Norwich bulletin., 1916-11-08
THE WAR PRIMER By National Geographic Society

SuIina - With the capture of her most important Black Sea city, Con- stantZa, by the Bulgarians and Ger mans under Field Marshal von Mack ensen, Sulina is Reumania's sole Fe- Inaining deep water seaport. This town, which now becomes of prime inn portance to the nation in distress, is described in the following war geog- raphy bulletin of the National Geo. graphic Society issued recently:
 'Sulina, a town of about 5000 in habitants, has assumed an importance to Roumania out of all proportion to it's size, owing to the sudden fall of CorstantZa. Surrounded by a marshy orea which stretches in every direc- tion and is of 1000 square miles in extent, this port 1abors under the dis advantage Of having no railway con- nectiCn with the interior. It owes it's existence to the fact that it is at the mouth of the smallest but deepest of the three great branches of the Dan ube entering the Black Sea. The northern branch, which carries nearly 70 per cent of the water of the great river, subdivides and finally reaches 1 tue sea through twelve mouths. The southern or St. George branch is sec ono in size, while the middle or Su- lina branch, discharging only about nine percent of the total volume of water, IS the one great naV1SaDle cnan- neI through which ocean going vessels of 4G00 tons register can proceed as far inland as Braila, 100 miles from the sea, while steamers of light draught go from Sulina to Vienna in peace times, and wheat-laden barges are lowed even to the Ausfro -Bavar- ian frontier on the bosom of this father of waters for central Europe One of the most striking pictures or Sul1na as it was sixty years ago compared with the present city, is given by the English engineer, Sir Charles Hartley, who for half a cen | jury was in charge of the improve l rnents of the lower waters of the river l under the supervision of the European Commission of the Danube, composed Of representatives of Austria, France Russia, Ronniania, Great Britain Prussia, Sardinia and Turkey. This authority says:
 The entrance of the Sulina branch | was wild open seaboard strewn with Wrecks, the hulls and masts of which | sticking out of the submerged sand banks, gave to mariners the only guide where the deepest channel was to be found. The depth of the chan | mel varied from seven to eleven feet | and was rarely more than nine feet The site now occupied by wide quays extending several miles in 1 length was then entirely covered with "oIS1 "leII IIS S0d rose a 1CW lncneS apoVe ordinary level, and that even in a perfect calm; the banks of the river near the mouth were only indicated by clusters of wretched novels built on piles and by narrow patches of sand skirted by tall reeds, the only vegeta- ble product of the vast swamps be- yond.
 For some years before the i'm proVements, an average of 1000 ves- sels visited the Danube and of this l number more than three -fourths | landed either the whole or part o1 | their eargoes from lighters in the Su- ina roadstead, where, lying off a lee
 shore, they were frequently exposed 1 10 the greatest danger. Shipwrecks | were of common occurrence One dark winter night in 1855, during 2
 terrific gale. A sailing ships ana
 lighters went ashore off the mouth
 and upwards of 300 persons perished. l Since it's organization in 1856, un. der the treaty of Paris, supplemented l by subsequent agreements, the Euro. | pean Commission of the Danube ha: deepened the channel of the river be.
 tween Sulina and Braila to minimum 1 depth of 20 feet, and this is maintained
 by constant dredging, the funds fol which are obtained from the toll.
 levied on outgoing vessels of nor,
 than 300 tons. Another importan
 work of the commission has been the | oIiai5llt tcIllIlS Inu shortening or Cni navigable course of the Sulina brancl
 by cutting numerous canals. For
 merly the distance from the sea to St Georges ChataL where this middl
 branch of the river joins the south
 ern arm, was 45 miles, but by thes,
 engineering feats the distance ha
 been reduced to an almost straigh waterway of 34 miles.
 | Before the outbreak of the Euro
 pean war Sul.na was a busy poin
 where wheat coming down the Dan
 ube from Austria Hungary, Serbia
 Bulgaria, Roumania, and Russia wa
 transhipped from barges to seagoini
 vessels.
 "The town is the headquarters o
 the European Commission of tn,
 Danube, and is the terminus of tth d Danube Steamship Company service
 whose inland starting point is Pas
 sau on the Austfo- Bavarian frontier
 It is also a port of call for two steam
 ship lines which in normal time
 maintain a fortnightly service between
 Braila and Constantinople.
 "Sulina is 10 miles south of tha
 branch of the Danube which constf
 tutes the Russo-Rcumnnia boundar,
 line, and is 95 miles northeast of Con
 stantza- The distance to Constant
 nople. due south, along the lane o steamship travel. is 254 miles,