THE ENLARGED WATERWAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 150, 26 June 1914, Page 7

THE ENLARGED WATERWAY.

The enlarged waterway connecting the Baltic and North Seas, which has cost more than the building of the oiiginal canal in 1887, will enable the passage of the biggest battleships. American battleships now under construction can barely squeeze through the (jratun locks in the Panama Canal, and 'the 45.000-ton super-Dreadnought, which is already in sight, will have to follow the path of the Oicgon aiound Cape Horn to get from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast. The German canal has locks 82ft longer, 57ift broader, and of 4ft greater draught than those of Panama, and can accommodate a 60,000ton battleship, should naval designers go^ as high as that in the future. The existing canal was opened in 1895. It runs from Kiel on the Baltic to Brunsbuttel on the Elbe e&tuary, n, short distance from the sea, and cuts off the long and rather hazardous passage through the Cattegat and around the northern end of Denmark. To the German navy it was of in* estimable advantage, enabling a commander to throw the entire fleet from one sea to the other in a few hours, and to _ menace, for example, an opposing British _ fleet from points several hundred miles apart. With the advent ot Dreadnoughts, however, this advantage was lost. The new locks, which lack the imposing height of those of Panama, but are bigger in every other respect, arc 1082 ft long (Panama 1000 ft), 1474 ft wide (Panama 110 ft), and have a mean depth of 4Sft of water (41ft) over the sills. The new canal is 400 ft wide at the surface, 150 ft wide at the bottom of the excavation, and has been provided with eleven "sidings" at which vessels may pass. New harbours have been built at each end, several sharp curves have been eliminated, and two new railway bridges, 150 ft above the canal, have been provided. The enlargement involved the excavation of 140 million cubic yards of carth ,' the original canal 112 million cubic yards. The work, which has occupied five years, has been carried on without interrupting traffic in the canal. The canal terminate* at one end in Kiel Fiord, a long narrow arm of the Baltic, and at the other in tiie -Elbe River, some fifteen miles froi.i its mouth. Both river and fiord are heavily fortified. About eight thousand workmen of various nationalities have !>een employed on the work. The new canal is nbout sixty miles long. Passenger steamers are allowed to proceed at 12^ miles in hour through the canal, freights are held to a .«louei pace, so that the passage of the cajja: takes from five to thirteen hours. It shortens the trip from Baltic Sea barbours to Hamburg by 480 miles, and to London by 269 miles.