False Cape Horn or Falso Cabo de Hornos is a headland at the south end of Hoste Island, 35 statute miles (56 km) northwest of Cape Horn, located at 55°43′37″S 68°03′16″W / 55.72694°S 68.05444°W / -55.72694; -68.05444. False Cape Horn is the southernmost point of the large islands of the Tierra del Fuego group, located close to the mainland of South America.
At least 100 ships were lost in the Cape Horn area between 1850 and 1900. There were three passages through Cape Horn: Drake Passage, Magellan Strait, and Beagle Channel. All three were perilous, but only Drake Passage offered unlimited maneuvering room. It became the preferred route. Since the winds in the area are prevailing westerlies, False Cape Horn is a lee shore which from the west superficially resembles the real Cape Horn to the south. If the officers and crew of a ship saw land off the starboard bow (to the south), there was virtually no chance of stopping or turning, or even slowing, a ship in time to avoid wrecking on the Wollaston Islands. This mistake caused several shipwrecks.
Administratively, False Cape Horn, which belongs to the Commune of Cabo de Hornos, is part of the Antártica Chilena Province of the Magallanes y Antártica Chilena Region, Chile.
Famous quotes containing the words false, cape and/or horn:
“Sir Andrew Aguecheek. I know, to be up late is to be up late.
Sir Toby Belch. A false conclusion. I hate it as an unfilled can. To be up after midnight and to go to bed then, is early; so that to go to bed after midnight is to go to bed betimes.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“A solitary traveler whom we saw perambulating in the distance loomed like a giant. He appeared to walk slouchingly, as if held up from above by straps under his shoulders, as much as supported by the plain below. Men and boys would have appeared alike at a little distance, there being no object by which to measure them. Indeed, to an inlander, the Cape landscape is a constant mirage.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The hounding of a dog pursuing a fox or other animal in the horizon may have first suggested the notes of the hunting-horn to alternate with and relieve the lungs of the dog. This natural bugle long resounded in the woods of the ancient world before the horn was invented.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)