Text and painture : Captain Hans Peter Jürgens ( German Cap. Hornier)
Translation German to Spanish : Captain Lientur Klapp W. (Chilean Navy)
Translation Spanish to English : Lt.(Ret) David Pugh O.
Adaptation : Rear Admiral Roberto Benavente M.

The painting of Captain Hans Peter Jürgens tries to interpret the never declining achievement of a sailing crew in Cape Horn, with very strong winds that forces to withdraw part of the sails, to leave a small area of the sails on deck, to face up the strong sea that floods the ship from bow to stern.

The unbeatable persistence of the crew members is demonstrated during the navigation around Cape Horn on board a frigate from Hamburg called SUSANNA that sailed in very bad weather conditions during winter of 1905.

99 days, more than 3 months, this vessel stayed at the very south of South America, in which 80 days sailed with a strong storm – with winds with force 10 or more – and approximately 150 hours remained in a hurricane.

Great steel ships with 4 masts had to go into port on emergency because of the severe damages suffered in Montevideo and Falkland Islands to repair the rigging caused by the storms during the sailing across the Cape Horn. Other ships gave up the crossing across the Cape Horn and took the long rout from Africa to South America.

99 days of hard work with rain, cold, storm and lack of visibility, without winches to manoeuvre the fathoms and the heavy yards, took to repair the ship. The fathoms and the yards had to be hoisted by hand.

With the permanent work with salt water, the joints of the fingers smashed and the hands cracked. The skin of the wrists and neck crushed with the continuos rubbing with the water clothing and the bones of the body broke very frequently. The provisions were very scarce and the drinkable water was mixed with snow and rain to increase its quantity.

On the 19 of August the latitude 50° South was crossed in the Atlantic and only on the 26 of November of 1905 the region of the Cape Horn in the Pacific was left.

At last, when the lights of the lighthouse in Iquique were to be seen, it was discovered that due to a failure in the chronometer the ship was way apart in longitude, therefore the ship had to sail an other week towards East and after 189 days at sea the ship arrived to the nitrate port of Iquique, Chile.

The SUSANNA was the second vessel of the firm Siemers and Company, founded in 1811. In 1892 this company created a line of vessels exclusively for the transport of Chilean nitrate with two great frigates built by Blohm and Voss in Hamburg. The frigates were the THEKLA, which disappeared in 1899 and the SUSANNA of 1975 tons. This last frigate waited for a splendid future before she disappeared in 1913.

In 1908 during the return to the West coast of South America, being towed to the river Elba, she collided with the Swedish steamer ANNI. The steamer sank and 6 crewmembers lost their lives.

The next damage suffered to the SUSANNA occurred in 1911. During a trip from England to the West coast of South America at the region of Cape Horn it was observed that the loading of coal were to catch fire very spontaneously. With great precautions the forming of the flame was avoided with the help of nitrogen which was carried for this purposes in tubes. The nitrogen was injected to the holds through pipes by pumps.

At the destination port of Iquique this load – in low combustion – was flooded with drinkable water. After the opening of the holds it was founded – in stead of coal-a thick layer of coke, meanwhile at the bottom various meters of tar was deposited. For the receptor of the load it was said that it was not a bad business.

The end of the SUSANNA occurred on the 14 of August of 1913, when she was returning from a long trip run aground with mist on the coast of Cornwall and was lost for ever.