Mr. Francis Drake, after whom the widest strait in the world is named, was incredibly lucky. He was a great explorer, a real pirate and an adventurer. Drake managed to get the full right to privateering from the hands of Elizabeth herself - the Queen of England, and later he received the honorary title for his service in the name of Britain and became vice admiral.
How did Francis Drake discover the widest strait on the planet?
In 1578, Drake's ship raced along the sea waves during a huge storm. The purpose of the trip was the Strait of Magellan, but nature had other plans. A storm hurricane carried a pirate ship into the open sea, past the place where he was heading, to subsequently make round-the-world navigation. Although in reality this trip was a predatory raid on the Spanish colonies on the shores of the Pacific Ocean.
Great geographical discoveries are often made involuntarily, mainly in search of countless treasures, precious metals and stones, as well as slave power and overseas delicacies. It was in this way that the widest intercontinental strait was discovered, named after the titled pirate.
Only one out of six vessel managed to stay afloat, and the surviving ship with the name "Pelican" carried the flow southward straight into the Pacific Ocean. On the occasion of the rescue, Drake changed the name of the ship to the Golden Doe, and it safely got after the robbery and looting on the Pacific coast, full of laden treasures.
The Drake Strait: A Brief Description
The strait connects the waters of the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean and is called the Drake Strait on all maps. In width, it reaches 820 km (and this is in the narrowest place), in some places there is a distance of 1120 km. Compared to the width, the length of the strait looks a bit more modest and amounts to 460 km. Depth ranges from 276 to 5250 meters.
The boundary of the strait conditionally passes from Cape Horn, related to Tierra del Fuego, and to Snezhniy Island (South Shetland Islands), related to Antarctica. The proximity to this cold mainland affects the climatic features. Even in summer, the water temperature does not rise above 6 ° C, although in winter it is about 3 ° C. This means that the widest strait remains navigable for a whole year, since it freezes by no more than 25%.
The Drake Strait: Customs and Traditions
Some traditions and customs are connected with the Drake Channel and the island of Horn among sailors. The most popular of them is the order of the English queen, according to which, after the first successful overcoming of this route, the sailors were supposed to have a copper earring, after the second - silver, and if the strait was conquered three times, then a gold earring was already flaunted in the sailor's ear. Along with many privileges that gave them the right to free drink, they were also called "sea wolves", which was considered quite prestigious at that time.
Since then, this water barrier has been overcome more than a dozen times. For example, the famous traveler from Russia Fedor Konyukhov safely crossed this dangerous section as many as 6 times, the last of which he committed in 2010. Following the ancient customs, he would have relied on this for 2 gold earrings and an honorary title.
Insidious water barrier
During the Great Discoveries, ships holding their way from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic had to repeatedly overcome the widest strait in the world. At the same time, seafarers always took a justifiable risk, since this insidious water barrier did not come to everyone's teeth. To this day, sailing along the strait is estimated as the conquest of Mount Jomolungma.
The widest strait of the planet is considered very dangerous and impassable. Enormous icebergs and whirlpools are often found along the way, sometimes unprecedented storms with waves up to 15 meters occur, and the incident wind reaches 35 meters in places in a second. Difficulties in passing the strait are also caused by a powerful current.
Although the Drake Strait is the widest strait, it is the bottleneck of the Southern Ocean. Since 1993, regular studies have been carried out, and measurements have been made, since this boundary between two huge oceans is the most important place for hydrological studies of the circumpolar current of the Antarctic.