The ship leaned way over to one side and stayed there, the waves started to grow, and the first breakers came over the bulwarks. stately ship towed past. However, our accelerated gaiety on board was suddenly interrupted with the sharp sound of a whistle calling the crew on to the Liverpool deck for the setting of the watches and a short talk by the captain. He spoke with vigor about a fast voyage---and absolute obedience. His words put everybody in their place. There was no compromise. Any grievance could be settled by the sea courts after voyage's end and full pay-off. Only then would our own will count again. It all was clear and without question, given to us in brieffashion. Rough , but ... ? Anyway, there was no laughing for a while. Normal passage soon brought us into the seaman' s paradise, the northeast and south east "passat" (trade winds). Under the coast of Argentina's Patagonia , the gradually appearing west winds put the smell ofthe pampas into our noses-we knew that with this, cold and bad weather were not long to come. Even with sail set only up to the lower topgallants, Kurt showed what she could do , running at 16to18 knots. We pressed west as much as possible at the beginning of the passage into the Cape Horn region. The captain sailed the ship through the Strait ofLe Maire, very close to Tierra del Fuego , between this archipelago and Staten Island. Then , out of the mist early one morning about 60 days out of Hamburg, a massive and high rock formation appeared. This was Cape Horn. To the west the land disappeared in a high rocky formation; to the east it flattened softly into the mist. The great rock's color was black and gray. Not a sign of any life. Even a few lost, early rays of sun did not create a more chee1ful scene. It all looked very sober, indeed. Up to now, we were carrying the upper topsails and steering a southern course. No captain in his right mind would try to round Cape Horn as close as we were ; we swung in a large circle toward the south to make a better traverse. I happened to have my turn at the wheel that morning. Captain T onissen, with a rare impulse, gave me some explanations ofthe course he was taking. We watched a long white water stripe in the comparatively calm sea, caused by two different currents
Captain W. Tonissen, seated third from left, and crew pose for their portrait. Photo, courtesy Dr. Jurgen Meyer.from his collection. striking each other. Suddenly, hasty black clouds came storming over the rocky landscape I have described, fell on them and erased the entire picture completely. With a shudder our sails filled and stiff ened out. We had got a little bit south from the shelter ofthe land. The westerly storm was now let loose upon us and it sang that old moaning melody through the rigging. The ship leaned way over to one side and stayed there, the waves started to grow, and the first breakers came over the bulwarks. We had prepared f or this for several days and had stretched ropes on the Liverpool deck, rail to rail, and also down on deck from bow to stern for the sailors to hold on to when the waves boarded. All hatches were doubly covered, so as to be absolutely watertight, and long nets were stretched above the rail along each side of the decks to strain out the sailors in case they were washed off their feet and headed overboard. Our pigs and chickens could no longer remain on deck and the only otherfourlegger was the captain' s dog, but he, too, hardly left his belowdeck quarters. The ship's port side was now completely under water and everything was covered with white ocean foam. Deeper and deeper Kurt dug her bow into the turbulent sea, with breakers now covering the entire forecastle. We were carrying too much canvas. Midday we went aloft and secured the mizzen sail as well as the upper topsails on mizzen and main masts, and finally the mainsail. By evening, we had taken in more sails yet. Once again both watches had to go up and furl the fore upper topsail. We ate hastily . With the watch changing every four hours, there was little time to sleep. The music of the wind, when we were below, was not so harsh. But the sound of the ship working was continuous. The foregoing voyage was to Santa Rosalia in the Gulf of California, halfway up the eastern shore of the long Baja peninsula. A dozen large Gennan Cape Horn square riggers were in Santa Rosalia, discharging coke and patent fuel for the steam plants and locomotives of the French mining operation. Among them was what could be called her "brother ship" theHans; Hans and Kurt were the two sons of Edmund Siemers, then owner of the nearly century-old finn . The Kurt discharged her cargo, The Kurt, with a tug alongside, in Hamburg harbor in 1908. Photo courtesy Walter R. Kresse, Museum of Hamburg History.
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SEA HISTORY 60, WINTER 1991-92