Smyth Channel (The Chilean Channels – Part V)
From the Straits of Magellan we followed our heroes north into the Smyth Channel. More specifically, we were now sailing in the wake of the schooner Adelaide and one Lieutenant Skyring.
Archive for December 2016
Season’s Greetings
So, here we are again. It's that time of the year when we wish each other happiness and we talk about spreading peace and goodwill; and yet, right now, all three of those - and the last two in particular - seem to be pretty thin on the ground. Right now we've got troubles in Britain, troubles in America, troubles in Poland, troubles in Brazil, troubles in Palestine, troubles in the Ukraine… and that's to say nothing of the big,…
The Exploration of the Magellan Strait (The Chilean Channels – Part IV)
With the discovery of the route around the bottom of the continent, the Straits of Magellan became something of a backwater. As the centuries rolled past, mankind gradually moved away from barbarous nationalism and embarked on an era of scientific exploration – albeit still with commercial objectives – and it was in this new Age of Reason that men such as Philip Parker King and Robert FitzRoy were sent to make a proper investigation of Tierra del Fuego. And then,…
The Discovery of the Magellan Strait (The Chilean Channels – Part III)
From the Beagle Channel several much narrower waterways wind their way north into the Magellan Strait, joining it just west of the infamous Cape Froward (the southernmost point of continental America). Arriving here, the traveller is no longer just trailing after FitzRoy and Darwin; he is sailing in the wake of dozens of heroes. Magellan was the first, of course. Or at any rate, he is believed to have been the first. According to a Venetian gentleman who was sailing…