How Suez Canal Has Developed in Sixty Years

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 430, 11 August 1928, Page 16

How Suez Canal Has Developed in Sixty Years

Waterway Handles 5,000 Ships Yearly SINGAPORE DOCK’S PASSAGE The most striking feature of all the long journey upon which the floating dock for Singapore started last mouth from the Tyne will be the passage of the Suez Canal. The dock is double the size of the largest dock that has yet been towed through the Canal, and its passage will be an impressive illustration of the great development which has taken place since the opening of the Canal in November, 1869. '{'HE Suez Canal to-day is a succession of straight and narrow cuttings connecting the Bitter Lakes and Ismailia to the ports at either end. To pass steadily between its straight banks, running so neatly through wide, uneven sands broken here and there with great stretches of shallow water, is to enjoy a singular impression of the quiet and smooth efficiency which is the keynote of the Canal. It is

easy to forget that it is one of the major engineering triumphs of mankind, says “The Times.” Neither the Suez Canal of to-day nor the approaches to it would be recognised by any of those who witnessed the inauguration 60 years ago. Three new settlements—Port Said, Ismailia and Suez—(with, later, Port Tewiik) came into existence as a result of the cutting of the Canal. These have now developed into important towns, and to them has been added, on the Asiatic bank opposite Port Said, a new town, Port Fuad, which in time will become the terminus of the Palestine railway, and may possibly rival in importance its neighbour across the water. The development of the Canal itself has exceeded anything that its originator could have conceived. When it was first opened its maximum width was 72ft. and maximum depth 27ft., and it turned and twisted in a manner which greatly obstructed traffic. Transit By Night As a result of the need to accelerate transit and meet the ever-growing demands of the world’s shipping, the bends have little by little been straightened out; the Canal itself has been deepened and widened to take modern ships; and, to-day, of the total length of 106 miles—measuring from jetty-head to jetty-head at either extremity of the Canal—the bends barely occupy 13 miles, the depth has been increased to between 33ft. and 42ft., and the width to 198 ft., while the whole system is now lighted by electricity to enable transit to be continued by night as well as by day.

What these improvements have meant to shipping can be gauged from the fact that, whereas in 1870 the average time in transit was 48 hours, last year it was only a few minutes over 15 hours. While a ship of 4,414 tons was the largest vessel to go through the Canal in 1870, ships of 27,000 tons go through to-day. Travellers who traverse the Canal on the big ocean-going liners cannot possibly obtain from the high decks of their steamers a true conception of the Canal or of its organisation. Only from a small vessel, close to the water’s edge, is one able to watch every detail and to appreciate the gigantic character of the work and the perfection of the organisation. No ship can enter the Canal without permission, without paying the dues and without having one of the company’s pilots on board, and from the time it enters to the time it leaves its position can be ascertained at any given moment. Every ten kilometres there is a station which telegraphs or telephones to headquarters at Port Said, Ismailia and Suez, the details of the ships that pass, the currents, the direction of the wind at each point, etc.; and these data are recorded on special charts. Growing Traffic Everything is carried out with a smoothness and a simplicity which certainly make of the Suez Canal. organisation, in the hands of its French employees, something exceptional of its kind in the world. The volume or traffic through the Canal is ever on the increase, and in 1927 it established a record. In that year 5.545 ships with a total net tonnage of 28,962,048 passed through the Canal; 57.1 per cent, of the shipping is British, and

Dutch and German shipping, with about 10 per cent, each, comes next. That the enterprise is a paying concern is no secret. The transit receipts alone in 1927 reached 208,000,000 gold francs (£5,320,000), to which must be added the revenue from its large reserves and other resources. The Canal is more than a link between continents, an engineering wonder, a factor in high politics, and a financial plum. It unites two seas, and it has been a means of opening up the world for fishes no less than for men. The pearl oyster has already, perhaps unwisely, made its way to the Mediterranean. The Bitter Lakes, in particular, which lie halfway through the Canal, harbour a singularly rich and queer submarine life.