{"id":"01KG8AMGEB0JGWSV30N2TEPKH2","cid":"bafkreiek5oy35vd7swihkeexjs7fzsgy5dugdxnvuyvgqqzvmuj5bbndwi","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":3873,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.270Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":3810,"text":"An 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\nFamiliarity with danger makes a brave man braver, but less daring. Thus\r\nwith seamen: he who goes the oftenest round Cape Horn goes the most\r\ncircumspectly. A veteran mariner is never deceived by the treacherous\r\nbreezes which sometimes waft him pleasantly toward the latitude of the\r\nCape. No sooner does he come within a certain distance of it—previously\r\nfixed in his own mind—than all hands are turned to setting the ship in\r\nstorm-trim; and never mind how light the breeze, down come his\r\nt’-gallant-yards. He “bends” his strongest storm-sails, and lashes\r\nevery-thing on deck securely. The ship is then ready for the worst; and\r\nif, in reeling round the headland, she receives a broadside, it\r\ngenerally goes well with her. If ill, all hands go to the bottom with\r\nquiet consciences.\r\n\r\nAmong sea-captains, there are some who seem to regard the genius of the\r\nCape as a wilful, capricious jade, that must be courted and coaxed into\r\ncomplaisance. First, they come along under easy sails; do not steer\r\nboldly for the headland, but tack this way and that—sidling up to it,\r\nNow they woo the Jezebel with a t’-gallant-studding-sail; anon, they\r\ndeprecate her wrath with double-reefed-topsails. When, at length, her\r\nunappeasable fury is fairly aroused, and all round the dismantled ship\r\nthe storm howls and howls for days together, they still persevere in\r\ntheir efforts. First, they try unconditional submission; furling every\r\nrag and _heaving to_: laying like a log, for the tempest to toss\r\nwheresoever it pleases.\r\n\r\nThis failing, they set a _spencer_ or _try-sail_, and shift on the\r\nother tack. Equally vain! The gale sings as hoarsely as before. At\r\nlast, the wind comes round fair; they drop the fore-sail; square the\r\nyards, and scud before it; their implacable foe chasing them with\r\ntornadoes, as if to show her insensibility to the last.\r\n\r\nOther ships, without encountering these terrible gales, spend week\r\nafter week endeavouring to turn this boisterous world-corner against a\r\ncontinual head-wind. Tacking hither and thither, in the language of\r\nsailors they _polish_ the Cape by beating about its edges so long.\r\n\r\nLe Mair and Schouten, two Dutchmen, were the first navigators who\r\nweathered Cape Horn. Previous to this, passages had been made to the\r\nPacific by the Straits of Magellan; nor, indeed, at that period, was it\r\nknown to a certainty that there was any other route, or that the land\r\nnow called Terra del Fuego was an island. A few leagues southward from\r\nTerra del Fuego is a cluster of small islands, the Diegoes; between\r\nwhich and the former island are the Straits of Le Mair, so called in\r\nhonour of their discoverer, who first sailed through them into the\r\nPacific. Le Mair and Schouten, in their small, clumsy vessels,\r\nencountered a series of tremendous gales, the prelude to the long train\r\nof similar hardships which most of their followers have experienced. It\r\nis a significant fact, that Schouten’s vessel, the _Horne_, which gave\r\nits name to the Cape, was almost lost in weathering it.\r\n\r\nThe next navigator round the Cape was Sir Francis Drake, who, on\r\nRaleigh’s Expedition, beholding for the first time, from the Isthmus of\r\nDarien, the “goodlie South Sea,” like a true-born Englishman, vowed,\r\nplease God, to sail an English ship thereon; which the gallant sailor\r\ndid, to the sore discomfiture of the Spaniards on the coasts of Chili\r\nand Peru.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJQSHM9ZFF0AKGP5F210Z","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMGE1GNC2FS71VG7MPDV8","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AMGEBNTVWFFHDBVPSH0F7","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:39.371Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:45.401Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}