There is nothing more boring than being on passage on the open sea. Conversely, there is something exciting about navigating waterways where at least one side of the ship has a view of the coastline. To have views to both sides of the ship is exciting, but to have close and spectacular views is something very special, and rare! This page deals with waterways with views to port and starboard, and at close range.
The Panama Canal provides such a spectacle, albeit, much of the same vista particularly in the transit NNW from Pacific to Atlantic oceans. However, high jungle greenery clusters clinging to precipitous rocks are preferable to acres of water with no apparent bounds. I have travelled through this canal twice, the last time in submarine Auriga heading home from 2 years in Singapore in 1968. Below are statistics of the Canal and a map showing the route, entry's and exit's. Unlike every other 'sea-way' canal in the world, this one has a portion through which a vessel is pulled along by a railway engine through locks. You have to be quick or you would miss the pull, for it is only for a short distance! This canal circumvents the need to travel around Cape Horn.
Panama Canal (Sp., Canal de
Panamá), canal joining the Atlantic
and Pacific oceans across the Isthmus
of Panama. Running from Cristóbal on Limón Bay, an arm of the
Caribbean Sea, to Balboa, on the Gulf of Panama, the canal is slightly more
than 64 km (40 mi) long, not including the dredged approach channels at either
end. The minimum depth is 12.5 m (41 ft), and the minimum width is 91.5 m (300
ft).
Location and Structure
The approach to the canal from the Atlantic is along 7.2 km (4.5 mi) of
dredged channel. The canal then proceeds for 11.1 km (6.9 mi), veering
slightly westward before reaching the Gatun Locks. Ships are lifted 25.9 m (85
ft) by these three locks, to the level of Gatun Lake. The lake was formed as a
result of the damming of the Chagres River by the
Gatun Dam, which adjoins the locks. The Gatun Locks open directly into one
another and are double, as are the other locks, so that one ship can be raised
while another is being lowered. All the lock chambers on the Panama canal have
a length of 305 m (1,000 ft) and a width of 33.5 m (110 ft).
From the Gatun Locks the canal passes through Gatun Lake in a southern
and south-eastern direction to the mouth of Gaillard Cut (formerly called
Culebra Cut), an excavated channel 13 km (8.1 mi) long. At the end of the
Gaillard Cut is the Pedro Miguel Lock, which has a drop of 9.4 m (31 ft). The
lock borders Miraflores Lake, which is 16.8 m (55 ft) above the level of the
Pacific. The canal passes 2.1 km (1.3 mi) through Miraflores Lake and reaches
the two Miraflores Locks. These locks lower ships to Pacific tidewater level.
From the Miraflores Locks the canal runs 4 km (2.5 mi) to Balboa on the Gulf
of Panama, from which a dredged channel extends approximately 8 km (5 mi) out
into the bay. In addition to the canal itself, auxiliary facilities include
the Madden Dam on the Chagres River, which provides a reservoir to maintain
the level of Gatun Lake during the dry season; breakwaters to protect the
channels at either end of the canal; hydroelectric plants at the Gatun and
Madden dams; and the Panama Railway that extends 76.6 km (47.6 mi) from Colón
at the Atlantic end of the canal to the city of Panamá on the Pacific.
In 1991 more than 12,500 commercial vessels, carrying more than 164
million metric tons of cargo, passed through the canal. Transit time through
the canal is seven to eight hours.
History
Interest in a short route from the Atlantic to the Pacific began with the
explorers of Central America early in the 16th century. Hernán Cortés, the
Spanish conqueror of Mexico, suggested a canal across the Isthmus of
Tehuantepec; other explorers favoured routes through Nicaragua and Darién.
The first project for a canal through the Isthmus of Panama was initiated by
Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who in 1523
ordered a survey of the isthmus. A working plan for a canal was drawn up as
early as 1529, but was not submitted to the king. In 1534 a local Spanish
official suggested a canal route close to that of the present canal. Later,
several other canal plans were suggested, but no action was taken.
Renewed Interest
The Spanish government subsequently abandoned its interest in the canal,
but in the early 19th century the books of the German scientist Alexander
von Humboldt revived interest in the project, and in 1819 the
Spanish government formally authorized the construction of a canal and the
creation of a company to build it. Nothing came of this effort, however, and
the revolt of the Spanish colonies soon took the control of possible canal
sites out of Spanish hands. The republics of Central America subsequently
tried to interest groups in the United States and Europe in building a canal,
and it became a subject of perennial debate in the US Congress. The discovery
of gold in California in 1848 and the rush of would-be miners stimulated US
interest in digging the canal, resulting in the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty.
