The record-union., 1895-06-14
KIEL'S GREAT OCEAN CANAL.
Greatest Naval Pageant in the
World Expected.

All Nations Expected to be Repre-
sented When Emperor William Be-
gins the Festivities Finest Ships
In the World VIII Attend = Will
Last Several Days.
What will undoubtedly prove the
greatest naval pageant in the history of
tbs world will take place on the 18th OF
June at kiel. Germany, on the occasion
of the formal opening of the great ocean
canal running siXty-two miles long from
Eiel to Brunsbuttel, on the Elbe, and
practically making Hamburg one OF the
most important seaport cities in Europe.
Two years ago New York had a naval
review when there were forty-eight ships
of war anchored in the harbor. A strong
effort will be made by the German Of
ficials to surpass this showing and have
much larger fleet of foreign vessels on
hand. One hundred and fifty great war
ships are expected. Germany alone will
have tifty-eight men-of-war and torpedo
boats at Kiel and other European Powers
will be careful to make brave showing
of their respectful naval forces. England
In particular will strive to have a larger
number of its vessels at Kiel than any of
the other foreign Powers. 1t has always
been England's policy to make such a
showing, as was evidenced at our naval
display, where she was represented by
much larger and more powerful fleet
than either France or Germany.
The opening of the canal will be an
-, h. ~ ~ hr1r hn
great public interest will be conferred IN
the spectacular congregation of lumber
less modern warshlps. Secretary Her
bert of the Navy Department has already
instructed Minister Runyon of the
American Embassy at Berlin to notify
Emperor William that at least two. and
perhaps five, of our ships would partlcl-
pate in the festivities of kiel. The Mar
blehead will probably be one of these,
the Columbia and Minneapolis the others.
Perhaps the armored cruiser New DIRK
will be sent to offset the showing of the
Blake, one of England's finest warships.
In the matter of speed no ship in her
class has equaled the speed of the Co.
lumbla.
Austria will have FIVE ships at kiel;
Italy will have like mum Der; Spain will
be represented by four; Frances an
tipathy to Germany will keep her fleet
down TO two; Turkey will have three;
Russia will probably send her entire
Baltic Sea fleet. and England's fleet may
number a round dozen. Sweden and
Denmark will also be represented, al
though Denmark'S interest i'll the testlvl-
ties is of a melancholy character.
The reason for this is that the new canal
will practically end the supremacy of
Copenhagen as seaport town. Germany
boasts that Denmark will suffer more by
the new canal than it did in the great
war of 1864, when it lost the rich duchy Of
Schleswig- Holstein. Heretofore ships
have been compelled to pass Copenhagen
and make the dangerous passage around
the threatening cliffs of Jutland TO reach
Hamburg. The new canal will save this
perilouS and roundabout trip, thus shut
ting of millions of dollars worth of COM
merce from Copenhagen.
TIE marine catastrophles off the jagged
shores of Denmark and Sweden have
been terrific. In the last thirty-tive
years $500 vessels have been totally de-
stroyed or seriously damaged by the sud-
innumerable ice foes; the countless
islands and deadly rocks. This is a
record which makes the mariner fearful
of the trip, and Germany argues that he
will be only too glad to make use of the
canal. Ship owners have suffered gil
gantic pecuniary losses, too, by these
many wrecks. Thirty-five thousand
ships pass around Jutland yearly, voy
aging between the Baltic and the North
Seas and of these :, 200 suffer damage, the
loss of human life being proportionately
great.
Copenhagen fully appreciates the jeop-
ardy of her maritime supremacy. and the
port has recently been declared a free
one, and the city is also spending vast
sums upon dredging. lighthouses and
docks in the hope of diverting some of
the traffic from the new canal.
PET PROJECT FOR 600 YEARS.
The Kiel Canal, which IS now practi-
cally completed and is only awaiting the
formal opening exercises before it is
given to the commerce OF the world, has
been pet project for the past six hundred
years. Toward the end of the fourteenth
century the city Of Lubbock, then rich
and independent town, butt a canal from
the Trave to the Elbe. This was an in
adequate affair, and in the beginning of
the sixteenth century Hamburg built a
shorter connection from the Last Sea,
but faulty engineering of those times al
lowed 1t TO become soon filled with sand
rendering il useless.
The great Wallenstein some time later
conceived project when appointed I'm
perial Admiral like that which is soon to
be contaminated, but he was unable to
carry out his schemes. Toward the end
OF the last century King Christian VII.
hardly served the purpose of advancing
commerce.
Not until Prussia took possession of the
coast territory in 1865 was the project
given serious thought. For many years
the idea was bitterly opposed by the great
General Moltke, who ignored the COM
mercial advantages of this canal and
only regarded it from military point
of view. His dissension was mainly that
it would take vast army of soldiers to
guard the canal alone, in event of war;
He thought the cost of the canal would be
better expended if 1t were put into the
army and navy.
BISMARCK TO THE RESCUE.
Bismarck was appealed to by friends of
the canal, and his alert mind speedily
perceived its advantages. He had short
talk with Moltke, and soon won him over.
In 1885 the Prussian Diet voted the neces-
sary sum for its construction-about $685.
600, O00-and on June ), 1887, the old Kali
ser Wilhelm laid the cornerstone of the
work which his grandson will be the
leading spirit in it's completion.
The construction of the canal was a
herculean task from an engineering
standpoint A greater part Of the time a
force of 10000 men have been at work on
it, the total excavation being SO, 600 900
cubic yards, while in the Manchester
Canal only o., SOC, 900 cubic yards were re-
moved. The Manchester Canal cost S75.-
OO0 900 and impoverished many of its
projectors, while the Baltic Canals cost
has been close TO the original estimate. In
fact, the German canal has been the only
one of similar enterprises which has been
pushed to a successful issue. The Panama
Canal swallowed thousands of fortunes,
and the Nicaragua affair promises to do
the same.
The level country between Kiel and