{"id":"01KG8AMGE1GNC2FS71VG7MPDV8","cid":"bafkreic6mk6t547nudqzvmwo7nk6unvx5vdgekfrdziciam66s4o4kxxqq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":3816,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.270Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":3748,"text":"CHAPTER XXIV.\r\nINTRODUCTORY TO CAPE HORN.\r\n\r\n\r\nAnd now, through drizzling fogs and vapours, and under damp,\r\ndouble-reefed top-sails, our wet-decked frigate drew nearer and nearer\r\nto the squally Cape.\r\n\r\nWho has not heard of it? Cape Horn, Cape Horn—a _horn_ indeed, that has\r\ntossed many a good ship. Was the descent of Orpheus, Ulysses, or Dante\r\ninto Hell, one whit more hardy and sublime than the first navigator’s\r\nweathering of that terrible Cape?\r\n\r\nTurned on her heel by a fierce West Wind, many an outward-bound ship\r\nhas been driven across the Southern Ocean to the Cape of Good\r\nHope—_that_ way to seek a passage to the Pacific. And that stormy Cape,\r\nI doubt not, has sent many a fine craft to the bottom, and told no\r\ntales. At those ends of the earth are no chronicles. What signify the\r\nbroken spars and shrouds that, day after day, are driven before the\r\nprows of more fortunate vessels? or the tall masts, imbedded in\r\nicebergs, that are found floating by? They but hint the old story—of\r\nships that have sailed from their ports, and never more have been heard\r\nof.\r\n\r\nImpracticable Cape! You may approach it from this direction or that—in\r\nany way you please—from the East or from the West; with the wind\r\nastern, or abeam, or on the quarter; and still Cape Horn is Cape Horn.\r\nCape Horn it is that takes the conceit out of fresh-water sailors, and\r\nsteeps in a still salter brine the saltest. Woe betide the tyro; the\r\nfool-hardy, Heaven preserve!\r\n\r\nYour Mediterranean captain, who with a cargo of oranges has hitherto\r\nmade merry runs across the Atlantic, without so much as furling a\r\nt’-gallant-sail, oftentimes, off Cape Horn, receives a lesson which he\r\ncarries to the grave; though the grave—as is too often the case—follows\r\nso hard on the lesson that no benefit comes from the experience.\r\n\r\nOther strangers who draw nigh to this Patagonia termination of our\r\nContinent, with their souls full of its shipwrecks and\r\ndisasters—top-sails cautiously reefed, and everything guardedly\r\nsnug—these strangers at first unexpectedly encountering a tolerably\r\nsmooth sea, rashly conclude that the Cape, after all, is but a bugbear;\r\nthey have been imposed upon by fables, and founderings and sinkings\r\nhereabouts are all cock-and-bull stories.\r\n\r\n“Out reefs, my hearties; fore and aft set t’-gallant-sails! stand by to\r\ngive her the fore-top-mast stun’-sail!”\r\n\r\nBut, Captain Rash, those sails of yours were much safer in the\r\nsail-maker’s loft. For now, while the heedless craft is bounding over\r\nthe billows, a black cloud rises out of the sea; the sun drops down\r\nfrom the sky; a horrible mist far and wide spreads over the water.\r\n\r\n“Hands by the halyards! Let go! Clew up!”\r\n\r\nToo late.\r\n\r\nFor ere the ropes’ ends can be the east off from the pins, the tornado\r\nis blowing down to the bottom of their throats. The masts are willows,\r\nthe sails ribbons, the cordage wool; the whole ship is brewed into the\r\nyeast of the gale.\r\n\r\nAn now, if, when the first green sea breaks over him, Captain Rash is\r\nnot swept overboard, he has his hands full be sure. In all probability\r\nhis three masts have gone by the board, and, ravelled into list, his\r\nsails are floating in the air. Or, perhaps, the ship _broaches to_, or\r\nis _brought by the lee_. In either ease, Heaven help the sailors, their\r\nwives and their little ones; and heaven help the underwriters.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJQSHM9ZFF0AKGP5F210Z","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMGEB0JGWSV30N2TEPKH2","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:39.361Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:45.436Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}