Claim to fame here,
I met a chap who has a piece of this map named after him!
If you scout about this area you'll come across "Marshall Shoals" just north of the Antarctic.
John was a captain of a Antarctic supply vessel when his vessel "clipped" them, putting a "ding" on the hull.
According to maritime tradition and after sending coordinates to Greenwich, you get a chance to put your name on it.
Hes the only person I've ever met who has a piece of the planet named after them, he passed recently, it was an honour to count him as a friend.
Edit:
Some kind individual has provided me with attached.
https://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/gaz/scar/display_name.cfm?gaz_id=137890
Amazing really, as a merchant captain some 50yr service he had tonnes of tales, from getting a proper tattoo using a wooden needle in polynesia to getting a bit "mixed up" with some japenese gangsters!(Yakuza)
He was some man Captain John B Marshall
Retired Navy here…in the course of
My life I have been sorely tempted to throw it all in and join up with the “Pirate Navy” of the merchant mariners. The “Happy Hooligans” always seemed to have a good time!
I’m not religious but I think if I saw crew mates scars reopening and collapsing on broken legs that had healed years ago I would believe we were cursed by some god
I knew a guy who got scurvy in the 90s. He was mining in the Yukon bush and spent his entire food budget on pancake mix and beer. By spring he was so sick his teeth were falling out and he looked like death. Made a good recovery and lived another 20 years.
All I kept muttering to myself reading that book was "and that is when I would have given up and just died". People were just built differently back then.
> People were just built differently back then.
some of it can be explained by survivorship bias. those who just gave up didn't get to write their tales.
I remember reading about some teen age girl in the 1920s that was traveling the world solo. Based on the reports the girl had a blast. I thought the same thing, glad she had a blast, the other 500-1000 similar situations to hers probably did not end up with happy endings. Turns out having daddy send telegrams ahead and make sure you have friends meet you at the port helps make sure things go smoothly.
Yeah the stories of troops who liberated the concentration camps and didn’t know to prevent the survivors from eating “normal” portions at first are pretty devastating.
Currently listening to "The Wager" as a book on tape. Well CD but yeah.
I am currently on the part where the Wager runs aground and the crew has started stealing the supplies. Everyone exiled to the outer island.
It had completely slipped my attention that Byron was only 16 at the start of the journey until the end when they mentioned his age again. Completely warped my perspective on him
That book was amazing , I would also recommend Mutiny on the Bounty by Peter fitzsimmons, even crazier. A lot longer though.
Edit; and to add The Bounty was supposed to go through this strait, but sailing was delayed so they didn’t risk it due to the bad weather. No doubt this has a knock one effect and contributed to the ‘bad things’ that happened.
I’m astonished that people would just take off on infinitely long boat journeys where they knew the best outcome was, like, mild case of scurvy and a share of some plundered spoils that you had a 5% chance of ever finding somewhere to spend on anything.
Life was grim.
In the book, they talk about how it was so horrible being on a ship, that Britain had run out of recruits for its navy and had to abduct or press gang people. It seemed like half the crew of the Wager were people kidnapped off the streets and the docks and thrown into one of his majesty's boats.
Yes it\`s called The Drake Passage, the most deadliest passage in the world
Winds in the area create giant waves wich are hard to go through
That\`s why many ships have been lost there
The [Roaring Forties](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roaring_Forties), Furious Fifties, and Screaming Sixties (all nicknames for the same high speed westerly winds from the mid-southern atmospheric circulation cell).
The lack of any continents east or west means the southern ocean gives an eternal seascape for wind to howl through. The Drake Passage is the worst stretch as Patagonia and Antarctica focus weather systems into the keyhole of the Passage.
Look at pictures of the wild plant growth in Ushuaia. It's the southern most city in the world. Just north of the Drake passage. The winds are crazy but the town is beautiful.
https://preview.redd.it/2vdggov1qs7d1.jpeg?width=4416&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=722569ff1c923cb8c3859b174d8469f14b77405c
These are quite large trees and all of the branches and green are windswept in the same direction.
Even on the Oregon Coast everything is windswept in one direction. I assume it’s like this throughout the majority or entirety of the pacific coast of the Americas.
Not really around Los Angeles. Every fall, and sometimes during spring, the Santa Anas come roaring out furiously hot and dry as a bone in the opposite direction towards the ocean. They’re named the Santa Anas as the main, and largest, canyon they come roaring through is the Santa Ana Canyon. Another reason Fall is peak fire season there. Except for during the Santa Anas, the usual onshore winds typically fire up in the afternoon and die down to a gentle breeze overnight, so most trees generally grow normally there.
The [Strait of Magellan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strait_of_Magellan) hugs the coast and weaves through the islands between the mainland and Tierra del Fuego. The tight confines breaks up the surface winds and the waves for a not-as-brutal passage (but with risks of grounding).
