ROUNDING CAPE HORN

Southland Times, Issue 23648, 25 October 1938, Page 2

ROUNDING CAPE HORN

MEMORIES OF EARLY VOYAGES EXPERIENCES DESCRIBED BY PASSENGERS ( LONDON, September 19. Memories of rounding Cape Horn have been recalled by several correspondents to The Times, including Mrs Susan Baird, a sister of General Sir Charles Fergusson, a former GovernorGeneral of New Zealand. The number of people who have seen the Cape itself in fair weather is believed small. Helena Cass (Lyceum Club) recalled seeing the Cape in pre-war days when a New Zealand company ran a monthly passenger service from Wellington to London. “Of the ships which round the Hom a very small proportion ever see it, for blinding storms usually keep the giant, slate-coloured rock from view, and sailing ships give it a wide berth,” she wrote. “Our chances were lessened because liners usually went through Magellan’s Strait or the passage between Tierra del Fuego and the small island the southernmost tip of which is the dreaded Hom.

“The weather being fine, the captain decided to take his ship outside, and from a distance of two miles or more we saw it rising sheer from the sea, menacing, terrible. Even in that perfect weather there was a heavy swell. On other world tours since I have seen nothing more impressive or more sinis - ter than that aloof and mighty rock lighted by the sun.” AT THE AGE OF FIFTEEN Mrs Baird wrote:—l rounded Cape Hom in a full-rigged sailing ship of 650 tons in December 1875. She was the Halcione of the Shaw, Savill Line. My father, the late Sir James Fergusson, resigned the Governorship of New Zealand that year. He sent his family (four children and my step-mother) back by long sea. I was the eldest, aged just 15, and I distinctly remember seeing a sort of smudge in the mist, and of being told that it was Cape Horn. We passed many icebergs before and after. The fact that our one and only cow died that day' still further impressed the sight on my memory as it entailed subsisting for the rest of the voyage on a very nasty* brand of tinned milk. We sighted no land at aff either before or after till we arrived in the Channel, 108 days out., It was considered a good passage. I may add that I rounded .the Cape of Good Hope in a sailing ship in November 1868, on our way to South Australia; my father had been appointed Governor of that state. When I told the late Lord Jellicoe of these two facts he said that there could be ; comparatively few people left alive who could say so. My brother, General Sir Charles Fergusson, is one of them. MEMORABLE AND REMEMBERED Mr H. R. Mill, of East Grinstead, said:—“ln returning from New Zealand in the Shaw, Savill liner, Atomic, I passed within sight of Cape. Horn on the morning of May 9, 1914, in a dead call'll. The smooth, oily sea glimmered - / in the early winter sunshine, and a big four-masted sailing vessel lay, as the Ancient Mariner’s craft once lay, as idle as a painted ship upon a pamted ocean.’ The scene was memorable and is remembered.” T i Mr R. N. Lyne, of Bath, said:—l left Wellington in January. 1890, in the New Zealand Shipping Company’s s.s. Rimutaka, 4000 tons, Captain Greenstreet, who on that voyage was completing 3,000,000 miles of ocean travel. We ran into very cold weather which we were at a loss to explain, the wind being north, until one morning we awoke to find on our port beam a huge castellated iceberg aglow with the red rays of the early morning sun. It had drifted up ■with fleets of other bergs, through which we passed not without anxiety abott sunken ice. We tried to Persuade the captain to go through the Straits of Magellan, but he said it was a dangerous passage which would mean for him 30 hours on the bridge. I was, glad afterwards that he refused as I should have missed the Horn. There was a gentle breeze from tne shore, causing a slight ripple on the otherwise calm sea, as on a beautiful day we coasted past the famous rock, which stood up sharp from the water like the horn of a great rhinoceros.