This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2010)

Drake Passage showing the boundary points A, B, C, D, E and F accorded by the Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1984 between Chile and Argentina

Depth profile with salinity and temperature for surface water.

The Drake Passage or Mar de Hoces—Sea of Hoces—is the body of water between the southern tip of South America at Cape Horn, Chile and the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica. It connects the southwestern part of the Atlantic Ocean (Scotia Sea) with the southeastern part of the Pacific Ocean and extends into the Southern Ocean. The passage receives its English language name from the 16th century English privateer Sir Francis Drake. Drake's only remaining ship, after having passed through the Strait of Magellan, was blown far South in September 1578. This incident implied an open connection between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Half a century earlier, after a gale had pushed them South from the entrance of the Strait of Magellan, the crew of the Spanish navigator Francisco de Hoces thought they saw a land's end and possibly inferred this passage in 1525.^[1] For this reason, some Spanish and Latin American historians and sources call it Mar de Hoces after Francisco de Hoces.

The first recorded voyage through the passage was that of the Eendracht, captained by the Dutch navigator Willem Schouten in 1616, naming Cape Horn in the process.

The 800 kilometres (500 mi) wide passage between Cape Horn and Livingston Island is the shortest crossing from Antarctica to the rest of the world's land. The boundary between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans is sometimes taken to be a line drawn from Cape Horn to Snow Island 130 kilometres (81 mi) north of mainland Antarctica). Alternatively the meridian that passes through Cape Horn may be taken as the boundary. Both boundaries lie entirely within the Drake Passage.

The other two passages around Cape Horn, Magellan Strait and Beagle Channel, are very narrow, leaving little room for a ship, particularly a sailing ship, to maneuver. They can also become icebound, and sometimes the wind blows so strongly no sailing vessel can make headway against it. Hence most sailing ships preferred the Drake Passage, which is open water for hundreds of miles, despite very rough conditions. The very small Diego Ramírez Islands lie about 50 kilometres (31 mi) south of Cape Horn.

There is no significant land anywhere around the world at the latitudes of the Drake Passage, which is important to the unimpeded flow of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current which carries a huge volume of water (about 600 times the flow of the Amazon River) through the Passage and around Antarctica.

Ships in the passage are often good platforms for the sighting of whales, dolphins and plentiful seabirds including giant petrels, other petrels, albatrosses and penguins.

The passage is known to have been closed until around 41 million years ago^[2] according to a chemical study of fish teeth found in oceanic sedimentary rock. Before the passage opened, the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans were separated entirely with Antarctica being much warmer and having no ice cap. The joining of the two great oceans started the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and cooled the continent significantly.

• 

  Drake Passage or Mar de Hoces between South America and Antarctica

• 

  Drake Passage

See also[link]

• Sir Francis Drake
• García de Nodal
• Straits of Magellan
• Beagle Channel

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Drake Passage

• National Oceanography Centre, Southampton page of the important and complex bathymetry of the Passage
• A personal story describing crossing the Passage
• A NASA image of an eddy in the Passage
• Larger-scale images of the passage from the US Navy (Rain, ice edge and wind images)

Coordinates: 58°34′49″S 62°54′34″W / 58.58028°S 62.90944°W / -58.58028; -62.90944

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2010)

Darts
Darts live at the Rainbow, London 1978: (left to right: Bob Fish; Den Hegarty; Rita Ray; Griff Fender)
Background information
Origin	Brighton, England
Genres	Doo-wop revival New wave Pop rock
Years active	1976–1985
Labels	Magnet
Past members
Bob Fish Den Hegarty Duncan Kerr George Currie Hammy Howell Ian Collier John Dummer Keith Gotheridge Nigel Trubridge Rita Ray Thump Thomson

Not to be confused with Math rock band DARTZ!

Darts were a nine-piece British doo-wop revival band that achieved chart success in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The popular London-based band had a number of UK top 20 hits including three successive Number twos with revivals of early U.S. rock and roll and R&B songs.^[1]

History[link]

Founded in 1976, by Den Hegarty along with Griff Fender, Rita Ray and Horatio Hornblower, all former members of the band Rocky Sharpe and the Razors. Joining the band was Thump Thompson, George Currie and John Dummer, all ex members of the John Dummer's Blues Band. The line-up was completed by Hammy Howell and ex Mickey Jupp singer Bob Fish. They built up a large following playing clubs and universities, although their break came after they appeared on the Charlie Gillet's show on BBC Radio London in October 1976. This secured the band a recording contract with Magnet Records, where they were teamed up with record producer Tommy Boyce who had previously produced The Monkees. Covering 1950s rock and roll hits they scored their first UK hit in December 1977 with a medley of "Daddy Cool" (originally a U.S. 1957 hit for The Rays) and Little Richard's 1957 hit "The Girl Can't Help It". More cover versions followed in 1978 with "Come Back My Love" (originally recorded by U.S. R&B group The Wrens in 1955), "The Boy from New York City" (originally a U.S. hit for The Ad Libs in 1965). Their next single of 1978 was an original song "It's Raining" written by band member Griff Fender (real name Ian Collier). All three of the aforementioned hits reached number 2 in the UK Singles Chart^[1] and sold a combined total of 1.25 million copies.^{[citation needed]}

Following "It's Raining" in September 1978, Hegarty left the band to tend to his terminally ill father, and he was replaced by Kenny Andrews. Their final hit of 1978 was "Don't Let It Fade Away" (written by George Currie). "Get It" (written by Horatio Hornblower, under his real name Nigel Trubridge), followed in early 1979 and they also covered Gene Chandler's U.S. 1962 hit "Duke of Earl", produced by former Wizzard frontman Roy Wood. This was their last UK Top 10 hit, their only other sizeable hit coming in 1980 with a cover of The Four Seasons "Let's Hang On!". During the year, the line-up changed with Currie, Fish and Dummer leaving the band. Duncan Kerr (guitar) and Keith Gotheridge (drums), both formerly with Plummet Airlines joined,^[2] and ex-Mud guitarist Rob Davis briefly joined the band, before moving into songwriting and production work. By the end of 1980 their hits had dried up and in 1983 they began to do theatre work appearing in the theatre production of Yakety Yak.

In 1981, Hegarty became a television presenter, most notably on children's programme, Tiswas. In 1985 Fender and Ray managed and produced the UK a cappella girl group The Mint Juleps who scored two minor chart entries with "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" (originally by Neil Young) in 1986 and "Every Kinda People" (originally by Robert Palmer) in 1987.

The band is still in the Top 500 selling list according to the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles.^[1]

The band reformed in 2006 for occasional appearances, which continue to draw a strong following and consistently sell out.

Band line-up[link]

Discography[link]

Most records were released on the Magnet Records record label. All placings (below) are as recorded in the UK Singles Chart,^[3] and UK Albums Chart.

Singles[link]

Albums[link]

• Darts, 1977, #9
• Everyone Plays Darts, 1978, #12
• The Amazing Darts, 1978, #8
• Dart Attack, 1979, #38
• Darts Greatest Hits, 1980
• Darts Across America, 1981
• Darts (6-track EP), 1984
• The Platinum Collection, 2006

References[link]

External links[link]

• Darts unofficial website
• Darts yahoo.com group site