Читать книгу The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism (Vol. 1-4). The History of Sea Voyages, Discovery, Piracy and Maritime Warfare онлайн
156 страница из 418
Into the channel thus dug the dredges were floated. One of the machines employed deserves special mention. The long couloir (duct) was an iron spout 230 feet long, five and a half wide, and two deep, by means of which a dredger working in the centre of the channel could discharge its contents beyond the bank, assisted by the water which was pumped into it. The work done by these long-spouted dredges has amounted to as much as 120,000 cubic yards a-piece of soil in a month. By all kinds of ingenious appliances invented for the special needs of the occasion, as much as 2,763,000 cubic yards of excavation were accomplished in a month. M. de Lesseps tells us that “were it placed in the Place Vendôme, it would fill the whole square, and rise five times higher than the surrounding houses.” It would cover the entire length and breadth of the Champs Elysées, and reach to the top of the trees on either side.
THE SUEZ CANAL: DREDGES AT WORK.
Port Saïd, which owes its very existence to the Canal, is to-day a port of considerable importance, where some of the finest steamships in the world stop. All the through steamers between Europe and the East—our own grand “P. & O.” (Peninsular and Oriental) line, the splendid French “Messageries,” the Austrian Lloyd’s, and dozens of excellent lines, all make a stay here of eight or ten hours. This is long enough for most travellers, as, sooth to say, the very land on which it is built had to be “made,” in other words, it was a tract of swampy desert. It has respectable streets and squares, docks, quays, churches, mosques, and hotels. The outer port is formed by two enormous breakwaters, one of which runs straight out to sea for a distance of 2,726 yards. They have lighthouses upon them, using electricity as a means of illumination. Messrs. Borel and Lavalley were the principal contractors for the work. The ingenious machinery used cost nearly two and a half million pounds (actually £2,400,000), and the monthly consumption of coal cost the Company £40,000.