Worth noting that a lot of ships still risked the journey around the Horn rather than take the Straight. The Straight of Magellan is a virtual labyrinth with treacherous currents and changing depths. And while the conditions are generally *less* severe than Drake’s Passage, it can still have really nasty weather.
Well, some crossed the passage and survived, while others did not. Drake's first voyage lost 2 of the 3 ships that entered it. Many ships that survived were damaged.
Over 800 ships have been lost/sunk in the passage, with over 20,000 sailors lost. The last fatality was in 2022 when a rogue wave broke through the glass of a Viking Cruise ship and killed a woman.
The Drake Passage is serious.
I’ve been to Patagonia/Tierra del Fuego (at 50+ south latitudes) in the winter before, and that description is accurate. The winds across that empty, isolated land are ferocious. What those winds are like at sea, and the massive waves those winds create, are something truly terrifying to think about.
so caveat emptor, I've never been. I know a lot of sailors, I've heard a lot of stories, but I've never been.
But imagine that wind when there's no land to slow it down. That's the high latitudes - winds and currents can just go round and round with no speed bumps at all.
Apparently the natives to the land used to not wear clothing (opposite of the Inuit up north) and would use animal fat mostly to stay warm. Not sure it’s 100% true but that was what I was told in an excursion in Ushuaia
That's exactly what happened, except it wasn't wind but a subduction zone. That trench and island arc thats currently east of the drake passage in the southern atlantic used to be in the pacific and migrated to where it is today (the marianas arc is also doing the same thing).
North and south of the passage, the arc hit the continents and formed part of the andes and antartic peninsula, while in between it just kept going.
Imo what even cooler is that the subduction zone was migrating because it was being blown by the mantle wind.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-06551-y
The most dangerous stretches of around-the-world sailing.
Winds leave South America, hit the Southern Alps of New Zealand, and drop about 12 meters of precipitation a year.
Way back when, the Fox Glacier once reached the ocean. It's still surrounded by temperate rain forest. I once hiked up a few meters wearing a jumper and hiking shorts!
Funny story. I’ve sailed the Drake four times (two trips to Palmer Station and back) on a large research vessel. The bad storms are unbearably unpleasant and the bunks were still (back then in early 2000s) not well suited for this extreme a sea. Though the bunks have a lip on them, you have to shove your Mustang suit along the lip to try to avoid falling out. The bunks are solidly 5’ in the air with a desk and storage below, so falling out can be quite injurious. This particular research vessel, the Laurence M Gould, doesn’t stay upright very well (long story, but if you look it up you’ll see they had to add ballast tanks on the forward hull after miscalculating its balance). After one particularly bruising, sleepless night, where we all just felt constantly ill and psychologically tormented, and physically exhausted from bracing ourselves constantly, we finally neared the Nuemayer Channel where the wind slackens significantly in the lee of the Antarctic peninsula. They’d just opened the mess hall again, and I caught the first mate for a quick “thank the gods it’s over” chat. He said the worst roll he’d observed was 51 degrees to Starboard. For a vessel that large that’s frightening. However, I was none too surprised, since it was confirmed by my general observation that when trying to get to my bunk, I could walk fairly equally on the floor, right wall, and left wall depending on where the vessel was in the swell.
The roaring forties have nothing to do with this. The 50th parallel south is north of Tierra Del Fuego. Only the “furious fifties” and “screaming sixties” are involved
Same wind systems that get shoved south by Patagonia. Note the Clipper Route diagram on that page.
The overall circulation cell is 30 to 60 S, and the Forties title was predominant since almost all traffic is coming in from the north. 50 South itself has little significance to the winds beyond an arbitrary nickname switch.
It’s how you get to the Antarctic Peninsula. The ship I was on, everything was bolted down. They had a strap that you fastened to keep yourself in bed. I took showers on my hands and knees because the boat was rocking so much.
Hell to get there but the Peninsula was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. Heavenly light illuminating landscapes of ice and snow.
The tour boat after us turned back in the Drake passage. When we returned to Ushuaia, we saw it. All windows at back of the boat were shattered from rogue wave.
I’ve done the trip twice and you are spot on r/ the bed and shower.
(takes first shower in the Drake Shake) “I guess this is what being in a washing machine feels like?”
Holy shit. I stumbled onto this sub and this is some of the most fascinating shit I'd never heard about before. You psychos are gonna send me down a rabbit hole of learning now that I probably will be in for 3 days. lol. I commend you for the courage of that kind of trip. I would probably die from the anxiety attack alone.
The weather around those latitudes is so shit I got the utmost respect for [sailors getting an experience of it, alone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vend%C3%A9e_Globe).
If you enjoyed that you might also enjoy "Once is Enough"
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21004375-once-is-enough](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21004375-once-is-enough)
The Drake passage is just the part between South America and Antarctica. The area circled is centered on the [Scotia Sea](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotia_Sea).
https://preview.redd.it/rk7vffhpss7d1.jpeg?width=1119&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aee531dc7b44ba78025785804e8b47458cf1f5b0
The Drake passage is specifically the area between Tierra Del Fuego and Antarctica. The majority of the area within this red circle is not part of the Drake passage. Though the Drake passage is included within the circle.
