Maxwell was not exaggerating about Cape Horn. Emma Louise came to the cape at the same time as what Maxwell described as a Cape Horn Snorter, which was another word for a storm. Despite my lack of experience, even I could feel that the ship was troubled, days before the storm hit. She lay sullen in glassy seas, rising and falling with sickening regularity as her masts spiralled against a low grey sky.
Emma Louise“We’re in for the devil of a blow,” Maxwell warned as Captain Douglass appeared on deck with a bottle in his hand and a curse on his lips.
“Trim these blasted sails, Mr Hayes, damn you for a landbound lubber,” Douglass shouted. “Can’t you feel the wind coming? It’ll blow the canvas out of the gaskets, else!”
As Hayes sent the hands aloft, cursing and blinding, flogging the lagga
