Figure 1.-- his albumen photograph shows a Suez Canal scene in the earlybyears of the Canal's operation, probably the 1880s. The ship looks to be sail boat pethaps witha coal-fired enhime as well. |
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The British were not at first sold on the idea. Interestung as the Canal had a significant impact on world trade and for Britain helped to strengthen the connection with their main colony--India. This had been a factor even before the Canal was built and an overland connectoin was developed across the istmus. Construction on the Canal began (1858) and took 10 years to cmplete. Constructionn was largely a massive dredging operation- an enormous undertaking before the develooment of power tools. This was done by forced labor (corvée) of Egyptian workers during the first few years. There are no detailed numbers, but some 30,000 people arebelieved to have been working on the canal at any given time. In all, more than 1.5 million people from different countries were employed. Thousands of workers died, many from cholera and similar epidemics. [Wilson] The Canal was opened (1869). This was still the era of sail power and wooden nships, although that had begun to change. The Suez Canal as it was deveoped extended 120 miles (193 km) between Port Said (Būr Saʿīd) in the north and Suez in the south. There were also dredged approach channels, both north of Port Said into the Mediterranean and south of Suez. The canal construction does not dsigned take the shortest route across the isthmus which is only 75 miles (121 km). Instead it utilized several natural lakes to reduce the the area that had to be dug. These included Lake Manzala (Buḥayrat al-Manzilah), Lake Timsah (Buḥayrat al-Timsāḥ), and the Bitter Lakes—Great Bitter Lake (Al-Buḥayrah al-Murrah al-Kubrā) and Little Bitter Lake (Al-Buḥayrah al-Murrah al-Ṣughrā). The Suez Canal is an open cut sea level canal with seasonably variable differences of about 10-30 cm between Port Said and Port Tawfik/Suezin the south. There are no locks. Much of the Canal is straight lengths, but there are eight major bends. The Canal is bounded by the low-lying Nle Delta and River. To the east is the elevated, rugged, and arid Sinai Peninsula. Before the construction of the canal (1869), the only important settlement was Suez. Here there was some 3,000 to 4,000 inhabitants. The towns that now exist along its banks date to the period after tge Canal was construction. Al-Qanṭarah may be an exception.
HBC Chronolgy Pages in the Boys' Historical Web Site:
[The 1880s]
[The 1890s]
[The 1900s]
[The 1910s]
[The 1920s]
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[The 1930s]
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