St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-01-02
NOW OPEN TO THE WORLD.
FORMAL OPENING or tn. MAHcHES-
TER SHIP cANhL.
AN OCCASION OF nEJo1o1NG

BY the Citizens OF Manchester and
All Along the Line-Creation
ola Great Port in Direct Com
munication With All Ports of
the WorId-Financial Success
Assured.
MANCHESTER. Jan. 1.-The Manches.
ter ship canal was formally opened
today. The weather was brilliant and
the occasion was made notable in every
way possible. There was much re-
joicing in this city and all along the line
of the canal. The mayors and corpora
tions of Manchester and Stafford started
for Latchford, and at Modewheel joined
the sea vessels which are due at the
Manchester docks at o'clock. Great
enthusiasm was manifested everywhere.
The newspapers published list Of the
vessels EN- route for Manchester from
New Orleans. TIE great ship canal
from Eastman to Manchester is now all
accomplished fact, and the town of
Manchester, situated about forty miles
from the seabeard, can be reached by
sea from New York in about ten hours
after arriving at Liverpool On Dec.
steamer, conveying the directors of the
canal, made the entire journey of the
canal, but the formal official open
ing did not take place until
today. In order to realize the full sig
nifcance of this fact and OF all that it
implies we have to consider the Sudden
creation of a great port in direct COM
muulcation with all parts Of the world,
close to and partly within the confines
of al immense commercial city and sur,
rounded by an Industrial population of
3.25O.OO0.
Besides the actnal canal the docks
are of a most extensive character. The
smaller docks and quays. and the upper
reach will be principally occupied by
| coasting vessels, while in the larger
docks will be moored ships from the
| United States, Canada, India, etc. At
| other docks will be accommodations for
cattle. and, in fact, Manchester has at
stroke become one Of the largest and
most important ports in the United
Kingdom. The work is the outcome of
|
mentary committees in the years 1888,
1884 and 1885. The supporters of the
canal. who spent $4,000 in obtaining
the act, were the manufacturers and
merchants OF Manchester, and it's pIin-
cipal opponents were the corpora ton at
Liverpool.
With the use of the electric light
steamers will be able to navigate by
night as we'll as by day. and the whole
| length of the canal will be traversed in
about ten hours. Some notion of the
| capacity of the canal may be drawn
! when we compare its depth with the
| SueZ and Amsterdam canals. The min
| imum width of the bottom of the Suez
| is seventytwo feet, and Of the Amster.
dam elghty-eight feet seven inches,
while that of the Manchester canal is 100
feet. The minimum depth of the Man
chester and Suez waterways is twenty
six feet, and that of the Amsterdam
canal twenty-three feet.
A statement signed by 1872 steam ship
owners, possessing more than 1000
steamers, of an aggregate net tonnage
of about 100000 tons-nore than 25
per cent of the entire steamship tonnage
of the United Kingdom-d declares that
the canal will be navigable without diff
iculCy by merchant steamers of the
largest class, and that 1t the charges on
the ship canal are not higher than those
of the other ports (and they are actually
less ethan most ship owners will at
once make use Of the waterway as soon
as it is open for traffic, and that the adj
ditioual thirty-five and one-third miles
to Manchester from the sea will not in
crease the rate of freight charged to
| Liverpool by a merchant steamer fol a
| long voyage.
1t is believed that the quantity of
! grain carried over the canal will be at
least onehalf Of that now landed at
| Liverpool. 1t is estimated that at least
10000 tons per annum of fruit and
| vegetables will at once be imported to
| Manchester by this route. Ten large
sugar merchants have stated that not
| less than 300,0 tons of sugar per annum
| will pass through the canal. With re-
| gard to raw cotton, firms in the district
owning 100000 spindles declare that
nearly all the cotton they use will be
brought by the canal. Of outward cargo
there will be no lack, and textile manu-
facturers have testified their belief that
about 100000 tons per annum will be
| dispatched by the new canal.
| The financial success OF this enOr-
| nous undertaking seems to be assured.
The promoters of the canal are confident
| of their ability to secure very large
aud remunerative traffic, and estimates
| of profit based upon the capital as orig
inally proposed were very favorable.
The original capital of eS,00O,00O has,
however, now grown to nearly double
that amount, and the anticipation of
profit are not now so sanguine as they
formerly were. That there are, how i.
ever. enormous probabilities of tratfi C
| cannot be disputed.