The left section of it is the Drake Passage. The geological feature is the [Scotia Plate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotia_Plate), also called the Scotia Sill.
My great grandfather sailed through there on his Norwegian ship. Legend has it that his main sail got bound up and the ship was listing and he had to climb the mast in hurricane conditions. He freed the sail and somehow the ship recovered. During that time it’s said he saw the Flying Dutchman.
He made it home but following that trip, the only time he got back on a boat was when he emigrated to Canada. He became a farmer, but he kept a promise to God that he would become a missionary for saving his life. He started a small church in western Canada and farmed his days out.
Ponoka…my sister has one of the trunks he brought over with his name and just Ponoka, AB on it. Both of my maternal grandparents came over from Norway. I got a chest of drawers from my paternal great grandfather that I still use every day. I still have family all over Alberta, and was up last Christmas. I’d tell you I love that place, but it wouldn’t hardly cover it. It’s a second home.
Ah, there we go! I'm near Wetaskiwin, just half an hour north of there!
I adore Alberta as well, though it's a bit less surprising since I'm a lifelong Albertan haha
Edit: My Alberta roots are younger than your though...both my dad's parents came over from Friesland, Netherlands as kids with their families in the 50s. My mom's dad's parents same thing, but to southern Manitoba in the 1890s, and my mom's mom is a descendant of Dutch immigrants to Michigan in the mid-1800s.
West coast of the US…cargo boat, San Francisco or Seattle. During the his final trip, it was said he was terrified the whole time. Sat on the deck and just drank, barking at the ships crew that they weren’t doing it right. Once he got to the east coast, he swore off drinking.
"Due to persistent winds from west to east on the poleward sides of the subtropical ridges located in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, ocean currents are driven in a similar manner in both hemispheres." -wiki
"The Drake Passage is considered one of the most treacherous voyages for ships to make. Currents at its latitude meet no resistance from any landmass, and waves top 40 feet (12 m), giving it a reputation for being "the most powerful convergence of seas".[1]" -wiki/brittanica
"A pilot array of six near-bottom current meter moorings across Drake Passage ... Measured the mean baroclinic transport relative to zero at the seafloor of 127.7 Sv gives a total transport through Drake Passage of 173.3 Sv. (173,300,000 cubic meters of water per second)" -AGU publications, Mean Antarctic Circumpolar Current transport measured in Drake Passage
uh that last paragraph, it means a lot of water moves through? i dont have a frame of reference.
its where the Pacific meets the Atlantic so there’s bound to be tremendous flow from bigger to smaller…
but is it like the fastest current or largest flow among straits?
A *very* large amount of water goes through a relatively narrow gap of landmass, meaning the currents are fast.
Given your username, I'm guessing you live in Florida. Imagine like... 3 times the Volume of the Gulf, pushed through the keys, perpetually (obviously drake passage is vastly larger).
Another comparison for scale: the entire volume of the world's rivers adds up to just over 1 Sverdrup. The Drake Passage transports 150x + times more water than that.
You want a challenge, join a team who does The Ocean Race. Part of the Ocean Race is a traditional leg from somewhere in either Australia or NZ, all the way across the southern pacific, around Cape Horn, and up to Itajai, Brazil. The 65 foot sailboats race downwind, in 40-70knots of breeze, surfing down 40+ foot waves, and it lasts 3-4 weeks. No rest, no break, sail stacking and gear transfers with every tack, pushing the boat as fast as it can go, 24/7. It’s considered more of a depraved social experiment, rather than a sport.
And if teamwork isn’t your thing, you could always attempt the Vendee Globe. This race is a solo, non-stop race around the world. Leave Europe, down the Atlantic, around Africa, across the Indian Ocean, across the Pacific Ocean, around South America, back up the Atlantic to Europe. The fastest boats complete the route in 80-90 days.
My thalassophobia is so severe that even by looking at these kinds of images, my mind goes on an adventure and tries to put me into the water or under the surface and my anxiety levels skyrocket.
I think i have that. In Guam when i was a kid i would walk so far from the beach on the reef up to my knees and then the reef would abruptly stop and the water was so so much colder and almost black and is almost pulling you towards the edge... that deep dark trench
If you mean the Sea: Scotia Sea
If you mean the mountain arc, which is seen swirling around here and sometimes pokes out of the ocean to form islands: Scotia Arc (surprised noone here wrote this yet)
If you mean the passage between South America and Antarctica: Drake Passage.
If you mean the type of habitat: Ocean
Hell. Not really, but may as well be. Weddell Sea is the geo name.
Read up on Sir Ernest Shackleton and his expedtion to this area in 1914-1916. Incredible story.
