Drake Passage

　　The Drake Passage is located between the southern tip of South America and the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica, adjacent to Chile and Argentina. It is part of the Southern Ocean. Before the construction of the Panama Canal, the Drake Passage was one of the important maritime routes connecting the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. The passage is named after its discoverer, the 16th-century English privateer captain Francis Drake, who himself never sailed through this passage but instead chose the calmer Strait of Magellan.

　　The Drake Passage is the widest strait in the world, spanning up to 970 kilometers in width, with the narrowest point being 645 kilometers wide — representing the shortest distance between Antarctica and any other continent. At the same time, it is also the deepest strait in the world, with a maximum depth of 5,248 meters. If you were to stack two Mount Huashans and one Mount Hengshan into the passage, not even their peaks would break the surface. The Drake Passage is infamous for its violent waves and storms — as the meeting point of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and situated at high southern latitudes, storms dominate the region. It seems to gather all the hurricanes and turbulent waves from both oceans. With wind forces exceeding force 8 every day of the year, even 10,000-ton cargo ships are tossed about like leaves on the raging seas. This strait, which howls with winds year-round, has historically caused countless ships to sink to the ocean floor. As a result, the Drake Passage has been dubbed the “Killer Westerlies,” the “Corridor of Storms,” the “Devil’s Passage,” and is truly a “passage of death.”

　　In the early 16th century, Spain occupied the South American continent. To cut off trade between other Western nations and Asia and the Americas, they blockaded the sea routes and prohibited ships from other countries from passing through, turning the Pacific Ocean into Spain’s private sea. During this time, the British privateer Francis Drake, while attacking slave ships, was assaulted by the Spanish. After narrowly escaping, Drake turned to piracy, specifically targeting Spanish merchant ships for revenge. In 1577, while evading pursuit by Spanish warships, Drake accidentally discovered this strait. This discovery provided Britain with a new route to the Pacific that did not require passing through the Strait of Magellan. Since then, the strait has been named after its discoverer — the Englishman Francis Drake.

　　After the opening of the Panama Canal, the role of the Drake Passage as a major shipping route gradually diminished. However, as Antarctica has become increasingly important to the future survival and development of humanity, global interest in the continent has grown, with many countries conducting scientific research and expeditions there. The Drake Passage, being the shortest maritime route from South America to Antarctica and a necessary passage for many nations’ Antarctic scientific missions, has thus gained new strategic significance. It can be foreseen that as human exploration and development of Antarctica deepen, the strategic importance of the Drake Passage will continue to rise.