The Cape Horn Monument was inaugurated on December 5, 1992. It was erected by the Chilean chapter of the Chilean Association of Cape Horniers in the memory of the seamen from every nation who perished in the battle against inclemency of nature in the southern seas around the legendary Cape Horn.
The monument is 7 meters high and consists of two independent pieces each made of five steel plates. It is the work of the Chilean sculptor José Balcells Eyquem. It is built to withstand wind gusts to 125 mph. There are two marble slabs on the path to the monument. One with the dedication and the other with a poem by Sara Vial, a writer from Valparaiso.
The above text is paraphrased from a presentation given aboard the Cruceros Australis ship that we were aboard. The poem follows:
“I am the albatross that awaits you at the end of the earth.
I am the forgotten soul of the dead sailors who sailed around Cape Horn from all the seas of the world
But they did not die in the furious waves, today they fly on my wings, toward eternity, in the last crevasse of the Antarctic winds.”