FTB46: Great Canals of the World

ISSUE 46 SUMMER 2015/16

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Rock the Boat

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CRUISE The GREAT CANALS

Discover history and adventure on the world’s best man-made canals

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Cruise Region Focus | FROM THE BRIDGE

The Great

canals The world’s best man-made canals provide snapshots of history and present enticing challenges to even the most serious of cruise guests.

WORDS: RODERICK EIME

Iconic Panama Canal is one for the bucket list SUMMER 2015/16 11

Cruise Region Focus | FROM THE BRIDGE

Egypt’s Suez Canal is lined by desert

L

ong before there were tarmac highways and semi-trailers, there were canals.

The great maritime civilisations built them to carry freight and even military equipment. These man-made rivers created new passages where none existed to speed transit and populate new lands and colonies.

You might even say some canals helped create new civilisations.

People first used rivers to transport stuff from inland to the coast, but not all rivers went in the right direction or joined up with other rivers to make a convenient waterway, so industrious societies began the backbreaking work of digging these channels, usually by manual labour and rudimentary tools.

The oldest and longest canal is in China, joining Beijing with Hangzhou, almost 1800km to its south. The ancient engineering feat took 1000-years to complete and is now 1000-years-old. Not surprisingly, the Grand Canal is a UNESCO World Heritage site despite being in constant use to this day.

Canals are all over Europe and the UK, particularly France, Belgium and Holland, where you can navigate your own barge for a unique type of vacation. And while you can take a day cruise on China’s Grand Canal at various locations, there are other canals you can sail the entire length of to complete a unique journey in its own right.

Corinth Canal Greece Length: 6.4km Completed: 1893

Corinth is an artificial waterway that occupied the minds of ancient engineers and often thwarted them in their efforts.

While Emperor Nero and 6000 slaves began the digging in 67 AD, the final cutting of the Corinth Peninsula was only completed in 1893—sharply separating the region of Peloponnese, where mythical hero Hercules fought the monstrous Nemean lion, from mainland Greece. But at only a little more than 20m deep, few modern ships are able to traverse the shallow canal. So the Corinth Canal is now used mainly for the entertainment of cruise guests and limited to the smallest ships.

The experience is exhilarating, as the sheer limestone walls of the canal extend beyond 60m above the waterline.

Europa Canal

VISITING CRUISE LINES Azamara Club Cruises, Celebrity Cruises, Cruise & Maritime Voyages, Crystal Cruises, Cunard, Fred.Olsen Cruise Lines, G Adventures, HapagLloyd Cruises, Holland America Line, Lindblad Expeditions— National Geographic, MSC Cruises, Noble Caledonia, Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises, P&O Europe & World Voyages, Princess Cruises, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Royal Caribbean, Saga Cruises, Sea Cloud Cruises, Seabourn, SeaDream Yacht Club, Silversea, Swan Hellenic Cruises, Voyages to Antiquity, Voyages of Discovery, Windstar Cruises.

China’s Grand Canal took 1000 years to build

Middle Europe Length: 171km Completed: 1992

The major rivers of Europe have long been an important thoroughfare for trade and many attempts to join the Rhine/Main and Danube Rivers have been attempted. > SUMMER 2015/16 13

Cruise between the North and Black Seas via the Europa Canal

Narrow Corinth Canal can only be cruised by small ships

Construction was interrupted by World Wars and various political and environmental hurdles, so the current channel only opened to traffic in 1992 after 30 years of work costing more than two billion euro. It is now possible to sail modern and luxurious river boats between the North and Black Seas. Much of the expense went into environmental work, so the scenery created is quite stunning and contains significant opportunities for viewing wildlife, particularly birds.

The canal includes 16 locks in total and, interestingly, the highest point on earth that can currently be reached by ship—406m above sea level—is between the Hilpoltstein and Bachhausen locks.

Suez Canal Egypt Length: 193km Completed: 1869

The concept of a connecting waterway between the Mediterranean and the Red Seas goes back to the ancient Egyptians. Napoleon kept the idea alive, but it wasn’t until 1859 when the first picks were swung in earnest.

Ten years later, the first ships passed through and now the canal sees around fifty ships every day.

It’s an historical moment for any dedicated cruiser to transit the Suez Canal, knowing that it’s been a site of intense political significance for centuries.

It is literally cruising through the desert with vast expanses of sand in both directions and the colourful gardens and mosques of Port Said to either greet or farewell you.

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Much of the expense went into environmental work, so the scenery created is quite stunning and contains significant opportunities for viewing wildlife, particularly birds.

Panama Canal Republic of Panama Length: 77km Completed: 1914

Along with the Suez, the Panama Canal is perhaps the most famous of them all and cruising along its course is a necessary bucket-list adventure.

The canal cuts nearly 13,000km from the journey between New York and San Francisco while avoiding the hazardous passage around Cape Horn at the bottom of South America. The French began construction in 1881 but gave up in 1894 after some 20,000 workers died, mostly from tropical diseases.

You might be surprised to learn that the men responsible for this failed build were the same men who built the Suez and the Eiffel Tower—quite the scandal at the time.

The Americans took over and completed it in 1914 and now the 8–10hr transit through three massive locks is a must-do for serious cruisers, if only for the historical significance.

For 100 years, the width of ships has been governed by the width of the canal and only now is the famous artificial waterway being expanded to cope with more and larger vessels.

The expansion project should be completed soon and includes a new, larger and more impressive set of locks. n

Enjoy the grandeur of the Panama Canal

The Suez Canal Bridge links the continents of Africa and Eurasia