Map of Drake ’ s Passage with our current course – Map from Google Maps
The Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was the first to prove , in 1520 , that it is possible to travel westwards from the Atlantic to the Pacific , through what is now called the Strait of Magellan . Before that it was unclear whether there was an opening in South America or whether land continued all the way down to the South pole . Darwin ’ s ship , The Beagle , captained by Fitzroy , later discovered another connecting channel , now called the Beagle Channel . These channels are still useful to shipping , because they allow ships to avoid the treacherous waters south of Tierra del Fuego and the Cape of Good Hope . Or in other words , to avoid going through Drake Passage .
However , rather than avoiding Drake Passage , we are going to trundle slowly across it , stopping twice a day to fish for plankton , analyse the sea water chemistry and see what gases are dissolved in it . The reason for our coming here is that the carbon chemistry of seawater varies strongly across Drake Passage , and so we hope to learn more about how plankton respond to these variations by studying the natural system across the Passage .
* Presumably Roald Amundsen did not regard helping to save Britain from the Spanish Armada as especially important .
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