Hawaii - James Michener [119]
"We'll keep fires going for ten days," he promised the missionaries. "We'll dry you out proper."
Wives decked the Thetis with laundry, since none had been done for more than a hundred days, but it was energetic Abner Hale, tramping to the highest spot of the island, who made the big discovery. There was another ship hugging one of the northern harbors, and he and two sailors ran down to it. It was a whaler just in from the Pacific, and before long its skipper and Captain Janders were comparing all the charts thev had on the Magellan passage.
"It's a horrible passage," the whaler said, and he showed Captain Janders and Abner how the island of Tierra del Fuego, which they had tried to pass by the southern route, stood a narrow distance off the mainland of South America, so that the Strait of Magellan was actually the northern alternate route around Tierra del Fuego.
Nobody aboard either ship had ever penetrated the strait, but many recollected stories. "In 1578 Francis Drake made the passage in seventeen easy days," a historical expert recalled. "But in 1764 it took the Frenchman Bougainville fifty-two days. Record is two Spaniards who fought Magellan's route for a hundred and fifty days. But they finally made it."
"Why is it so difficult?" Abner asked.
"It isn't," the whaler explained. "Not until you reach the other end."
"Then what happens?" Abner pressed.
"See these rocks? The Four Evangelists? That's where ships perish."
"Why? Fog?"
"No. Westerlies from the Pacific pile up tremendous waves all along your exit from the passage. In trying to break out, you run upon the Evangels."
"You mean it's worse than where we just were?"
"The difference is this," the whaler explained. "If you try to double Cape Horn in adverse conditions, you might have fifty days of mountainous seas. It just can't be done. At the Four Evangelists the waves are worse than anything you've seen so far, but you can breast them in an afternoon ... if you're lucky."
"Where is it precisely that so many ships go on the rocks?" Janders reviewed.
"Here on Desolation Island. It's not bad of itself, but when a ship thinks it's breasted the Evangelists, it often finds it can't maintain position. In panic it turns and runs, and Desolation grabs it. Fifty . . . hundred ships."
"Any survivors?" Mister Collins asked.
"On Desolation rocks?" the whaler countered.
"What is the trick?" Mister Collins pressed.
"Find yourself a good harbor toward the western end of Desolation. Go out every day for a month if necessary and try to breast the Evangelists. But always keep yourself in position so that when you see you've got to run back to harbor for the night, you'll be in command and not the waves."
"That's exactly as I understand it," Captain Janders agreed.
"Is this an easterly coming up?" Mister Collins asked hopefully. "Seems to me if we caught a reliable easterly we'd be in luck. It would push us right through the strait."
"There's an error!" the whaler snorted. "Because while it's true that an easterly will help you a little in the first part of the transit, by the time the wind has built up a sea at the western exit, it simply creates added confusion around the Four Evangelists. Then you really have hell."
"But even so, the waves can be penetrated?" Janders inquired.
"Yes. Dutchmen did it. So did die Spaniards. But remember, go out every day from Desolation and come back every night till you find the right sea. And you do the steering.