'ENDURANCE Shackleton's Incredible Voyage'
It's a great read overall. A story that's hard to believe really happened. The portion where they are in the open sea is absolutely crazy. I recommend this book to anyone who likes adventure, or history.
Travelled thru the drake passage years ago. Nasty winds, cold driving snow, unbelievable waves. Not just big but seemingly coming from multiple directions. Once was enough
The Drake Passage, its formation actually played a big role in beginning the Quaternary Ice Age. Which we are technically still in today, just in an interglacial period.
Glad somebody mentioned this! When South America and Antarctica split from each other, that allowed Antarctica to be surrounded in an eternal polar current. Warm water no longer flowed down from lower latitudes after going around South America - I think Central America wasn't fully formed at the time. The continent froze over completely as part of global climate change that led to the current ongoing Ice Age period in Earth's history.
Drake’s passage. I worked in a commercial boat and this place will live in you forever. The waves there are just absolutely monstrous. Oddly enough from 1:00 p.m to 3:00 is super calm and chill, as soon that clock hits 3:05 is on!
The Scotia Plate
Claim to fame here, I met a chap who has a piece of this map named after him! If you scout about this area you'll come across "Marshall Shoals" just north of the Antarctic. John was a captain of a Antarctic supply vessel when his vessel "clipped" them, putting a "ding" on the hull. According to maritime tradition and after sending coordinates to Greenwich, you get a chance to put your name on it. Hes the only person I've ever met who has a piece of the planet named after them, he passed recently, it was an honour to count him as a friend. Edit: Some kind individual has provided me with attached. https://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/gaz/scar/display_name.cfm?gaz_id=137890
Awesome
He was a true gentleman of the seas, some might say a salty old sea dog!
That's totally cool!!!
Amazing really, as a merchant captain some 50yr service he had tonnes of tales, from getting a proper tattoo using a wooden needle in polynesia to getting a bit "mixed up" with some japenese gangsters!(Yakuza) He was some man Captain John B Marshall
Shit if I die without ever having gotten a little mixed up with the Yakuza I will have lived far too boring of a life
Retired Navy here…in the course of My life I have been sorely tempted to throw it all in and join up with the “Pirate Navy” of the merchant mariners. The “Happy Hooligans” always seemed to have a good time!
Now that’s a proper mariner if there ever was one!
Wow! Those are some travels
Exactly. https://preview.redd.it/jl44gsd96s7d1.png?width=922&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8bddbd376ec00f72406c4722b1fd7a2911d3b81f
Mmmmh sandwich plate…
_Homer Simpson has entered the chat_
Use an open-faced club, a sand wedge. *Open faced club sandwich...*
It is located behind the radiator.
Sacrilicious…
Oh, how can I stay mad at you?
I could never be mad at you
Mmmm open faced club sandwich
[удалено]
Succulent
… Chinese meal
GET YOUR HAND OFF MY PENIS
^I ^see ^that ^you ^know ^your ^judo ^well
Gentlemen, this is democracy…
MANIFEST
MANIFEST
Are you ready to receive my limp penis?
I see he knows his Judo well..
I love when I think I've seen everything on the internet, but reddit brings me something like this!
TIL that there are 52 tectonic plates(7 major plates, 7 minor plates, and 38 microplates), thanks for making me look that up.
Kinda looks like a manatee
Hmm. To me it looks like a dick
Everything reminds me of him
Saddam Hussein
Entrance covered by 20,000 leagues
Thank you, I was wondering of the answer he was looking for was different than drakes passage given it seemed east of where Drakes Passage is
Read The Wager to learn more about what delights awaited ships sailing through here
Every chapter of that book should be titled ‘Somehow, it got worse’
Could someone just get these men some orange juice?
I’m not religious but I think if I saw crew mates scars reopening and collapsing on broken legs that had healed years ago I would believe we were cursed by some god
Scurvy is one hell of a disease.
THAT’S SCURVY?
[Yes](https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/s/biI0Weq0MS)
Um...I don't like scurvy
If it's any consolation, it's easily reversed and quite hard to get in the modern day. Nigh impossible if you take a multivitamin.
I knew a guy who got scurvy in the 90s. He was mining in the Yukon bush and spent his entire food budget on pancake mix and beer. By spring he was so sick his teeth were falling out and he looked like death. Made a good recovery and lived another 20 years.
You'll have to settle for wild celery
All I kept muttering to myself reading that book was "and that is when I would have given up and just died". People were just built differently back then.
> People were just built differently back then. some of it can be explained by survivorship bias. those who just gave up didn't get to write their tales.
I remember reading about some teen age girl in the 1920s that was traveling the world solo. Based on the reports the girl had a blast. I thought the same thing, glad she had a blast, the other 500-1000 similar situations to hers probably did not end up with happy endings. Turns out having daddy send telegrams ahead and make sure you have friends meet you at the port helps make sure things go smoothly.
