The Sun.
London, England, 1860-10-16 00:00:00

OPENLYG 03' TILE FIRST RAILWAY 1N

TURKEY.

KUSTENDJIE, OCT, 4.

The clay:1111g of the first railway in Turkey -was
celebrated this day. In 1557 certain gentlemen
obtained the concession by virtue of which the
Danube and Black Sea Railway has been called
into existence. Tchernavoda, or, as the Turks call
it, Boghaskeui, on the Danube, and Kustendjie, on
the coast of the Black Sea, are names probably un-
known to the majority of your readers. A glance
at the map will suffice to show the advantages of a
line of railway between these two termini. From
Tchernavoda, where the Danube makes a great de-
tour to the north in order to discharge its waters by
the mouths which have formed the subject of so
much discussion, to Kustendjie, on the coast some
90 miles northward of Varna, is a distance of about
40 miles. From Tchernavoda to Kustendjie by the
Sulina mouth it is fully 300 miles. It follows, there-
fore, that a person coming down the Danube to Con-
stantinople or the Levant would save something
like 260 miles by availing himself of the railway.
This is not the only advantage. The navigation
of the Lower Danube is uncertain, and delays
constantly occur owing to want of water on
the bar. This consideration applies with tenfold
force to the conveyance of grain. The cap-
tain of any vessel who has once received a cargo of
grain in the Danube for conveyance to Western
Europe will bear testimony to the dangers and
delays involved in the passage of the Sulina mouth.
Could he but:receive his cargo in a safe port in the
Black Sea, he would be content to make a great re-
duction from the amount of his freight. Shipper
and shipowner would alike benefit by the change.
It was to effect this object that the Danube and
Black Sea Railway was designed. Ifitherto I have
made mention of the railway alone. The construc-
tion of this would, however, not suffice. The port
of lading must be safe, and the western shores of
the Black Sea offer but few places of refuge from a
storm. The bay at the northern entrance to which
the village of Kustendjie is situate affords no shelter
from north-easterly, and bat little from south-
easterly gales. It was ascertained, however, that a
mole, 600 yards in length, projected from the
nocthern shore of the bay in the direction of the
opposite headland, would form an efficient guarantee
against every contingency. As the depth of water
in which such a work would have to be constructed
was not considerable, and as the operations would
be subjectecrto but little hindrance in a tideless
sea, the formation of a port was determined upon,
and a sepaYtitii7Foivssion was obtained from the
Turkish ClOv-atarnent' for that purpose. A small
portion onlyoltlits'.-mole has up to this moment
been constuct94:;.• bittslready there is a safe anchor-
age for seleratbieSelsl2:Fifteen acres of land, along
a portion of whiettte railway runs, have also been

reclaimed from the sea. Now that the railway is
opened, the works of the port will be pushed on
with additional vigour, and there ,seems every reason
to believe that iti,a Nery short tinte'vessels of a large
size will be able to receive their goes, which will
be shot into them ere'ctly from the railway car-
riages, in perfect security.
The construction of the line of railway presented
one difficulty, which many pronounced serious, some
insurmountable. In order to avoid a great deal of
heavy and expensive cutting it was necessary to
carry the line through a valley which extends from
Tchernavoda for some 25 miles in the direction of
Kustendjie. This valley, which averages a mile in
breadth, was subject to inundation in the spring,
when the waters of the Danube attain their highest
level. During the greater part of the year the
whole extent of country thus situate was little better
than a mere morass. At certain seasons it presented
the appearance of a series of lakes, many of which

