FORTH-CLYDE CANAL.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 461, 20 March 1909, Page 5

FORTH-CLYDE CANAL.

A BIG SCHEME. SHIPYARDS ON LOGH LOMOND. NAVAL STRATEGY. (UI TELEOUAI'It —MESS ASSOCIATION—CorrItiniIT.) London, March 18. The Duke of Sutherland presided at a meeting for tho purpose of inaugurating a scheme for a Forth and Clydo canal at ail estimated cost of seventeen million pounds. The canal would enable the construction of shipbuilding and repairing yards in Loch Lomond, which would bo twelve miles outside the possiblo range of gun fire. Tho work would employ 30,000 workmen, for a period of nine years. The Duke of Argyle and Lord Brassey supported the scheme. RIVAL SCHEMES. COMMERCIAL AND STRATEGIC VALUE. There are two main schemes for a transScotland canal between tho Firth of Forth (on the east coast) and tho Fifth of Clyde (on the west coast). The route of the Loch Lomond scheme referred to in the cablegram would be from the Firth of Forth, near Alloa, to Loch Lomond, and from Loch Lomond across a narrow .neck of land into Loch Long, an arm of the Firth of Clyde; estimated cost, 17 millions. Tho other scheme is to follow pretty nearly the line of the existing canal from the Forth to the Clyde—from Yoker, on tho Clyde, to Grangemouth, on the Forth; estimated cost, 7 millions. Tho latter scheme totally omits Lcch Lomond and runs towards Glasgow and Clydebank. Its critics urge that it would increase the already existing congestion on that part of tho Clyde, and that thoro might bo a difficulty as to a sufficient water supply for a big canal, seoing that many of the streams are already appropriated for the population along the route. It is backed by a Glasgow committee and Glasgow engineers, its rival by Edinburgh engineers. NAVAL ADVANTAGES. Tho advocates of the Yoker-Grangomouth propose a depth of 26ft. -For the Loch Lomond canal a depth of 31ft. is proposed, and it is : contended that this depth of 31ft. could easily be increased by sft., should it be considered advisable, by simply keeping up the level of Loch Lomond to its winter level at a comparatively small: cost, The Loch Lomond route, being so much the longer and niore expensive, would need big monetary support from the State; and its naval strategic advantages are hold up as an inducement to th« Admiralty. Germany • has provided in the Kiel Canal a waterway sufficient to allow of the passage from the .Baltic to the German Ocean of the largest war vessels, and now that her navy is the nextstrongest in Europe to Britain's, and ;is being rapidly increased, it is pointed out that a ship canal from the German Oceau to tho Atlantic would in times of stress and war bo of inestimable advantage to the Navy. With the building ofi a naval base at Rosyth, on the Firth of -Forth, a canal that could take the biggest warships and the largest ocean steamers acquires added interest. Commercially, too, great-claims are advanced, though unbiased'opinion would appear to-be more sceptical o£ the .economic than of the strategic, value. Tho advocates of the Loch Lomond sohemo argue'that'2so miles would be saved between Glasgow and Lbndon, that the East Coast ports -would bo saved nearly 100 miles in-a voyage to America, and that ships from Northern Europe would also gTCi'ly shorten their Atlantic voyages. .

THE EXISTING CANAL, The existing canal has;done good work in its time".' Projected by James Watt," of steam engino fame, in 1793, the' canal was not actually started till 1803, when Thomas Telford, the famous stonemason,-on instructions of the Government of that i day,' drew up plans. Twdthirds of the canal were iinisheu and opened iu 1822, but it was 1843-7 -before the work was finally oompleted, and tho. original estimate of less, than half a;'million.had .risen,'by 1849, to £1,311,270. '.It may be said that the 'idea of a Forth .and Clyde canal for ships of war dates from'th(i !l tiul'(i''bf'Chai , l(!S l 'll.'" r ;

As to_ proposal to improve tho existing canal, Sir John Wilson'writes:—"While, however, this direct canal has done good service to the trade of Scotland in tho past, and < is still in a good condition, and one of tho best canals in Great Britain, yet it is sufficient to say that with thirty-nine locks of GSft. by 19ft. 10m. wide, and 9Jft. deep, it is now out of the question as a ship canal, and for various reasons it would- be impossible to deepen it. The only^other existing _ through route from sea to sea is the Caledonian CanaL constructed and mnintained at the expanse of the Government, between Inverness and Fort-William, but . . tho objection to a ship canal by this route sufficient for large merchant vessels or of war is that the entrances to the canal are too far from the great shipping ports of the Clyde end . the .Forth."