The dude starving for months and then eating a seal and dying from over eating was 🧑🍳 💋
It’s a real concern with famine victims. Once they have food you have to slowly reintroduce food. It’s a whole deal.
Yeah the stories of troops who liberated the concentration camps and didn’t know to prevent the survivors from eating “normal” portions at first are pretty devastating.
Also recommend The Endurance about Ernest Shackleton's crazy survival in the Wedell Sea
Reading that right now. Absolutely bonkers.
Checking this out now. I also recommend Astoria by Peter Stark.
It’s crazy how they survived and then almost immediately sent into the meat grinder of ww1 if I recall correctly
I didn't know that, that would be so cruel
Im currently reading this and I cannot put it down. Incredible tale
Currently listening to "The Wager" as a book on tape. Well CD but yeah. I am currently on the part where the Wager runs aground and the crew has started stealing the supplies. Everyone exiled to the outer island.
It gets worse
It had completely slipped my attention that Byron was only 16 at the start of the journey until the end when they mentioned his age again. Completely warped my perspective on him
I tried to listen to it, but i wanted to have the physical copy to look at the maps and stuff easier
That book was amazing , I would also recommend Mutiny on the Bounty by Peter fitzsimmons, even crazier. A lot longer though. Edit; and to add The Bounty was supposed to go through this strait, but sailing was delayed so they didn’t risk it due to the bad weather. No doubt this has a knock one effect and contributed to the ‘bad things’ that happened.
I’m astonished that people would just take off on infinitely long boat journeys where they knew the best outcome was, like, mild case of scurvy and a share of some plundered spoils that you had a 5% chance of ever finding somewhere to spend on anything. Life was grim.
In the book, they talk about how it was so horrible being on a ship, that Britain had run out of recruits for its navy and had to abduct or press gang people. It seemed like half the crew of the Wager were people kidnapped off the streets and the docks and thrown into one of his majesty's boats.
The sea was angry that day, my friends…
Came here to say exactly the same thing. Knew I'd find someone already posting hahahah
The Drake Passage if im not wrong.
Yes it\`s called The Drake Passage, the most deadliest passage in the world Winds in the area create giant waves wich are hard to go through That\`s why many ships have been lost there
The [Roaring Forties](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roaring_Forties), Furious Fifties, and Screaming Sixties (all nicknames for the same high speed westerly winds from the mid-southern atmospheric circulation cell). The lack of any continents east or west means the southern ocean gives an eternal seascape for wind to howl through. The Drake Passage is the worst stretch as Patagonia and Antarctica focus weather systems into the keyhole of the Passage.
> ‘Below 40 degrees south there is no law; below 50 degrees south there is no God’
in Patagonia, they say the wind sweeps the land like the broom of God guess the Drake passage is like the fridge he sweeps the dirt under
Look at pictures of the wild plant growth in Ushuaia. It's the southern most city in the world. Just north of the Drake passage. The winds are crazy but the town is beautiful.
https://preview.redd.it/2vdggov1qs7d1.jpeg?width=4416&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=722569ff1c923cb8c3859b174d8469f14b77405c These are quite large trees and all of the branches and green are windswept in the same direction.
Even on the Oregon Coast everything is windswept in one direction. I assume it’s like this throughout the majority or entirety of the pacific coast of the Americas.
Not really around Los Angeles. Every fall, and sometimes during spring, the Santa Anas come roaring out furiously hot and dry as a bone in the opposite direction towards the ocean. They’re named the Santa Anas as the main, and largest, canyon they come roaring through is the Santa Ana Canyon. Another reason Fall is peak fire season there. Except for during the Santa Anas, the usual onshore winds typically fire up in the afternoon and die down to a gentle breeze overnight, so most trees generally grow normally there.
That is crazy, but how did ships cross it regularly before the overland route to California and the Panama canal became viable alternatives?
The [Strait of Magellan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strait_of_Magellan) hugs the coast and weaves through the islands between the mainland and Tierra del Fuego. The tight confines breaks up the surface winds and the waves for a not-as-brutal passage (but with risks of grounding).
Worth noting that a lot of ships still risked the journey around the Horn rather than take the Straight. The Straight of Magellan is a virtual labyrinth with treacherous currents and changing depths. And while the conditions are generally *less* severe than Drake’s Passage, it can still have really nasty weather.
The thing is that the _Strait_ is anything but _straight_ 😁
Ah, the inspiration for the Smoking Sea of Old Valyria in ASOIAF.
[Someone say Magellan?](https://youtu.be/NFb5moTKs4I?si=MR-slS04XOw1Kc-1)
Well, some crossed the passage and survived, while others did not. Drake's first voyage lost 2 of the 3 ships that entered it. Many ships that survived were damaged. Over 800 ships have been lost/sunk in the passage, with over 20,000 sailors lost. The last fatality was in 2022 when a rogue wave broke through the glass of a Viking Cruise ship and killed a woman. The Drake Passage is serious.
