On the Navigation of Cape Horn. 61 



ward. When this gale abated, she stood up to the Cape again, and 

 took another, in which she was also driven to the eastward. In the 

 third attempt she succeeded in doubling the Cape. She put into 

 Talcahuana, to repair the damages which she had sustained while ri- 

 ding out the gales from the westward. The Falmouth arrived in 

 Valparaiso in excellent order. 



In May 1829, the U. S. S. Guerriere, sailed around Cape Horn 

 into the Pacific ; she encountered a gale from the northward and 

 westward, before she passed Diego Ramirez, she received it in 

 the starboard tack, and forged to the southward : she got clear of it 

 in lat. 58° 37' near which parallel she stood to the west, she was 

 twenty one days from the Cape to the latitude of Talcahuana. 



The U. S. S. Brandywine, made the same passage in seven- 

 teen days, she passed the Cape in December, 1826 ; she found the 

 winds varying from N. W. to S. W. ; she ran up the usual westing 

 without crossing the parallel of 57° 30'. When the winds freshened 

 so that she could not beat to windward, she lay to with her head to 

 the south, giving the land a wider berth. 



The American whale ship Enterprise, and the English whaler 

 Sussex, encountered a gale off the Cape, near the same time. The 

 former, by forging to the southward cleared the gale in lat. 58° and 

 in fifteen days after first crossing the parallel of the Cape, she was 

 in the latitude of Talcahuana. The Englishman had thirty six days 

 to the same parallel ; she lay to, close to the cape in order that 

 when the gale should abate, she might hug the land around. Before 

 she cleared the Cape, she was twice driven by gales off to the east- 

 ward. Short passages are made by hugging the land when the wind is 

 fair or moderate from the westward, but seldom by waiting first to 

 ride out a gale from that quarter. Many instances could be cited 

 shewing the advantage of steering to the southward under such cir- 

 cumstances. But to prove what is here recommended is not perti- 

 nent to the object in view, reasons must suffice. Common practice 

 teaches that good passages are more frequently made by those ves- 

 sels, which finding contrary gales off the Cape, stand boldly to the 

 south, than by those, that lie to in them, keeping near the parallel of 

 the Cape. The barometer has not been found to be of much practical 

 utility off Cape Horn, how useful soever it may be in middle latitudes, 

 by indicating the approach of hurricanes ; it is no index to the winds in 

 the high latitudes to the south of Cape Horn. 



