The last King of Poland began the canal which unites the western Bug with the Dneiper, and which for that reason was called the King’s Canal. It unites the Prima and the Muckawetz, but it has not been very successful. As originally constructed, the canal had no sluices, and being short of water in the summer, and frozen in winter, it was only navigable in the spring months.
Another important maritime connection, to which great importance was attached in the early part of the century, was that of the Bay of Riga with the Bay of Finland. This connection was arranged for—first, by joining the rivers Pemau and Narova by means of the Lake Peipus and the canal of Fellin; second, by uniting the rivers Düna and Neva, by Lake Ilmen and the Welikoluki Canal; and third, by joining the Düna and Narova with the Peipus Lake, and the Verroi and Riga Canals.
Peter the Great attached much importance to effecting a junction of the Black and the Caspian Seas. The distance between these two maritime highways is about 400 miles, and the enormous trade that has recently been developed in petroleum at Baku, on the Caspian Sea, would have created a traffic for such a waterway that was never dreamt of in the time of that Czar. The Iwanoff Canal was begun by Peter in 1700 for the purpose of uniting the Don by means of Lake Iwan, with the river Shat, which passes through the Upa into the Oka. The canal had been carried from the Don into the valley of the Bobrucki, towards Cape Iwan, and twenty-four sluices had been completed, when the work was suddenly stopped, most probably because the means were insufficient for its completion; but early in the present century the completion of the canal was ordered by the Government. In 1716, Peter commenced the Kamüshinski Canal, designed to unite the Don and the Volga, and thereby to connect the Black and the Caspian Seas. Like the Iwanoff Canal, this undertaking had been partially finished when it had to be discontinued, apparently for engineering as well as for financial reasons, nor was it until 1796 that its construction was again resumed.
The Poutiloff Canal.—One of the most important canals in the Russian Empire, as well as one of the most recently constructed is that known as the Poutiloff Canal—a waterway built for the purpose of converting the city of St. Petersburg into a port. This has hitherto been rendered impossible by the defects of the bar of the river Neva. Hence all traffic arriving at St. Petersburg from the interior, or at Cronstadt from abroad, has had to be transhipped at great cost, and with so much delay that Newcastle coal has often taken as long in transit from Cronstadt to the capital, a distance of 18½ miles, as from the North of England to Cronstadt. In 1872 a Commission reported upon this canal, and the plan finally adopted was sanctioned and contracted for in 1874; but, owing to losses of plant conveyed from England, the works were not commenced till 1877. The canal starts from the Neva at St. Petersburg, and, diverging from the estuary-channel, it proceeds in a south-westerly direction for about 2 miles, and then curving gradually round towards the north-west, it runs in a straight line to Cronstadt. The canal is 207 feet wide at the bottom for the first part of its course, and has a continuous embankment on the side of the Gulf of Finland, and at places on the land side; at the termination of the curve it unites with a branch canal, which will eventually rejoin the Neva above St. Petersburg, and thence its navigable width is increased to 275 feet, its depth being 22 feet throughout. The first part of the straight portion is embanked on both sides, but for the last 10 miles a navigable channel, 275 feet wide, has been dredged through the Gulf, which has a depth there of only from 12 to 15 feet, while no banks have been made.
The Poutiloff Canal.
Three basins, formed by widening the canal at certain places, have been provided for the export and import trade, having a total area of 430 acres; but it is considered that these will not afford sufficient accommodation. Between 1877 and 1882, 5,304,000 cubic yards were excavated, out of a total of about 8,700,000 cubic yards. The working season, however, at St. Petersburg is short, and only one hundred and twenty-five days can be reckoned upon in the year, making an average of 8480 cubic yards per day. Water was admitted into the canal in the presence of the Emperor Alexander III. in November 1883; but the canal was not made available for the passage of vessels until 1884. The canal is reported to have greatly promoted the commercial prospects of the capital. This was much required, as, previous to the construction of the Poutiloff Canal, only vessels of very small size and light draught could ascend the Neva for the purpose of loading and unloading at St. Petersburg, while those of more than very limited draught were compelled to stop at Cronstadt, and discharge or load there. The cost of sending goods from Cronstadt to the capital was calculated at more than the freight from England,[104] without taking into account the loss of time, which often amounted to ten or fourteen days, and sometimes more.
The Poutiloff Canal was constructed by the Russian Government, at a cost of about a million and a quarter sterling, and has been thrown open free of tolls. The points A and B on the plan, where warehouse accommodation has been provided, are in communication by rail with all the railways going out of St. Petersburg, and can also be approached by lighters with cargo for transport. It is expected that the canal will cause merchant-ships ultimately to abandon Cronstadt entirely.
At the St. Petersburg end of the canal, a Government Commission recommended some years ago, that two basins would be required, each 22 feet deep, and capable of holding 90 steamers and 70 sailing vessels, with a third basin, having a depth of 10½ feet, in order to accommodate the barges arriving from the interior. The cost of these works has been estimated at over a million sterling. There has been a good deal of controversy as to the proper location for the port of St. Petersburg at the end of the canal. The original proposal was to erect the docks and basins at the head of the canal, close to the Poutiloff Ironworks, but the Ministry of Finance is reported to have favoured a project for constructing a port on the opposite side of the river—that is on the right bank—on the ground that it would be much less expensive. But the utility of the canal has already been so greatly proved, that the docks originally projected will be likely to be insufficient before long. About 2500 ships are stated to be annually employed in the foreign, and 700 in the local transport trade of the capital.[105]
The Perekop Canal is another recent undertaking of the Russian Government. According to ‘Reports of the Consuls of the U.S.A.,’ dated July 1888, Russia had then begun with the excavation of the Strait of Perekop, which connects the Crimea with the Russian continent. The canal is to go from Perekop to Goutschar, Sivash, and Genitschesk, and is to be 111 versts long. It will be 65 feet broad and 12 feet deep. At each end of the canal a port will be built. It is stated that the 85,000,000 roubles necessary for the undertaking have been found. The shortest road from Genitschesk to the northern ports of the Black Sea will be through the canal. The voyage from Odessa to Maripol is at present 434 sea miles long; through the canal it will be only 295 miles. The work will take five years to complete. When the canal is finished, it will be easy for Russia to send her ships through the Sea of Azov to Otschakow, to the mouth of the Dnieper, and to Odessa, because they will no longer have to sail round the Crimea, and they will thereby avoid the risk of being captured by foreign ships in case of war. The chief reason for building the Perekop Canal is stated to be the necessity for getting coal from the Don districts for the Russian fleet.[106]