chilean authorities, courses the narrow channels that make it possible to navigate around the complex archipelago while treating us to some interesting snippets of history from starving sailors to the Yaghan people who were well-adapted to the vicissitudes of climate and precipitation in these unforgiving lands--and waters.
For those of us who equate Charles Darwin with his real-world observations of natural phenomena, especially involving plants and animals, which led him to his powerful explanations underlying organic evolution, the book provides a different twist on Darwin, the anthropologist. Here we get to appreciate Darwin in an imperfect light, wherein we get a sense of the condescension he felt towards natives with which he was totally unfamiliar and about which he probably was never warned before he set off from England. We also get to know the touching story of the four children who were literally kidnapped from their families and taken to England, and then taken back to the Fuegian Archipelago a few years later with hopes that they could bring the people to redemption with missionary zeal.
Quite unlike other places on Earth, the place teems with unfamiliar weather phenomena such as williwaws and with unique flora and a spectacular light and topography, all of which may belie the true deadly nature of the islands. It was high time that a contemporary writer takes us armchair travelers to one of the world's most unforgiving places and to remind us, while we're at it, to perhaps check out Lucas Bridges' "Uttermost Part of the Earth" (1948).
August 28, 2008 | |
Surprises, Adventures, and Lots of Great Information
I devoured this book in record time... one of those travel books that is so well written that one can't wait to get back to it. Eating, sleeping, being polite to household members etc. come to be unwelcome distractions. I strongly recommend it for anyone who would like general knowledge of this part of the world in a very readable format. It gives biological, botanical, historical, economic, and human perspectives, and it's a damn good read.
July 04, 2008 | |
feels like you are there 
Great description of a current acount of sailing around Cape Horn, interspersed with historical accounts of journeys around the Horn. It's amazing that people in small wooden boats without modern navigational aides would attempt such a harrowing journey
April 04, 2008 | |
Superlative Reading
This is one of my favorite books of all time. Similar in style to Tony Horwitz's "Blue Latitudes" and "Confederates in the Attic;" the author weaves the awe inspiring beauty of the place and it's important and poignantly tragic history together with his own personal experience exploring it in a chartered sailboat.
January 06, 2008 | |
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