Ocean's Story; or, Triumphs of Thirty Centuries: Maritime Adventures, Achievements, Explorations, Discoveries and Inventions; and of the Rise and Progress of Ship-Building and Ocean Navigation, from the Ark to the Iron SteamshipsGoodrich, Frank B. (Frank Boott)
History
Ocean's Story; or, Triumphs of Thirty Centuries: Maritime Adventures, Achievements, Explorations, Discoveries and Inventions; and of the Rise and Progress of Ship-Building and Ocean Navigation, from the Ark to the Iron Steamships
Goodrich, Frank B. (Frank Boott)
Discoveries in geography; Voyages and travels
On the 30th of August, they cast anchor in the roads of Sierra Leone,
where they drove a brisk trade in lemons, easily purchasing a thousand
for a handful of worthless glass beads. Fresh water was obtained by
holding casks under a bountiful cascade, and thus easily were the
materials for lemonade procured in this favored spot. They then made
directly for the southwest. While in the middle of the Atlantic, the
crew of the Concord were startled by her receiving a violent blow
upon her bottom, although no rock was visible. The color of the sea
around them changed suddenly to red, as if a fountain of blood had been
discharged into it. A large horn, of a substance resembling ivory, and
solid, not hollow, was subsequently found in the ship's side, having
passed through three of her planks and entered the wood to the depth
of a foot, leaving at least a foot more upon the outside. The vessel
had evidently been in collision with a narwhal or sea-unicorn, and the
broken horn and the crimsoned water plainly showed which had suffered
most from the shock.
Late in October, the ships' companies were informed of the design of
the voyage, and readily consented to engage in a scheme which promised
both distinction and emolument. Early in December, they made the coast
of Patagonia, some three hundred miles to the north of Magellan's
Strait. Here the Horn, the smaller of the two vessels, caught fire
by accident and was destroyed. Her iron-work, guns, and anchors were
transferred to the Concord. On the 24th, the Concord passed the Strait
of Magellan, and was soon in the latitude where Schouten and Lemaire
hoped to make their grand discovery. While Terra del Fuego was still
in sight upon their right hand, they noticed a high, rugged island
upon their left, which they named Staten Land, or Land of the States.
The ship passed between the two, and soon after rounded the promontory
which advanced the farthest into the sea, to which, in honor of the
port from which the expedition had sailed, Schouten gave the name of
Cape Horn. He then launched into the South Sea, being the first who
passed completely round the South American continent. Lemaire claimed
the honor of giving his name to the strait which had brought them to
the Cape,--one which clearly belonged to Schouten, as the leader and
pilot of the expedition. The strait is still known by the name of the
supercargo, geographers having consecrated, by silence, this manifest
act of injustice.
[Illustration: CAPE HORN.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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