In the southern summer of 1977-78 the author and two companions sailed a 47 foot sloop from New Zealand through the Southern Ocean to Cape Horn where they scuba dived; and on through the waterways, canals and fiords of Tierra del Fuego, the Magellan Straits and a thousand miles of Chilean Patagonia waterways.
The narrative terminates at Robinson Crusoe Island off mid-Chile where they dived the wreck of the German light Cruiser Dresden sunk in 1914. In the Golfo de Penas they searched for the lost vessel HMS Wager, storeship of Admiral Anson's 1740 British expedition to loot Spanish ports. These, and other diving and sailing stories, intersperse the journey.
The voyage marked the end of an era and pre-dated modern aids. Without a workable radio they navigated with a sextant, two wrist watches and a chart of half the Pacific Ocean. They survived 80 knot gales, numerous knockdowns and seas in the Southern Ocean too great to be adequately described.
ANZEC Member - Peter Fields
Originally from New Zealand and a diver since the early 60s, Peter sailed a yacht through the Southern Ocean to South America in 1977 and was one of the first in the world to scuba-dive Cape Horn.He searched for HMS Wager,store-ship of Admiral Anson's Royal Navy plunder expedition, which was lost in Patagonia in 1740 and was the first person on the wreck site since 1744. He also dived the WW1 German cruiser DRESDEN, shelled and sunk by the Royal Navy in 65-70 metres depth in Cumberland Bay at Isla Robinson Crusoe ,Chile. His book "Heading For Cape Horn" describes his adventures.He moved to Australia in 1978, started his own company and became Scubapro USA's Australian distributor during the 1980s.Previously in NZ he was a partner in Diver Services Ltd, a flourishing commercial diving, training and retail operation.He's a keen wreck-hunter and diver and in 1994 co-discovered Sydney's "last" shipwreck ,the collier MYOLA lost since 1919,3 miles out from Long Reef in 48 metres depth.In 1998 he was navigator for the small group which found the TASMAN, an historic interstate passenger steamer wrecked off Hippolyte Rocks in Tasmania in 1883.Previously he had discovered the remains of the barque ROYAL TAR near Shearer Rock in Auckland's Hauraki Gulf in 1969. Sunk in 1901 after striking the rock, the Royal Tar had interesting connections with 19th century Australian history. Built in the Nambucca river in northern NSW ,the Tar carried two shiploads of disaffected Australian shearers to Paraguay in the 1890s, where they hoped to establish a new utopian colony after a disastrous shearers' strike failed in Australia. Dame Mary Gilmore was one of the colonists for a time.He has his own 6 metre dive boat and dives shipwrecks regularily weekly.Peter is a Founding Board Member of the Historical Diving Society, South-East Asia Pacific.After early flying training with the RNZAF he was grounded for spurious reasons by an Army medic but he later took up flying again to Private Pilot level and has a couple of hundred hours logged.Supplementary data: Interests are wreck-diving and exploration, aviation.