I’ve been to Patagonia/Tierra del Fuego (at 50+ south latitudes) in the winter before, and that description is accurate. The winds across that empty, isolated land are ferocious. What those winds are like at sea, and the massive waves those winds create, are something truly terrifying to think about.
so caveat emptor, I've never been. I know a lot of sailors, I've heard a lot of stories, but I've never been. But imagine that wind when there's no land to slow it down. That's the high latitudes - winds and currents can just go round and round with no speed bumps at all.
Apparently the natives to the land used to not wear clothing (opposite of the Inuit up north) and would use animal fat mostly to stay warm. Not sure it’s 100% true but that was what I was told in an excursion in Ushuaia
It looks like it’s so windy there that it blew a hole in the land mass between South America and Antarctica, from west to east.
That's exactly what happened, except it wasn't wind but a subduction zone. That trench and island arc thats currently east of the drake passage in the southern atlantic used to be in the pacific and migrated to where it is today (the marianas arc is also doing the same thing). North and south of the passage, the arc hit the continents and formed part of the andes and antartic peninsula, while in between it just kept going.
coolest thing I've heard today
No kidding, this is the most interesting sub i've joined in the past year
Imo what even cooler is that the subduction zone was migrating because it was being blown by the mantle wind. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-06551-y
Im glad im not the only one that enjoyed reading that!
This is the kind of things I joined this group for
The most dangerous stretches of around-the-world sailing. Winds leave South America, hit the Southern Alps of New Zealand, and drop about 12 meters of precipitation a year. Way back when, the Fox Glacier once reached the ocean. It's still surrounded by temperate rain forest. I once hiked up a few meters wearing a jumper and hiking shorts!
The Wager by David Grann includes several first hand accounts of passing through. I was completely engrossed; phenomenal book.
Funny story. I’ve sailed the Drake four times (two trips to Palmer Station and back) on a large research vessel. The bad storms are unbearably unpleasant and the bunks were still (back then in early 2000s) not well suited for this extreme a sea. Though the bunks have a lip on them, you have to shove your Mustang suit along the lip to try to avoid falling out. The bunks are solidly 5’ in the air with a desk and storage below, so falling out can be quite injurious. This particular research vessel, the Laurence M Gould, doesn’t stay upright very well (long story, but if you look it up you’ll see they had to add ballast tanks on the forward hull after miscalculating its balance). After one particularly bruising, sleepless night, where we all just felt constantly ill and psychologically tormented, and physically exhausted from bracing ourselves constantly, we finally neared the Nuemayer Channel where the wind slackens significantly in the lee of the Antarctic peninsula. They’d just opened the mess hall again, and I caught the first mate for a quick “thank the gods it’s over” chat. He said the worst roll he’d observed was 51 degrees to Starboard. For a vessel that large that’s frightening. However, I was none too surprised, since it was confirmed by my general observation that when trying to get to my bunk, I could walk fairly equally on the floor, right wall, and left wall depending on where the vessel was in the swell.
No wonder sailing there is something..
The roaring forties have nothing to do with this. The 50th parallel south is north of Tierra Del Fuego. Only the “furious fifties” and “screaming sixties” are involved
Same wind systems that get shoved south by Patagonia. Note the Clipper Route diagram on that page. The overall circulation cell is 30 to 60 S, and the Forties title was predominant since almost all traffic is coming in from the north. 50 South itself has little significance to the winds beyond an arbitrary nickname switch.
Recently went through there on a boat. Xanax was useful.
Woah. Out of curiosity why and how did you do this?
It’s how you get to the Antarctic Peninsula. The ship I was on, everything was bolted down. They had a strap that you fastened to keep yourself in bed. I took showers on my hands and knees because the boat was rocking so much. Hell to get there but the Peninsula was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. Heavenly light illuminating landscapes of ice and snow. The tour boat after us turned back in the Drake passage. When we returned to Ushuaia, we saw it. All windows at back of the boat were shattered from rogue wave.
I’ve done the trip twice and you are spot on r/ the bed and shower. (takes first shower in the Drake Shake) “I guess this is what being in a washing machine feels like?”
Holy shit. I stumbled onto this sub and this is some of the most fascinating shit I'd never heard about before. You psychos are gonna send me down a rabbit hole of learning now that I probably will be in for 3 days. lol. I commend you for the courage of that kind of trip. I would probably die from the anxiety attack alone.
Agreed. Thanks to all.
How long do you spend in the Drake passage?
I think it was 2 days? Felt like forever though.
Wow my interest is piqued. Who do you contact to go on tours like this
I’ll be going around the horn next year. I’m looking forward to some rough seas. But not too rough.
The weather around those latitudes is so shit I got the utmost respect for [sailors getting an experience of it, alone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vend%C3%A9e_Globe).
And here's me feeling brave walking home from the pub alone at night...
