Nelson Evening Mail THURSDAY, AUGUST 9, 1928 – FROM THE TYNE TO SINGAPORE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 9 August 1928, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail THURSDAY, AUGUST 9, 1928 - FROM THE TYNE TO SINGAPORE

THE transportation of the Singapore floating clock has brought the Suez, Canal into marked prominence. But for the existence of the Canal it is questionable whether the transportation of the dock would have been undertaken, since the alternative route, round the Cape of Good Hope, would probably have presented too formidable a risk and. too great an expense. It is not generally realised that the' Canal is 106 miles long, measuring the distance from Port Said to Suez. Originally, when it was completed, in 1870, it was longer, but by reducing its curves to straight lines the length of the Canal has been decreased. Simultaneously its width and depth have been increased. As designed, its maximum width was 72 feet and its maximum depth was 27 feet. To-day its width has been increased to 190 feet, and its depth to between 33 feet and 42 feet. Whereas a ship of 4,414 tons was the biggest it could accommodate —when it was opened, to day ships of 27,000 tons pass through it comfortably. And with the gradual widening and deepening of the Canal there has been an ever-increasing volume of traffic passing through it. The maximum was reached last year, when 5,545 ships, whose total tonnage was 28,962,048 tons, traversed the Canal, or on an average 15 a day. In the case of an ordinary vessel the passage from Port Said to Suez,and vice versa takes 15 hours. (Originally it took 48 hours.) It is lighted with electricity fivun end to (:nd, and thus vessels are able to -navigate it by night as well as by dayHow long it will, take the Singapore dock to navigate it we do mot know, but whereas the ordinary vessel passes through at a speed of about Severn miles an hoar, the dock will necessarily go

through at a much slower rate, and therefore will take much longer. Traffic will be held up while the dock, in three pieces, is passing through. Therefore the exceedingly high rate charged for its passage—£lo,ooo does not appear excessive, when the risk of blocking the Canal semi-permanently is considered. The annual gross receipts are over eight million pounds. It will he seen from this how costly any blockage t would he. Many strange craft have passed through the Canal, hut none surely so strange as the parts of the Singapore dock, which havo to bo tugged through, at infinite risk of sticking fast, it would be imagined, in spite of the fact that their passage will he controlled and directed entirely by the Canal’s pilots and authorities. It will certainly ho an infiiiiPo relief to the Admiralty, to the British Government, and to -the Canal Company’s directors, when the news arrives that the dock has safely reaohed the; Gulf of Suez. [Since the above was written, the cables have announced that the Singapore dock passed through the Canal without incident.]