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Dancing Round Cape Horn
The cruise ship leaves from Valparaiso
(It means the Valley of Paradise)
She sails due south, into a
wilderness of islands
along the Chilean coast.
The ship is modern and equipped
with every luxury because this cruise
will take its pampered passengers
around Cape Horn.
Air-conditioned cabins, fresh fruit
and flowers, saunas and Jacuzzis,
and there’s dancing every night.
They sail on Darwin’s route
but in reverse—armchair sailors,
book-readers, observers of survival.
The air, the sea turn colder as the ship
sails past the rocky Andean coast.
Penguins in flocks fly through
the waves, great silent albatross, icebergs
glide—creatures born of mist.
The Southern Cross hangs in the sky,
dimmed by eternal fog.
It’s cold. But passengers need never suffer.
Hot toddies, punch, and tea are served inside
where the bar is always open
and there’s dancing every night.
Four days of clouds and fog—then
Tierra del Fuego!
(It means the Land of Fire)
Darwin saw naked Indians on this
burnt, volcanic soil, rivers of lava
coursing down to sea, flightless birds,
tame elephant seals.
On the ship, the ladies dress for dinner,
having heard the lecturer describe
the bare and inhospitable Outside.
In the salon, the wine flows freely
and there’s dancing every night.
Next day the ship arrives at
its southern turning point—
Patagonia, the tip of South America!
They make landfall in Ushuaia
“Fin del Mundo”
(It means End of the World)
The passengers are put ashore.
Ushuaia sells itself as the capital of
harshness—shows tourists a museum
of its past as prison camp, where
the transported found death the only
warmth. To this day, new settlers are
rewarded. They receive a break on taxes.
The passengers escape
back to the ship, to sip their drinks
and take hot showers. The band
strikes up, ready for the nightly dance.
Tonight the ship will pass Cape Horn!
How many sails were shredded
How many hulls were shattered here?
How many toes and noses bitten off
by frost while men attempted this fierce
passage, while Darwin’s little “Beagle”
beat against the gale?
Despite the modern stabilizers, and
Dramamine, trans-dermal patches,
the sea is rough (although the ship is
in the Straits, the inside passage)
Some passengers are overcome.
“So sorry,” says the Captain in his handsome
whites, “the ship, she moves a little—do
have another glass of wine—by morning
we will leave behind Magellan’s Straits.
Meanwhile join us for the dance tonight.”
The passengers are looking forward to
The north, the calmer airs, Buenos Aires.
They have finished reading
“Voyage of the Beagle”— they are even
tired of dancing every night.
Darwin’s ship was hardly bigger
than a lifeboat on the cruise ship.
There was no radar, sonar, or Jacuzzi.
There was no room for dancing--
Any night.