Cape Correntes (sometimes also called "Cape Corrientes" in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

) ( Port.: "Cabo das Correntes") is a

cape A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment which drapes the wearer's back, arms, and chest, and connects at the neck. History Capes were common in medieval Europe, especially when combined with a hood in the chaperon. Th ...

headland A headland, also known as a head, is a coastal landform, a point of land usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends into a body of water. It is a type of promontory. A headland of considerable size often is called a cape.Whittow, John ...

in the Inhambane Province in

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

. It sits at the southern entry of the

Mozambique Channel The Mozambique Channel (french: Canal du Mozambique, mg, Lakandranon'i Mozambika, pt, Canal de Moçambique) is an arm of the Indian Ocean located between the Southeast African countries of Madagascar and Mozambique. The channel is about lon ...

.• Cape Correntes was historically regarded as one of the most terrifying obstacles facing sailing ships in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

. It is named after the exceptionally fast southward current that passes here, part of the

Mozambique Current The Mozambique Current is an ocean current in the Indian Ocean, usually defined as warm surface waters flowing south along the African east coast in the Mozambique Channel, between Mozambique and the island of Madagascar. The classical definitio ...

, with a tendency to form

eddies In fluid dynamics, an eddy is the swirling of a fluid and the reverse current created when the fluid is in a turbulent flow regime. The moving fluid creates a space devoid of downstream-flowing fluid on the downstream side of the object. Fluid b ...

at this cape. It is also a confluence point of winds, with the capacity to produce unpredictably violent gusts and whirlwinds. Medieval

dhow Dhow ( ar, داو, translit=dāwa; mr, script=Latn, dāw) is the generic name of a number of traditional sailing vessels with one or more masts with settee or sometimes lateen sails, used in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean region. Typically spo ...

s of the Kilwa Sultanate rarely (if ever) sailed below it, thereby making Cape Correntes the southern boundary of the Swahili Coast and cultural zone. Local legends said the cape was inhabited by

mermaid In folklore, a mermaid is an aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including Europe, Asia, and Africa. Mermaids are sometimes asso ...

s that lured unfortunate sailors to their deaths. Bonne - Afrique, cote orientale

In the 16th century, Portuguese ships on the ' India Run' that charted an entry into the

too near to the coast often had difficulty surpassing Cape Correntes, and were sometimes pushed backwards by the fast contrary current and complicated winds (most famously,

Vasco da Gama Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira (; ; c. 1460s – 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by sea. His initial voyage to India by way of Cape of Good Hope (1497–1499) was the first to link E ...

, in January, 1498, the first European captain to attempt to surpass it from below, was forced backwards to Inharrime). Sailing in the other direction was even more dangerous, as the velocity of the current at the cape could easily throw a ship headlong into the numerous shoals and protruding rocks that characterize this stretch of coast. It is estimated that 30% of the ships lost in the yearly

Portuguese India Armadas The Portuguese Indian Armadas ( pt, Armadas da Índia) were the fleets of ships funded by the Crown of Portugal, and dispatched on an annual basis from Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal to Portuguese India, India. The principal destination was Por ...

in the 16th and 17th centuries capsized around Cape Correntes, more than any other location.Guinote (1999). As a result, for much of the 16th century, captains returning from India to Portugal with heavy-laden (and thus less-maneouverable) ships were forbidden from sailing into the

and were required to chart a course via the 'outer route', that is, east of

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

island, through the

Mascarenes The Mascarene Islands (, ) or Mascarenes or Mascarenhas Archipelago is a group of islands in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar consisting of the islands belonging to the Republic of Mauritius as well as the French department of Réunion. Thei ...

, coming back under the island, thereby avoiding the treacherous and fast waters of Cape Correntes. The peculiar terrors of Cape Correntes were alleviated with the development of reliable instruments to measure

longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east–west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek letter l ...

, allowing ships to avoid sailing near the headland, and chart a more comfortable course through the middle of the Mozambique Channel.

Notes

References

* Guinote, P.J.A. (1999) "Ascensão e Declínio da ''Carreira da Índia''", ''Vasco da Gama e a Índia'', Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 1999, vol. II, pp 7–39. Retrieved from th
internet 2003
* Theal, George McCall (1902) ''The Beginning of South African History''. London: Unwin. Landforms of Mozambique Maritime history of Portugal Headlands of Africa {{Mozambique-geo-stub