The Antarctic Files: The “Dreaded Drake”

We’re onboard the late,great (*) MS Explorer…enroute to Antarctica, on Wednesday, November the 9th, 1994. we headed ’round the ‘Horn,’ for the “Dreaded Drake,” A 650-mile/45-55 hour, no-land-in-sight, run. We’re the first ship of the ‘Spring’ season. Heading South was a comparatively dreadless journey…’.twas not the same for our voyage home! (*) “The Explorer was the first cruise ship used specifically to sail the icy waters of the Antarctic Ocean, and the first to sink there when she struck an unidentified submerged object on 23 November 2007, reported to be ice, which caused a 10 by 4 inches (25 by 10 cm) gash in the hull. The Explorer was abandoned in the early hours of 23 November 2007 after taking on water near the South Shetland Islands in the Southern Ocean, an area which is usually stormy but was calm at the time.”