The Maritime Heritage Project

Rounding the Horn: Being the Story of Williwaws and Windjammers, Drake, Darwin, Murdered Missionaries and Naked Natives–a Deck’s-eye View of Cape Horn

Dallas Murphy

Fifty-five degrees 59 minutes South by 67 degrees 16 minutes West: Cape Horn—a buttressed pyramid of crumbly rock situated at the very bottom of South America—is a place of forlorn and foreboding beauty that has captured the dark imaginations of explorers and writers from Francis Drake to Joseph Conrad.

For centuries, the small stretch of water between Cape Horn and the Antarctic Peninsula was the only gateway between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It’s a place where the storms are bigger, the winds stronger, and the seas rougher than anywhere else on earth.

Dallas Murphy has always been sea-struck. In Rounding the Horn he undertakes the ultimate maritime rite of passage, and brings the reader along for a thrilling, exuberant tour. Weaving together stories of his own nautical adventures with long-lost tales of those who braved the Cape before him — from Spanish missionaries to Captain Cook — and interspersing them with breathtaking descriptions of the surrounding wilderness, Murphy has crafted an immensely enjoyable read.

Ships in the Strait of Magellan Rounding Cape Horn

Welcome Sign, Cape Horn Island, Chile Ken Gillham

Daily Alta California, November 17, 1853

Written by three journalists who were witnesses to and participants in the extraordinary events they describe, The Annals of San Francisco is both an essential record for historians and a delightful narrative for general readers. Over 100 historical engravings are included. Partial Contents: Expeditions of Viscaino; Conduct of the Fathers towards the natives; Pious Fund of California; Colonel John C. Fremont; Insurrection of the Californians; Description of the Golden Gate; The Mission and Presidio of San Francisco; Removal of the Hudson’s Bay Company; Resolutions concerning gambling; General Effects of the Gold Discoveries; Third Great Fire; Immigration diminished; The Chinese in California; Clipper Ships; Increase of population; and Commercial depression.

The Fyddeye Guide to America’s Lighthouses
The Fyddeye Guide to America’s Lighthouses makes your travel planning easier by showing you hundreds of fascinating lighthouses you can visit today on the east coast, Great Lakes, Gulf Coast, and the west coast, including Alaska and Hawaii. From remote islands in Maine to the metropolises of southern California, you’ll discover the towering historic structures that have inspired travelers for millennia. You can get close to virtually all America’s lighthouses, and many allow you to climb to the top and stay as long as a month in historic buildings.

• More than 750 lighthouses, conveniently organized by coastal region and state
• Brief histories and complete contact information, including website, email address, and phone
• Three maps with suggested itineraries for discovering lighthouses in New England, Michigan, and California
• Notes on whether you can stay overnight on the lighthouse grounds, possibly in the keepers’ historic quarters
• Chapters on lightships and historic life-saving stations, including availability of overnight accommodations
• More than 40 images of lighthouses from coast to coast

With a foreword by leading New England lighthouse photographer Jeremy D’Entremont.