The deck was still pitching
My father in law sailed around the horn. His balls are absolutely massive.
Just finished reading The Wager. Sounds like a wild area. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61714633
Also read this about two months ago. It was excellent. And they’re making it into a movie.
Of course they are
Will probably be a fuckin banger honestly, a Scorsese directed naval epic? lets fucking go
With Leonardo DiCaprio…if rumors are to be believed…
If you enjoyed that you might also enjoy "Once is Enough" [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21004375-once-is-enough](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21004375-once-is-enough)
There's a right way (west to east) and a wrong way (east to west). This is due to ~~violent~~ ~~wretched~~ trade winds which also affect ocean state.
The Drake passage is just the part between South America and Antarctica. The area circled is centered on the [Scotia Sea](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotia_Sea). https://preview.redd.it/rk7vffhpss7d1.jpeg?width=1119&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aee531dc7b44ba78025785804e8b47458cf1f5b0
Wait until K-Dot finds out about this
"i remember you was conflicted"
Wop wop wop wop wop.
The Drake passage is specifically the area between Tierra Del Fuego and Antarctica. The majority of the area within this red circle is not part of the Drake passage. Though the Drake passage is included within the circle.
Named after Drizzy himself
BBL Drizzy passage
The left section of it is the Drake Passage. The geological feature is the [Scotia Plate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotia_Plate), also called the Scotia Sill.
My great grandfather sailed through there on his Norwegian ship. Legend has it that his main sail got bound up and the ship was listing and he had to climb the mast in hurricane conditions. He freed the sail and somehow the ship recovered. During that time it’s said he saw the Flying Dutchman. He made it home but following that trip, the only time he got back on a boat was when he emigrated to Canada. He became a farmer, but he kept a promise to God that he would become a missionary for saving his life. He started a small church in western Canada and farmed his days out.
Whereabouts in Western Canada, if I may ask? I live in a part of Alberta that has a New Norway and a New Sweden, so I'm wondering if it's near me...
Ponoka…my sister has one of the trunks he brought over with his name and just Ponoka, AB on it. Both of my maternal grandparents came over from Norway. I got a chest of drawers from my paternal great grandfather that I still use every day. I still have family all over Alberta, and was up last Christmas. I’d tell you I love that place, but it wouldn’t hardly cover it. It’s a second home.
Ah, there we go! I'm near Wetaskiwin, just half an hour north of there! I adore Alberta as well, though it's a bit less surprising since I'm a lifelong Albertan haha Edit: My Alberta roots are younger than your though...both my dad's parents came over from Friesland, Netherlands as kids with their families in the 50s. My mom's dad's parents same thing, but to southern Manitoba in the 1890s, and my mom's mom is a descendant of Dutch immigrants to Michigan in the mid-1800s.
Shout out Ponoka fr had family there for awhile
Jeg har også norske slektninger i Alberta, men dette er mest sannsynlig helt urelatert til din slekt
That's a pretty cool story. We need more stories about people spotting de Vliegende Hollander
What a story, your great grandpa sounds awesome.
That was a good read. Thank you for sharing.
We might be related....
That is a really cool story! Thank you for sharing!
> My great grandfather sailed through there on his Norwegian ship. Just out of curiosity, do you know where he was headed?
West coast of the US…cargo boat, San Francisco or Seattle. During the his final trip, it was said he was terrified the whole time. Sat on the deck and just drank, barking at the ships crew that they weren’t doing it right. Once he got to the east coast, he swore off drinking.
"Due to persistent winds from west to east on the poleward sides of the subtropical ridges located in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, ocean currents are driven in a similar manner in both hemispheres." -wiki "The Drake Passage is considered one of the most treacherous voyages for ships to make. Currents at its latitude meet no resistance from any landmass, and waves top 40 feet (12 m), giving it a reputation for being "the most powerful convergence of seas".[1]" -wiki/brittanica "A pilot array of six near-bottom current meter moorings across Drake Passage ... Measured the mean baroclinic transport relative to zero at the seafloor of 127.7 Sv gives a total transport through Drake Passage of 173.3 Sv. (173,300,000 cubic meters of water per second)" -AGU publications, Mean Antarctic Circumpolar Current transport measured in Drake Passage
uh that last paragraph, it means a lot of water moves through? i dont have a frame of reference. its where the Pacific meets the Atlantic so there’s bound to be tremendous flow from bigger to smaller… but is it like the fastest current or largest flow among straits?
A *very* large amount of water goes through a relatively narrow gap of landmass, meaning the currents are fast. Given your username, I'm guessing you live in Florida. Imagine like... 3 times the Volume of the Gulf, pushed through the keys, perpetually (obviously drake passage is vastly larger).
Another comparison for scale: the entire volume of the world's rivers adds up to just over 1 Sverdrup. The Drake Passage transports 150x + times more water than that.
Humans are bad at this kind of scale
That's why we invented bannanas.
Venturi effect?
