The discovery of a passable route around Cape Bojador, in 1434, by the Portuguese mariner
Gil Eanes was considered a major breakthrough for European explorers and traders en route to Africa and later to India. Eanes had made a previous attempt in 1433 which resulted in failure, but he tried again under orders of
Prince Henry the Navigator. Eanes was successful after the second expedition. The disappearance of numerous European vessels that had made prior attempts to round the Cape despite its violent seas, led some to suggest the presence of sea monsters. The mythic importance of the cape for Portugal was captured in
Fernando Pessoa's early 20th century work "Mensagem". In famous stanzas from this longer poem Pessoa wrote of the enormous costs of the Portuguese explorations to the nation. Capturing the symbolic importance to the nation of rounding Cape Bojador, Pessoa wrote: "Who wants to pass beyond Bojador / Must also pass beyond pain." (
"Quem quer passar além do Bojador / Tem que passar além da dor.") They thought the ocean was burning past Cape Bojador, but Henry's men went past it. The reason for the fearsome reputation of the cape is not immediately obvious from maps, where it appears as the south-western point of a slight hump in the coastline, bounded at its other end by
Cabo Falso Bojador, ten nautical miles to the northeast. Nor does what is said in the
Sailing Directions sound terribly formidable: Examining the
Pilot Charts for this area, however, it becomes clear that the main concern lies in the changes in winds that occur at about the point at which Cape Bojador is passed in sailing down the coast. It is here that the winds start to blow strongly from the northeast at all seasons. Together with the half-knot set of current down the coast, these conditions would naturally alarm a medieval mariner used to sailing close to the land and having no knowledge of what lay ahead. In the end it was discovered that by
sailing well out to sea—far out of sight of land—a more favorable wind could be picked up. In addition, this is also believed to be the site where
Captain James Riley and the crew of the U.S. brig , sailing at the time from Gibraltar towards the Cape Verde Islands, shipwrecked in August 1815. This tragedy is recounted in the
Skeletons on the Zahara, by
Dean King, which is set in this region of the African coast. King reports that any coastal map of Western Sahara is inaccurate because of the ever-changing physical features, due to the harsh conditions of the Sahara. It also mentions that the depth of the water surrounding Cape Bojador is deceptively shallow, and the color of the sand underneath the water is a "fearful sight". The cape had a fearsome reputation among mariners even prior to the wreck of the
Commerce, as there had been at least thirty known shipwrecks between 1790 and 1806. and Moroccan military base in modern-day Boujdour Sailors' fears were founded in what they saw, and the phenomena witnessed by the sailors of those days can be seen today. Any ship that has to pass those places makes sure to give a wide berth in order to avoid accidents. The reason for all this display is because Cape Bojador and its surrounding coast extends into the sea in the form of an underwater reef, and, when the waves break after crashing into unseen gullies, the water spouts furiously into high foamy clouds that look like steam, even on calm days. The sea in front to the Cape, and for approximately three miles from the coast and into the sea, is no more than six feet deep. Fish are abundant in the place, and shoals of sardines rise to the surface during the feeding times of larger fish. When this happens, the sea seems to bubble violently as if boiling, and, observed from a distance, the hissing sound produced by the fish flicking their tails on the water's surface adds to the impression that the water is boiling. The tremendous heat wafted westerly on lazy breezes from the desert heightens the impression of extreme temperature, to which the desert dust helps to create a mysterious darkness. Even the ferrous rocks make compass needles whirl erratically. As recently as 2004, the British
Royal Navy's publication
Africa Pilot warns that nautical charts of the coastline in the area of Cape Bojador are "reported to be inaccurate". ==Ecological significance==