The Amicale of Captains Cape-Horners was born in 1937. 
The idea was launched at a dinner offered to Georges de Lannoy, Professor in hydrography, in his 77th year. 

The guests being aware that they doubled Cape Horn many times, decided to meet again and to remember the past and the cordial surroundings of the voyages in former times. 

A first committee was formed, our colleague Louis ALLAIRE was appointed President 
(Le Grand Mât) and the brotherhood weighed anchor, all sails set, with a crew of Albatrosses, who have been in command at Cape Horn and Mollyhawks (Malamoks), who were their former officers. 
 
 

However other Cape Horners appeared soon from the whole of Maritime France, Mariners from the Great Fleet of the House Bordes, with their typical battery outlook, from the sailing vessels from Nantes, with their fine grey hulls, those from Le Havre with their aggressive hoist of flags, those from Rouen, Bayonne, Marseille all survivors of the past era, attracted by the irreversible magnet of the past, by the shadow of an unforgettable epos. 

And all steered in the phospohoric wake of the Brotherhood, all obtained their title at Cape Horn, united by solid friendship born in far away ports from the Indian Ocean up till the Pacific, or at the gaffs of the mizzen mast, where formely French flags were flapping. 

All went annually to the prominent rock of St-Malo, commemorating the souvenir of the miseries and the servitudes, but also the grandeurs and the exalted joys of a navigation under sail. 

Belgium being very close to France, a year after its foundation the first section to join the Amicale was Belgium at the request of Captain Le Maitre, former Master of the four-masted barque L’Avenir. 

Under the impulse of Grand Mât Louis Allaire, who passed away in 1949 the brotherhood prospered with fair winds. He was succeeded by Charles Fourchon assisted by his dedicated General Secretary Léon Gautier, who became later on Grand Mât. 

The brotherhood became international, foreign colleagues from sixteen different countries joined the ranks, in the same solidarity of the sea, which requires that seafarers, whatever the flag is flying at the stern of their vessels, are all citizens of the World. 

About 200 are left now, canvas fighters who give their life to our Brotherhood, reanimated secular traditions. 
Alas, each year hollows gaps in our ranks of these irreplaceable comrades and soon after us there will be no more Cape Horners. 

That’s why we want to magnify and praise this superhuman sailing, which we cherished as well in the sunny intoxication of the Tropics as the montrous fury of the glacial hurricanes of the Capes. 

We respect and perpetuate, as long as we are here, the traditions and the souvenirs, as a lesson of vigour and a splendid reflection of our life of bybone times. 

And we will be ending by saving Good Bye to our beautiful vessels, to our Tall Sailing Vessels, Ambassadors of France and other countries, eloquent poets of a vanished navy, melting pots in which our hopes and deceptions are dissolved, our strenght and our rebellions, our miseries and our joys, under the hammer of a necessary rigid discipline, moulding characters of seafarers. 

Our majestic hulls, with their finely designed masts, are teared up now in pieces by the edge of demolishers insensible to their exploits, their elegance, to their harmonious lines, to all what they meaned to our spirits and our hearts. 

A few years ago, we perceived far away the white frameworks of the last sailing vessel, waiting for the verdict without appeal, the progress which suppressed forever these large birds from the surface of the seas, on which they reigned in former times alone, all alone ; 

But maybe it is better that way, because how to find the today crews adapted to their nobility and their exigences. The old Mariners died with them. 

Good Bye, Old Companions in adventures, Captains, Officers, Seamen, Experienced and trusted servants of the sea, unequalled sailors, who lived proudly, without fear and bragging, the prestigeous epos of sail, which is by now entering part of a legend. 

And all together, we incline ourselves once more devoutly to this unforgettable images of our treasured sailing vessels are sleeping. 

Nothing will replace them neither on the ocean, neither in our hearts. 

Text by the A.I.C.H. Committee, May 1950. 
 
 

Today’s, Grand Mât, a.i.c.h.’s President, is Captain Heiner Sumfleth, from Hamburg, Germany.
The International Secretary is Captain Roger Ghys, from Anvers. He is at the same time President of the Franco-Belgian Section.
His E. mail address is : Ghys.Capehorners@G-net.be

Dr A. Le Mouëllic from Saint Lunaire, is Chancellor of the Medal and Keeper of the Golden Book as well.
His E. mail address is : mouellic@club-internet.fr

23 binders containing the curriculum vitaes of all the Captains Cape Horners have been given to the Solidor Museum in Saint Malo.
It’s Internet site is : http://www.caphorniers.org

A CD Rom has been made from these binders.
All this information is offered to future generations, willing to study ancient merchant Navy’s fabulous life.
These Documents hold the memory of this magnificient sailing era.