58 On the Navigation of Cape Horn. 



it was first approached* Frequently they do not clear the Cape, un- 

 til the third or fourth attempt after having been set to the eastward 

 by gales from the westward. 



During the north west gales, vessels have been driven several hun- 

 dred miles to the south east. In 1819 — 20, an English brig was set 

 in a north wester, from the vicinity of Hermit's Island, down to the 

 south Shetland's, which had been discovered by a Dutchman, about 

 two hundred years previously : during this lapse of time, their exist- 

 ence had never been confirmed to the world, by a concurrent report 

 from other navigators, and the reported discovery of the Dutchman, 

 had sunk into disbelief, and finally into oblivion. The brig, after a 

 tedious passage, arrived at Valparaiso, and her master, (one Smith,) 

 reported the discovery he had made to Capt. Sherif, R. N. who was 

 in the bay of Valparaiso, in command of one of his Majesty's men of 

 war. Capt. Sherif chartered the brig, sent officers on board, and 

 despatched her, to ascertain the reality of the reported discovery, 

 and the position of the Islands. They were found without any diffi- 

 culty, and after sailing among them for a day or two, the brig put in- 

 to a harbor, where were several American vessels, lying quietly at 

 anchor, some of which had been in the habit for five years, of visiting 

 that place. 



When the westerly gales, become so violent as to strip the can- 

 vass from the yards, the ship is liable to much injury, if they blow 

 for many days, which they frequently do. By persisting in the at- 

 tempt to weather out the storm, and to secure the " inshore" passage, 

 vessels have been reduced almost to the last extremity before they 

 succeeded. In waiting to catch a favorable moment for passing the 

 land, some are even less fortunate. After riding out gale after gale, 

 and being driven from the land as often as they made it, they are at 

 last, forced in distress to put back into some port on the Atlantic side. 

 They are seen coming into Rio Janeiro or the La Plata, their hulls 

 . so completely shattered, that they scarcely keep afloat, and the crew 

 unable to manage them, being exhausted by long exposure to the 

 freezing winds. The delay necessarily incurred by refitting, and 

 from the difficulty of shipping another crew, amounts to several 

 months. Probability favors the supposition, that these misfortunes 

 would have been avoided by lying to, on the starboard tack, and 

 forging to the southward, out of the strength of the gale, with the 

 expectation of catching an easterly wind in the icy regions. 