Various surveys made between 1850 and 1875 indicated that only two routes were
practical, the one across Panama
and that across Nicaragua. In 1876 an international company was organized; two
years later it obtained a concession from the Colombian government— Panama
was then part of Colombia—to dig a canal across the isthmus.
US Involvement
The international company failed, and in 1880 a French company was
organized by Ferdinand Marie de Lesseps,
the builder of the Suez Canal. His company went
bankrupt in 1889. US interest in an Atlantic-Pacific canal, however,
continued. In 1899 the US Congress created an Isthmian Canal Commission to
examine the possibilities of a Central American canal and to recommend a
route. The commission first decided on the Nicaraguan route, but reversed its
decision in 1902 when the Lesseps company, reorganized, offered its assets to
the United States at a price of $40 million. The US government negotiated with
the Colombian government to obtain a strip of land 9.5 km (6 mi) wide across
the isthmus, but the Colombian Senate refused to ratify this concession. In
1903, however, Panama revolted from Colombia. That same year the United States
and the new state of Panama signed the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty by which the
United States guaranteed the independence of Panama and secured a perpetual
lease on a 16-km (10-mi) strip for the canal. Panama was to be compensated by
an initial payment of $10 million and an annuity of $250,000, beginning in
1913. The figure was later revised upwards.
Construction
In 1905 the Isthmian Canal Commission decided to build a canal with locks
rather than a sea-level channel, and this plan was approved by the US Congress
the following year. President Theodore Roosevelt put the construction work
under the direction of the US Army Corps of Engineers; Colonel George W.
Goethals was named to head the project.
The construction of the canal ranks as one of the greatest engineering
works of all time. It was estimated that the canal would be completed in ten
years; however, it was in operation by the summer of 1914. The construction
involved not only excavating an estimated 143 million cu m (175 million cu yd)
of earth, but also sanitizing the entire canal area, which was infested with
the mosquitoes that spread yellow fever and malaria. The sanitation work was
undertaken by Colonel William C. Gorgas of the US Army Medical Corps, who
virtually eliminated the diseases. An unexpected difficulty in the actual
construction was the prevalence of slides of earth from the banks of the
canal, particularly in the Gaillard Cut. Reexcavation after such slides added
about 25 per cent to the estimated amount of earth moved. The final cost of
the canal was $336 million.
The widening of the Gaillard Cut from 91.5 m (300 ft) to a width of 150 m
(600 ft) was completed in 1970. It permitted, for the first time, two-way
passage through the entire cut.
New Treaties
In 1977 the United States and Panama agreed on two new treaties to
replace their 1903 agreement. These treaties provided for Panama's sovereignty
over the Canal Zone shortly after their ratification and its control of the
canal itself at the beginning of 2000, but left the United States the right to
defend the canal's neutrality even thereafter. The treaties took effect in
1979.
[1]
The Suez Canal is a much less attractive affair, unless you like sand; miles after miles of it. I have travelled through this canal on three occasions, the last being in the cruiser Tiger in 1977 heading for the east and then back again. It is singularly boring except for seeing the occasional abandoned piece of artillery used between the Arabs and the Israelis over several wars since 1947. The canal works on a system of by-passes where ships travel in southbound or northbound convoys pulling over and waiting in lakes [bitter lakes] until there is navigable room for them to continue their journey. This canal addressed the shipping requirement of Mediterranean to Red Sea and vice versa thereby circumventing the need to travel around Cape of Good Hope. By tradition, warships always travel at the rear of the convoy. Again the explanation and map below tell one of the route and geography of the canal. It runs between Port Said and Port Suez.
Suez Canal, artificial waterway
running north to south across the Isthmus of Suez
in north-eastern Egypt; it connects Port
Said on the Mediterranean Sea
with the Gulf of Suez, an arm of the Red
Sea. The canal provides a shortcut for ships operating
between European or American ports and ports located in southern Asia, eastern
Africa, and Oceania, by avoiding the need to sail around Africa.
Physical Description
The Suez Canal is about 163 km (101 mi) long. The minimum bottom width of
the channel is 60 m (197 ft) and ships of 20 m (64 ft) draft can make the
transit. The canal can accommodate ships as large as 150,000 dead weight tons
fully loaded. It has no locks, since it connects two points at sea level, with
no high ground in between. The canal utilizes three bodies of water—Lake
Manzala, Lake Timsah, and the Bitter Lakes (the latter is actually one
continuous body of water)—and is not the shortest distance across the
isthmus. Most of the canal is limited to a single lane of traffic, but several
passing bays exist, and two-lane bypasses are located in the Bitter Lakes and
between Al-Qantarah and Al Isma‘ìlìyah.
