17th November: The Suez Canal

The Suez Canal Opened on 17 November 1869. it allows ships to travel between Europe and South Asia without navigating around Africa thereby reducing the sea voyage distance between Europe and India by about 7,000 kilometres (4,300 mi). 10 things you might not know about the Suez Canal:

1. The canal is 120.11 miles (193.30 km) long.
2. The ancient Egyptians built canals in the area, allowing passage from the Red Sea as far as the Nile river.
3. It was Napoleon who first thought of building a canal to link the Mediterranean with the Red Sea. It could have happened in his time but for a survey error which suggested that the Red Sea was 10 m (33 ft) higher than the Mediterranean, which would make the canal too expensive to build because of all the locks they would have needed.
4. In fact, the two seas aren't significantly different in height, and so the Suez Canal has no locks.
5. Until August 2015, the canal was single lane and so ships have to pass through in organised convoys. Now, there is so called New Suez Canal, which adds a new 35-kilometre-long (22 mi) second shipping lane allowing for passing of ships in opposite directions.
6. The Suez Canal finally came about when in the 1850s, Ferdinand de Lesseps obtained a concession from Sa'id Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt and Sudan, to create a company to construct a canal open to ships of all nations. The Suez Canal Company (Compagnie universelle du canal maritime de Suez) came into being on 15 December 1858. Work started on 25 April 1859.
7. The canal took ten years to build. Forced labour of Egyptian workers was used. It's thought that over 30,000 people were working on the canal at any given time, that more than 1.5 million people from various countries worked on it. Thousands of labourers died during construction.
8. The British Government objected to the use of slave labour and went so far as to send armed Bedouins to start a revolt among the workers, delaying the project.
9. The canal was opened by Khedive Isma'il Pasha of Egypt and Sudan, and the French Empress Eugenie in the Imperial yacht Aigle piloted by Napoléon Coste.
10. It was intended that Aigle would be the first vessel to go through, but they were pipped at the post by an enterprising Royal Navy captain, George Nares. The night before the opening, he navigated his vessel, HMS Newport, in total darkness, without lights, through all the waiting ships until it was in front of L'Aigle. The French weren't happy about it. Officially, Nares was told off by his superiors, but unofficially, he was thanked for promoting British interests and commended for his superb seamanship.