Atlantic Ocean: Rounding the Horn

17) Rounding the Horn
Cape Horn, Late January to Late February 1845

And as we wallup around Cape Horn,
Heave away, Haul away!
You wish to God you’d never been born!
—“Rolling Kings,” trad. sea shanty

A) Isla de los Estados
One morning after the Falklands are passed, the lookout cries “Land ho!” The land in question is Staten Island, which marks the beginning of Cape Horn. Antarctica is only 500 miles to the south! In preparation for the rounding, Joab orders the Quiddity to be made “fully ship-shape”—her decks are scrubbed and holystoned, her rigging freshly tarred, and all ropes coiled down in best Flemish style. The two anchors are hauled on deck and lashed down, and the whaleboats are removed from their davits, turned keel-up, and secured to the tryworks. The royal masts are “sent down” and the royal sails safely stowed. The carpenter is instructed to check the deadlights, the wooden shutters that protect the ship’s portholes and windows. Finally, worn sails are replaced with stronger “Cape Horn sails,” and a main staysail is bent from the maintop down to the foremast. This triangular sail adds stability during heavy weather. (All relevant characters are allowed to make Operate Heavy Machinery, Repair, and Seamanship rolls to gauge their general effectiveness in these preparations.) Once Joab is satisfied, he gives the fateful order—“Let’s round the Horn, lads! It’s time we see the other side of the world!”

B) Rounding Cape Horn
The first few days sailing below Tierra del Fuego are relatively uneventful. Opposing winds keep pushing the ship away, but no storms appear. The sea gradually rises, and the men become more accustomed to the long days—even at midnight, there’s a milky glow on the horizon. Eventually the expected storms materialize, and within the space of a week the greenhorns begin to understand Whipple’s charge of “godlessness.”

And so begins three weeks of hell! The winds are ferocious, shot through with sleet and hail, and the swells rise 40-60’ tall under stormdark skies. Without the usual rhythms of sunrise and sunset, the days chain together into a gloomy, endless dream; no rest for the wicked as they struggle to keep the ship on course. The cold brings painful chilblains to the sailor’s hands, and their feet feel mired in a chilly slush. Any attempt to light stoves for warmth eventually summons a swarm of cockroaches. Sailors dread their trick at the wheel, as the Cape fights with the unholy fury of a living beast, and every helmsman departs exhausted and bruised. Icebergs may be seen in the distance, their clandestine movements representing veiled threats to safe passage. Only Joab’s wise leadership and implacable courage propels the ship forward.

Roleplaying the Passage
The shipboard atmosphere becomes fretted with fear, tension, and fatigue, and after a few days, men start making careless mistakes. The Keeper is encouraged to play into this: while not every day of this three-week period should be narrated, a dreamy atmosphere of exhaustion may be punctuated by sudden eruptions of violence that materialize from nowhere: sailors washed off deck, a topgallant mast splintering into a deadly missile, a sail torn from its rigging and flapping into the sky, a sailor entangled in the sheets. Such scenes may be backed by frantic skill rolls, sudden bursts of physical damage, or unexpected Sanity checks. Perhaps the crew witnesses another whaler in the distance, its masts struck by lightning? Imagine the horror of watching a comrade burn, capsize, and sink—with no rescue possible. Belowdecks isn’t much better, and sleep is difficult in the pitching gloom. There’s certain to be arguments, fistfights, and petty theft. Perhaps someone breaks into the grog rations? There’s no need to weave all these incidents into a coherent narrative: the hours are endless, and the men are mentally, physically, and spiritually exhausted. A little fractured storytelling helps illustrate this perilous state of mind!

C) The Aurora
One “night” the skies erupt with dancing veils of greenish light—the aurora australis, or Southern Lights. The sight stuns sailors unaccustomed to the Greenland fishery, and a Natural History or Astronomy roll confirms the aurora is a rare sight in these waters at this time of year. Nevertheless, there it is: a silent ghost dance, and the perfect setting for a restless night of dreams…or worse…

D) Morgan’s Transformation
Rounding the Horn provides the Keeper an excellent opportunity to trigger Stage 2 of Morgan’s Transformation. Shivering cold, deprived of darkness, constantly stressed—eventually the blacksmith is forced to make a Sanity roll. (See “Morgan’s Transformation” in “Player Character Secrets and Development” for details.) During this time, Morgan is tortured by his dark desires: Thoughts of cannibalism, sodomy, or rape? Dreams of Mina? And what if a sailor perishes—will Morgan wake up snacking on the dead body? Just how this unfolds is up to Morgan’s player and the Keeper; but neither should do anything to publicly expose Morgan’s true nature to the other players.

E) Rachel’s Pregnancy
Rachel Ward begins “showing” during these long weeks, and anyone making a Medicine roll can guess her condition by the time the storms arrive in earnest. If she tries to conceal her pregnancy, a Disguise roll may be used to oppose such prying observations; but as mid-February approaches, anyone making a Hard Intelligence roll is pretty sure what’s going on!

F) Success
Nearly a month into the crossing, the storms subside. All hands breathe a long sigh of relief: the Quiddity has rounded the Horn! The royal masts are raised, lookouts are posted, and the ship returns to normal, traveling up the coast of Chile. A long, greasy voyage lies ahead, and the warm waters of the Pacific are waiting!

White Leviathan, Chapter 2—Atlantic Ocean
[Back to Encounter 16: Approaching Cape Horn | White Leviathan TOC | Forward to Chapter 3, The Pacific Ocean Part I]

Author: A. Buell Ruch
Last Modified: 9 August 2023
Email: quail (at) shipwrecklibrary (dot) com
White Leviathan PDF: [TBD]