Strait of Magellan

Geographical location

The Strait of Magellan (Latin Fretum magellanicum, Spanish Estrecho de Magallanes ) is a strait with numerous islands and side channels between the South American mainland and the island of Tierra del Fuego. It connects also shortly before the southern end of South America the Atlantic with the Pacific Ocean. Since 1881, the Strait of Magellan is part of the Chilean territory.

On-board data

The Strait of Magellan has its navigable course of the Punta Dungeness near the Cabo Virgenes on the Atlantic coast to the northern tip of Isla Desolación in the Pacific a length of nearly 570 kilometers or 310 nautical miles and is at the narrowest point 3.5 km (2.2 nautical miles ) wide. Both channel ends are almost on the same latitude of 52 ° 30 ' South, but the course of the passage makes a bend to a 160 km southerly point at about 54 ° South. Cape Horn still about 350 miles from this point is located further to the southeast. About 200 km from the Atlantic Ocean mouth of the channel is the port city of Punta Arenas. The different water levels separated by the South American continent oceans and the ruling in Patagonia strong winds cause strong currents, dangerous fall winds and waves.

Discovery

The Portuguese Fernão de Magalhães, who was broken up in 1519 in the service of the Spanish crown as Captain-General with a fleet of ships to a circumnavigation, found in 1520 this passage. On October 21, the day of the 11,000 virgins, Magalhães sighted near the 52nd parallel a cape and named it "Cape of the Virgins " - Cabo Virgenes. A terrible, more than 36 hours of permanent storm drove on 1 November, the All Saints, two of his ships in a bay, which proved to be a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean in the further course. Magalhães gave this channel after the first calendar day of the ( Portuguese ) name Estreito de Todos os Santos ( All Saints' channel ), which was later changed by the Spanish king in Estrecho de Magallanes.

A landing party was sent to the North Coast, in those harsh and cold area, Magalhães had previously called Patagonia. But aside from an ancient burial with two hundred human skeletons could discover nothing the sailors. In the south of the strait, however, says Antonio Pigafetta, the chronicler Magalhães ', " we saw in the night many fires ". The captain-general called the country according to " Tierra del Fuego ," Land of Fire.

Fauna

The diverse fauna includes, among other things, albatrosses, seals, penguins and sea lions in numerous side arms of the ocean passage.

Importance

Their greatest importance was the Magellan Strait before the construction of the Panama Canal, but even now it is traversed by many ships. The connection between the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean opened in the 16th century a western route to the Spice Islands economically important ( Moluccas ). The rapid colonization of the South American west coast was only made possible by the discovery of this waterway. Even after Francis Drake discovered on his circumnavigation of Cape Horn, and Willem Cornelisz Schouten 1616 Drake Road sailed for the first time, the Strait of Magellan was the preferred compound in the Pacific Ocean. The sailors were able to supply easily with food and drinking water on their banks and were not exposed to the unpredictable forces of nature off Cape Horn.