A railway on the west bank runs parallel to the canal for its entire distance.
The Canal has actually been built and rebuilt many times, but only now when trade depends so heavily on it does it not fall to negligence. The first to have the idea of connecting the Red and Mediterranean Seas was the Pharaoh Necho in Sixth Century BC. He did not complete it, however during the Persian Invasion of Egypt (also Sixth Century BC), King Darius I ordered the Canal completed. The canal consisted of two parts. One part linked the Red Sea to the Great Bitter Lake, and a second linked the Lake with one of the Nile branches in the Delta. The Canal served as a shortcut between Europe and India until the Ptolemic Era (367-47 BC) but then fell to disrepair. It was re-dug during the rule of the Roman Emperor Trajan (98-117 AD), and later re-dug by the Arab ruler Amr Ibn-Al-Aas (around 700 AD). Yet again it fell to
disrepair and was completely abandoned after the trade route around
Africa was discovered by the Europeans. Around 1800, Napoleon's
Engineers brought back the idea of the Suez Canal. Later, the calculations were proved to be wrong, and Ferdinand de Lesseps undertook the construction. He was granted a decree by the Khedive Said of Egypt to run the Canal for 99 years after it was completed. The Canal's construction began in 1854 and was carried out by mostly Egyptian workers in conditions similar to slave labor. The Canal was completed around 1867 and was inaugurated on November 17, 1869. M. de Lesseps is known as the father of the Suez Canal because of his work. If you would like to learn more about the construction of the Suez Canal. Ferdinand de Lesseps was sole controller of the Canal, but he sold shares to many French gentry, and the Khedive also held quite a bit. The sum of these shares was the Suez Canal Company. In 1874, Benjamin Disraeli took office as British Prime minister. Disraeli was interested in buying part of the Suez for Britain, but so were several other countries. The biggest opposition would come from the French shareholders, but the French knew something that nobody else did. They knew that the Khedive had spent the country's surplus money and needed cash fast. The Khedive had decided that if someone were to offer, he would sell his 177.2 shares of the Suez Canal Company. Since the French didn't think anybody else knew, they took their time raising the money. They did not know that Disraeli was a friend to the world's largest banker at the time, Baron Lionel de Rothschild. Rothschild knew of the Khedive's financial state and when Disraeli asked about it, he told. Disraeli then also asked if he could get a loan for 4 million British pounds to buy the shares, and Rothschild agreed. He immediately sent a courier to propose the buy to the Khedive. French, Turkish, and Russian spies all discovered this information and sent their own people but it was too late. Disraeli had already bought the Khedive's shares. He then convinced the Queen and Parliament to pay off his debt to Rothschild. Britain controlled the Suez Canal for 84 years until President Nasser of Egypt nationalized it. The Canal is 120 miles long, and it is the longest canal in the world without locks.
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Control of the Canal
Under the terms of an international convention signed in 1888, the canal
was opened to the vessels of all nations without discrimination, in peace and
in war. However, Great Britain considered the canal vital to the maintenance
of its maritime power and colonial interests, especially communication with
India. By the provisions of the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936, Great Britain
acquired the right to maintain defence forces in the Suez Canal Zone, thus
assuming command of the canal approaches. For most of the time after the
creation of the state of Israel in Palestine in 1948, the Egyptian government
prohibited the transit of vessels to and from Israel.
Egyptian nationalists demanded repeatedly that Great Britain evacuate the
Suez Canal Zone, and in 1954 the two countries signed a seven-year agreement
that superseded the 1936 treaty and provided for the gradual withdrawal of all
British troops from the zone. By June 1956 all British troops had departed,
and Egypt took over the British installations.
Nationalization
On July 26, 1956, shortly after the United States and Great Britain
withdrew their offers to help finance the construction of the Aswan High Dam, the Egyptian government
seized the Suez Canal in accordance with a decree of nationalization issued by
President Gamal Abdel Nasser.
Nasser announced that Egypt planned to use the proceeds from the operation of
the canal to finance the dam. On October 29, 1956, Israel invaded Egypt. Two
days later, British and French military units attacked Egypt for the announced
purpose of ensuring free passage through the canal. In retaliation, Egypt sank
40 ships in the canal, effectively blocking it. Through the intervention of
the United Nations (UN), a truce was arranged in November,
and by the end of the year Israeli, French, and British forces were withdrawn
from the area. Following removal of the sunken vessels by a UN salvage team,
the Egyptian government reopened the canal in March 1957. In 1958 Egypt and
its nationalized canal company reached agreement on terms of a financial
settlement for the canal, and by 1962 final payments had been made to the
original shareholders.
