On November 17, 1869, a momentous world event occurs that will begin the quick downward spiral of the Great Age of Sail: the opening to navigation of the Suez Canal. A man-made waterway connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean via the Red Sea that took more than a decade to build, the canal now enables a much more direct route for shipping between Europe and Asia. For the first time, ships can pass from the North Atlantic to the Indian Ocean without having to circumnavigate the African continent around the Cape of Good Hope.
The trip around the southern tip of Africa isn’t only much longer but is also extremely dangerous. Originally named the Cape of Storms in the 1480s by the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias, it was later renamed to Good Hope to attract more people to the Cape Sea Route. The Cape eventually became a significant port and waypoint for sailors traveling from Europe to Asia. The currents near the Cape, where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet, can be treacherous for ships, as Thomas Waters Jr. discovers during his career.
Dangerous waves from these currents have caused many shipwrecks. According to folklore, these shipwrecks led to the legend of the Flying Dutchman, a ghost ship doomed to sail the oceans forever after being lost in a severe storm near the Cape.
With the opening of the canal, which was made for steamships and not sailing ships, the Great Age of Sail begins to wind down, as wooden ships can no longer compete with steam-powered vessels who can deliver goods between East and West in half the time.
Thus, the end of Thomas Waters Jr.’s career as the captain of Wealth of Nations is perhaps symbolic of the greater demise of the merchant sailing ship.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: The Cape of Good Hope on the NASA Earth Observatory website.