Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1895-06-21
GREAT KEEL CANAL
Something About the Big
Ditch Being Opened by
the Germans.
SHIPS OF MANY NATIONS
Present and Participating,
Laying the Last Stone.
The Banquet.

AlHL, OOuo 6O.-alb0T uuo 1dUOrS Ol
eight years and an expenditure Of
about 156,0OO,O00 marks ($S8, 500, OOO)
the great canal which joins the Baltic
sea to the German ocean is ready for
use. It intercects the peninsula Of
Schleswig- H olstein, from Brunsbuttel,
near the mouth of the Elbe river, to
Hottenau, on the Kiel bay and opposite
that oity, a distance of about 50 miles.
The entrance at both termini have been
fitted with lock gates for the passage
of vessels both entering and leaving
the canal At the Kiel end the gates
will generally be opened. At the
Brunsbuttel end they will be opened in
normal weather during flood tide for a
period Of three or four hours each day.
Each of the gates is 2715 yards in
width, and the space enclosed by it's
walls is 154 yards in length. The low
est possible depth at the Brunsbuttel
end is almost 20 fathoms, and at Holte-
nau a trifle more. The lock gates or
sluices are operated by hydraulic
power. The whole canal is lighted by
electricity, said to be the longest dis
tance in the world Illuminated contin-
uously that way.
From Brunsbuttel to Rendsburg, a
distance Of about 81 miles, the canal
runs northeast and thence on to Holte-
nau, almost due east. At Rendsburg,
vessels coming from Kiel, if they do not
draw more than 10 feet, and are not
over 13O feet in length, can pass
fhror,o1, 1oo1- %l,o 4 1,or -, 4
thus reach the German ocean. Larger
vessels will have to follow the course
of the canal.
The purpose of the Baltic canal is
two fold one, commercial and naval.
AS for the commercial advantages,
they result plainly enough since the
shortening of voyage hitherto made
around the Skager rock is considerable.
The military advantages accruing lie
in the fact that henceforth, in times of
war, the German navy cannot be rent
or kept apart; provisioning Of either
the Baltic or the North sea cannot be
interrupted or rendered impossible
Germany has about so large and small
vessels of her imperial navy at the
opening exercises, while the other ma
tions are we'll represented.
Great Britain has ten vessels, Italy
nine, the United States four, France
three, Russia three, Austro- Hungary
four, Scandinavia five, sSpain three,
Denmark six, Holland two, Roumania
two. Turkey one. In all about So for
eign vessels, with 814 officers and
II, 1852 men.
The Most Brilliant Feature
of the series of festivities will be the
laying Of the last stone in the building
of the canal, and in the international
banquet which is to follow it, this
marking virtually the close of the Off
cial programme Of festivities. This
ceremony will take place in the open
air at Holtenau. The spot where the
emperor will perform this ceremony on
Friday has been embellished by hand
some designs in landscape gardening,
and the lighthouse in close proximity
shows already the three bronze reliefs
Of Emperors William I, Frederick II,
and William II.
The grand banquet at which 1000
guests will participate, including the
diplomatic representatives of the vari-
GUS nations, will be given in a struc-
ture of original design, the latter being
based on an idea of the emperor him
self. The structure is fac smile of a
huge vessel of ancient construction and
as in vogue in the 18th century The
three masts, each being 109 feet high,
were taken from the hulls of the Niobe
and the Geifon, the earliest two ves-
sells of the infant German navy of 1850.