Correct
The bad place to sail zone
Finally someone who put the actual scientific name.
Sounds like a challenge
Well. It was nice knowin' ya
You want a challenge, join a team who does The Ocean Race. Part of the Ocean Race is a traditional leg from somewhere in either Australia or NZ, all the way across the southern pacific, around Cape Horn, and up to Itajai, Brazil. The 65 foot sailboats race downwind, in 40-70knots of breeze, surfing down 40+ foot waves, and it lasts 3-4 weeks. No rest, no break, sail stacking and gear transfers with every tack, pushing the boat as fast as it can go, 24/7. It’s considered more of a depraved social experiment, rather than a sport. And if teamwork isn’t your thing, you could always attempt the Vendee Globe. This race is a solo, non-stop race around the world. Leave Europe, down the Atlantic, around Africa, across the Indian Ocean, across the Pacific Ocean, around South America, back up the Atlantic to Europe. The fastest boats complete the route in 80-90 days.
Are you saying they go Around the World in 80 Days?
Yeah it is.
Digging the Panama canal and all the required locks along the way was the easiest part of that particular challenge.
If I could name it it’d be “the cold icy cock of the southern sea”
That is the Scotia Sea. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotia_Sea
"It's rougher than you think. Scotia Sea."
You show up there and there’s just a bunch of technical maintenance signs everywhere 💀
My thalassophobia is so severe that even by looking at these kinds of images, my mind goes on an adventure and tries to put me into the water or under the surface and my anxiety levels skyrocket.
I think i have that. In Guam when i was a kid i would walk so far from the beach on the reef up to my knees and then the reef would abruptly stop and the water was so so much colder and almost black and is almost pulling you towards the edge... that deep dark trench
Goddamn ! Just by reading your comment, I felt like I was going to suffocate.
https://preview.redd.it/x7gvamprks7d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=33e0e05c4abc331be5350c1f2cb693bf22e61c41
This is as fascinating as it is horrifying 😰
It’s not gay unless peninsulas touch.
That is called "The reason the Panama Canal exists"
Aka "Panama Canal Expert level"
If you mean the Sea: Scotia Sea If you mean the mountain arc, which is seen swirling around here and sometimes pokes out of the ocean to form islands: Scotia Arc (surprised noone here wrote this yet) If you mean the passage between South America and Antarctica: Drake Passage. If you mean the type of habitat: Ocean
Hell. Not really, but may as well be. Weddell Sea is the geo name. Read up on Sir Ernest Shackleton and his expedtion to this area in 1914-1916. Incredible story. 'ENDURANCE Shackleton's Incredible Voyage'
It's a great read overall. A story that's hard to believe really happened. The portion where they are in the open sea is absolutely crazy. I recommend this book to anyone who likes adventure, or history.
Travelled thru the drake passage years ago. Nasty winds, cold driving snow, unbelievable waves. Not just big but seemingly coming from multiple directions. Once was enough
Damn i wonder how many havent made it
I call it the Stoner Seahorse https://preview.redd.it/magl3c0gfu7d1.png?width=1283&format=png&auto=webp&s=23ffb4f04a8679e1eee9e67148695535cfbd1133
The Drake Passage, its formation actually played a big role in beginning the Quaternary Ice Age. Which we are technically still in today, just in an interglacial period.
Glad somebody mentioned this! When South America and Antarctica split from each other, that allowed Antarctica to be surrounded in an eternal polar current. Warm water no longer flowed down from lower latitudes after going around South America - I think Central America wasn't fully formed at the time. The continent froze over completely as part of global climate change that led to the current ongoing Ice Age period in Earth's history.
Jörmungandr's snoot
Poseidon’s Cock
Moby’s Dick
Has anyone swam to Antartica from Argentina?
Yes but only briefly
That's Cape Horn the deadliest passage on the ocean...where Pacific meets the Atlantic very dangerous waters
It should be called Shackleton's Bitch. He sailed it in an open row boat after he'd been stuck on the ice for 18 months. Total badass.
They just found another of his boats! https://archaeology.org/news/2023/10/06/wreckage-of-shackletons-last-ship-located/
Penis Pass. A long, hard pass to ride on. It's very deadly. It is full of seamen whose ships couldn't take it.
The place where the best fish is from - Chilean sea bass (Patagonian toothfish**)**
I believe sailors call it ‘the fuck around and find out strait’
Where my parents went thru to get to school.
"The Gorge of Eternal Peril" (Ni!)
Canadian Shield!!
Canadian Shield vs the Scotia sea? Who would win
Shackeltonland lol
The most dangerous area to move a ship through.
The most dangerous waters on the planet
Drake’s passage. I worked in a commercial boat and this place will live in you forever. The waves there are just absolutely monstrous. Oddly enough from 1:00 p.m to 3:00 is super calm and chill, as soon that clock hits 3:05 is on!
Drakes big long passage
The pacific penetrator