extended over several miles, and varied from 10 to

12 feet in depth, The engineers of the company had,
however, seen their way out of the difficulty. Not-
withstanding the doubts expressed on every side,
they never wavered, and two years ago they threw
up a dam on the bank of the Danube at Tcherna-
voda, across the ravine through which the floods
made their way into the valley. This year the water
in the river has been unusually high, testing the effi-
cacy of the means adopted to the utmost only to
prove their complete success, The result we all
witnessed yesterday as we all ran merrily over 25
miles of ground which appears to be as firm as a
rock and as level as the surface of a lake.
A strong detachment of the directors of the com-
pany arrived here in the course of last week. Their
chairman, Sir Samuel Cunard, was unable to come,
but his place was efficiently supplied by Mr. Price,
the vice-chairman, accompanied by the following
members of the Board -,--Messrs. Beale, M.P., Bar-
well, Gordon, Kenrick, and Moxon. Mr. Liddell,
one of the engineers, and Mr. Parkes, the secretary
of the company, were also in attendance. On their

way out to this country the directors concluded ar-
rangements with the Danube Steam Navigation
Company, the Austrian Lloyd Company, and the
vain ay companies on the route, by virtue of which
after the beginning of next year the voyage from
Constantinople to London may be performed in six
days, in lieu of nine, which is the time occupied in
travelling by the present routes. One cannot too
much admire the spirit and energy displayed by
these gentlemen, in thus giving up so much of their
time to the inauguration of a work commenced and
carried on under many difficulties, and so far from
the circle of their ordinary avocations. While com-
mercial prospects have not been lost sight of, I know
that both directors and shareholders of this company
have regarded their undertaking also from another
point of view. They have looked upon it as the fore-
most of the pioneers of civilization, which will not fail
in time to confer an immense blessing on the peo-
ple of European Turkey. To Messrs. Liddell and
Gordon, the engineers of the company, the credit
of the conception and prosecution of the scheme is
mainly due. But for these gentlemen the capital
never would have been raised, as proved by the fact
that nearly all of the few persons among whom
the shares are placed are their perSonal friends,
who, but for this, would never have embarked their
capital in the undertaking. Nor should the resident
engineers, the Messrs. Barkley, be forgotten. The
ieficultics of conducting any works in this country
o
a large scale can only be known to those who
have had an opportunity of witnessing them. In
no other hands, I believe, would matters have pro-
gressed
so well,
No contractor has been employed
by the company. The resident engineers themselves I
have carried on
every foot of the works, and have
brought the line to the verge of completion for the I
which is all that hes been hitherto
expended in the works of the railway and port.
Notwithstanding this, the work has been so exe•
cuted as to elicit from Mr. Price, the vice-chairman
and every one who has seen
it, expressions of sur-
prise, no less than of satisfaction. Doubtless part
of their success should be attributed to the fact VI
conduced the
hieeoal min-
ing-
the Messrs. Barkley having
operations at Heraclia for the
tng
Govern-
ment during the war, and to their having then ac-
quired a knowledge of the language, and •
of the price
of material and labour in Turkey.
At ten o'clock this morning Ethem Pasha, the
Commissioner sent to represent his Majesty the Sul-
tan on the occasion, arrived at the station, where
there was a train in readiness to convey his Excel-
lency and suite and all invited to be present at the
opening of the line from Kustendjie to Tchernavoda.
Before getting into the carriage the Imperial Com-
missioner addressed the crowd assembled to witness
the departure of the train. He stated that he had,
in conjunction with the Council of Public Works,
inspected the line on the previous day ; that,
although the stations and other necessary buildings
were not yet finished, the work had, nevertheless,
been so well and satisfactorily executed as to war-
rant the declaration, which he had much pleasure in
making, that the line was now formally placed at
the disposition of the public. A prayer was then
offered up by an imaum in attendance for the pur-
pose, at,,the conclusion of which a general rush was
made for the carriages. Par froth displaying any
reluctance to intrust their lives to the discretion of
the snorting and apparently restless monster about
to convey us Over 40
;lines of country at an unheard
of pace, and with whose nature and instincts they
were so little acquainted, the
people were with
difficulty restrained from taking forcible possession
l •
of the train7e A part of the ceremony yet remained
•