The Suez Canal continued to figure prominently in the conflicts between Egypt and Israel during the 1960s and 1970s. It was closed during the Six-Day War of 1967, when several vessels were sunk in the waterway, blocking the shipping lanes. The canal was reopened in June 1975, after an international task force had cleared it of obstacles. Late that year Egypt permitted nonmilitary goods to and from Israel to pass through the waterway. Unrestricted Israeli use of the canal was secured in the peace treaty with Egypt in 1979.
The Kiel Canal is about as pretty as you can get! I have travelled this waterway on several occasions with the RN and with the German Navy also. My best transit was in HMS Tintagel Castle returning to Portland after a visit to Aarhus in Denmark. There is much to see and enjoy. You will have seen that Panama is 41 miles long, Suez is 100 miles long and Kiel comes in at a goodly distance of 60 miles with just two locks, one at each end to check tides. It runs from the North Sea to the Baltic Sea and allows the passage of very big ships.
Nord-Ostsee Kanal, also Kiel Canal,
artificial waterway in north-western Germany,
linking the North Sea and the Baltic
Sea. The canal extends in a north-eastern direction across
the state of Schleswig-Holstein
from Brunsbüttelkoog, near the mouth of the Elbe
River, to Kiel, on the Baltic. The canal is very
level, and has locks only at its ends to accommodate North and Baltic sea
tides. Constructed between 1887 and 1895 and subsequently enlarged, the canal
is about 97 km (60 mi) long, 102 m (335 ft) wide, and 11 m (36 ft) deep. The
canal shortened the distance between the North and Baltic seas by about 322 km
(200 mi) and eliminated the difficult passage around Jutland.
It was internationalized by the Treaty of Versailles
in 1919
There are other waterways, but I have not traversed them. They tend to be shallow or difficult to navigate by comparison and include such canals as the Caledonian [in Scotland] and the Magellan Straits in South American. However, I have used the Amsterdam Canal, but as you all know, it is only a short stretch of water with just one outer lock gate. After the Magellan, I have a little puzzle for you!
Magellan, Ferdinand (Portuguese, Fernão
de Magalhães; Spanish, Fernando de Magallanes) (c. 1480-1521),
Portuguese navigator and explorer, the first European to cross the Pacific
Ocean and the first person to circumnavigate the globe.
Magellan was born in Sabrosa, northern Portugal, of a noble Portuguese
family. At the age of 12 he went to court as page to Queen Leonora, consort of
the Portuguese King John II. In 1505 Magellan
went on the first of several naval voyages to India, helping two successive
viceroys, Francisco de Almeida
and Diego Lopez de Sequira, to wrest control of key Indian trading ports from
the Arabs. In 1509 he and his friend Francisco Serrão were involved in an
unsuccessful attempt to take the Malayan port of Malacca (now Melaka).
Serrão, and possibly Magellan, went on to Tenate in the Moluccas
(then called the Spice Islands) in 1511-1512, marking the beginnings of a
lucrative trade in cinnamon and nutmeg.
Magellan returned to Portugal in 1512, was promoted to captain, and fought
against the Moors in Morocco, where he received wounds that left him lame for
life. After his request for an increase in his royal allowance was rejected by
Emanuel,
King of Portugal, who was indifferent also to Magellan's proposal for a voyage
to the Moluccas, Magellan renounced his Portuguese nationality and in 1517
offered his services to the King of Spain, Charles I (later Holy Roman Emperor
Charles
V).
Magellan had learnt from a variety of sources that the South American
continent was probably not joined to the conjectured Great Southern Continent,
and that it was likely that the riches of the Far East might be attained by
sailing westward around the tip of South America. The route eastward was
controlled by Portugal under the terms of the Treaty of Tordesillas. This had
laid down a Line of Demarcation, to the east of which
the Portuguese were given title, and to the west the Spanish. Since Portugal
was strengthening its grip in the East Indies, it was clearly in Spain's
interest to establish the position of the corresponding demarcation line on
the opposite side of the earth, in case any of the lucrative territories there
fell within their zone. Nobody was certain which side of this line the
Moluccas lay. The Spanish crown was quick to endorse Magellan's plans and
finance came from the German banking firm, the House of Fuggers.
