The Kattegat and Skager Rack are computed to cost Germany a yearly loss of five hundred lives by wreck, and half a million sterling. The pecuniary damage through the trade which is turned back, and does not dare to defy the peril, must be much more considerable. Germany at large has finally to defray the major part of these charges, positive and negative. The saving of them is likely to yield very ample interest on the seven or eight millions to be spent. Venerable Lübeck would alone have cause to murmur at a work which threatens it with more grievous competition than even now it has to meet from the competition of Kiel for the Baltic trade. A writer in the Times has, however, pointed out that Lübeck, though it has fallen behind in the race with Hamburg, has its own intrinsic sources of prosperity, and is not likely to let them slip. The one real drawback to the attractions of the project is the unaccommodating character of a North German winter. Ice, which seriously obstructs the navigation of the tidal rivers, would be harsher still to the sluggish surface of a fresh-water canal in Holstein.
The North Sea and Baltic Canal will be of the following dimensions:—Breadth at surface 200 feet; at bottom 85 feet. Depth 27 feet 10 inches.
This size will allow the heaviest ships in the German navy to make use of the waterway, and it is estimated that 18,000 ships out of the 35,000 that annually pass the Sound, will use the canal, which will shorten the distance between the Baltic and London by 22 hours; Hull by 15 hours; Hartlepool by 8 hours; Newcastle-on-Tyne by 6 hours; and Leith by 4 hours. It is expected to affect the English coal trade with Baltic ports, by giving readier access to German coal ports, and in addition to saving time in transit, it will relieve vessels from the danger of doubling the Skaw. The work is likely to be completed in 1893 or 1894.
The cost of the canal is estimated at between seven and eight millions sterling, of which 2½ millions are to be provided by Prussia.
It is the inevitable result of every new addition to the transportation facilities of a country to benefit more or less some places at the expense of others. The North Sea Canal is likely to prove disadvantageous, as we have seen, to the ancient city of Lübeck, in consequence of a diversion of its traffic. To meet this drawback, it has been proposed to construct a new canal through Holstein, connecting the Trave with the Elbe. Negotiations have been carried on between Lübeck and Prussia, with this end in view. The canal would be 72 kilometres in length, and is estimated to cost 18 millions of marks (900,000l.). With this canal, Lübeck is expected to retain its considerable trade with North-eastern Europe.
The Rhine-Ems Canal.—The proposed Rhine-Ems Canal is expected, by bringing the Rhine and the Ems into more direct connection with the Westphalian coalfield, to bring German into very close competition with English coal at the North Sea and Baltic ports. The plan is a very old one, and was resuscitated some thirty years ago, but nothing came of the project till three sessions ago, when the Chambers voted a large sum to carry it out under Government, provided the interested country districts through which the canal was to pass, beginning at Dortmund, would acquire the requisite land through which the canal was to be cut, and hand it over for the common good. The money has been coming in since by driblets, slowly and reluctantly, from one township and the other, but at last it seems probable that it will ultimately be subscribed, and for this eventuality English coalowners must be prepared. A glance at a map will show that from Dortmund to Emden, and thence through the North Sea and Baltic Canal, a direct route to the East seaports will be opened up; and as the Westphalian coal can then be placed at Emden at the same price as the English at one of the east coast shipping ports, and the distance from Emden to the Baltic by the new ship canal is twenty-three hours less than from Hull, twenty-seven from Hartlepool, thirty from Newcastle, and thirty-six from Leith, it is evident that a sharper rivalry may be established. If the ship canal be not used, the difference in time between Emden and the Baltic will be less by thirty-eight hours from Hull, thirty-six from Newcastle, thirty-five from Hartlepool, and forty from Leith. No steps have yet been taken with regard to the continuation of the canal from Dortmund to the Rhine, which would then open up a new and shorter waterway from South Germany and Switzerland to the Baltic.
The Dortmund and Emden Canal is designed to develop the communication between the Westphalian coalfield and the harbour at the mouth of the Ems, and comprises (1) the completion of the canal direct from the collieries, and joining the Ems at Papenburg, and (2) the improvement of the navigation at Emden harbour. The canal follows, at the outset, the Emscher valley to Henrichenburg, whence it is intended to construct a branch of about 5 miles to the Rhine; the length of this section being about 9¼ miles, with a fall of about 45·3 feet. The section of 38 miles past Münster, is unbroken by locks, but falls of 50 feet to Bevergern, whence the previously existing Haulken Canal is followed as far as Meppen. The fall from Bevergern to Papenburg is 130·9 feet: and the distance 68 miles; the total fall from Dortmund to Emden being 226·2 feet, with twenty-six locks.
From Papenburg the Ems is navigable for the largest barges; but at Oldersum, about 6 miles from the mouth of the river, the channel becomes exposed to northerly storms, and from this point, therefore, a new cut, closed from the river by a lock, joins the new harbour, which, however, is yet unfinished, and is capable of considerable extension. The dimensions of the work are:—
| Canal. | Locks. | ||
| ft. in. | ft. in. | ||
| Width of bed | 52 0 | Length | 220 0 |
| ” at water level | 78 0 | Clear width of gates | 28 3 |
| Depth | 6 6 | Depth on sill | 8 3 |