On September 20, 1519, Magellan sailed from Sanlúcar de Barrameda with
five ships and some 250 men. Following the coast of Africa to Sierre
Leone, they crossed the Atlantic
and reached South America, exploring the Brazilian coast and in February 1520
reaching the Río de la Plata estuary (which because
of its size he mistook for the southern end of the continent). Here he sighted
a mountain and shouted “Monte video” (“I see a mountain”) so giving
the name to the city, founded two centuries later, which became the capital of
Uruguay.
On March 31, as the southern winter was beginning, his fleet put into what is
now Port San Julián, on the southern coast of Patagonia, where it remained
for nearly six months. During that period the crew came to resent their
Portuguese captain and a mutiny occurred, forcing Magellan to execute the
ringleader. One of his ships was wrecked surveying the coast of Patagonia. On
October 21, 1520, Magellan sailed into the passage to the Pacific Ocean that
is now named after him, the Strait of Magellan. It took 38 days to
navigate the treacherous strait, and the crew of the San Antonio
deserted and returned to Spain. Fires were seen along the shores to the south,
causing Magellan to name this land Tierra del Fuego
(land of fire). After a journey of 530 km (330 mi), on November 28, 1520, his
three ships sailed into the ocean, which Magellan named “Pacific” (meaning
“peaceful”) because of its calmness. They sailed northward along the west
coast of South America, and then set out westward across the Pacific.
Magellan's exact route is not known but he sailed north of the many islands of
the South Pacific, only sighting the barren outcrops of the Tuamotu
Archipelago (the Islands of Disappointment). By now they were
running desperately short of food and fresh water, and many died of scurvy.
The survivors resorted to chewing boiled leather, rats, and sawdust before
reaching Guam in the Mariana Islands on March 6, 1521. They had been
out of sight of land for 100 days. The natives were friendly and enabled them
to resupply, but there was a tendency to pilfering , a cultural
misunderstanding which led Magellan to call the islands the Ladrones (the
Islands of Thieves).
Sailing westward in search of the Moluccas, perhaps not realizing he was
far to the north of them, after 10 days Magellan became the first European to
see the Philippines, landing on the island
of Cebu on April 7. There he made an
alliance with the ruler of the island and agreed to aid him in an attack on
the inhabitants of the neighbouring island of Mactan. Magellan was killed on
April 27 during the Mactan expedition by a group of islanders led by their
chief, Lapu-Lapu.
Following Magellan's death, one of the vessels in his fleet was burned by
its crew to prevent it being taken, but the other two escaped and reached the
Moluccas on November 6, 1521. One of the vessels, the Victoria,
commanded by Juan Sebastián del Cano, completed the
circumnavigation of the globe, arriving at Seville, by way of the Cape
of Good Hope route, on September 8, 1522.
Although Magellan did not live to complete the voyage, he did
circumnavigate the globe (if he made the 1511 journey to the Moluccas) by
passing the easternmost point he had reached on an earlier voyage.
The cargo of spices carried back to Spain by the Victoria alone
paid for the expenses of the expedition. The passage through the Strait of
Magellan was too long and difficult to be a practical route from Europe to the
Moluccas, however, and Spain sold her interests there to Portugal.
Nevertheless, the voyage laid the foundation for trade across the Pacific
between the New World and the East, and although Spain did not immediately
recognize the importance of the Philippines, before the end of the century Manila
had become the greatest Spanish trading centre in the East.
Magellan's circumnavigation, together with the earlier voyages of Vasco da Gama and Christopher Columbus, finally re-established in the popular imagination of Europeans that the world was a sphere, and demonstrated that the world's oceans were linked (since ancient Greek times Europeans had thought the Indian Ocean was landlocked). In addition, Magellan enabled cartographers for the first time to make an estimate of the true size and shape of South America, and the full vastness of the Pacific Ocean.
Now
for the final part about canals. Look at this first 
. This is HMS Norfolk during
Group 8 Deployment in 1979, flying the flag of FOF2 Rear
Admiral
P.M. Stanford MVO 
. What is she doing? Passing
through the CORINTH CANAL with just a few feet each side before the sheer
cliff
sides that form the canal start to become a real hazard. Excellent seamanship. Remember that a DLG was quite a big ship. Fortunately the canal is only a short one. Notice that the upper decks are swarming with her sailors particularly the exocet deck and I reckon with the seaslug deck also. Not the best of photographs to use, but it gives one a good idea of the challenge. See what you would have missed by chosing the boring southern route!