16 Oct2019
On the social media circulation
of the Video of a
Cruise Ship Crossing the ‘Corinth Canal’
The video clip in circulation about the largest
passenger ship yet to cross the Corinth canal came to me with a request to identify
the place and more if possible because the video clip was being circulated without
much of the information, that set me out to gather information and share!
Here are my friendly comments – mainly aimed at
adding some more dimensions to it!
I referred to an informative coverage on https://greekcitytimes.com/2019/10/10/braemer-breaks-record-largest-ship-cross-corinth-canal-video/
courtesy - Google images
Map showing the
location -
courtesy ontheworldmap.com through Google searches
I also found on the internet
some more contexts about this canal.
For those who don’t frequently
travel in Europe, this is about the 1883 built Corinth canal in Greece near
Athens in the Mediterranean Sea. It connects the Corinth Gulf to the Saronic
Gulf (Greece). The passenger ship in the video - MS Braemar - made a
history a few days ago by passing it as a large cruise ship crossing the canal. The passengers on board could reach out and
touch the sides of canal as per some news media, though that would be risky in
my opinion. The on-line info about the canal says that it is just 24 meters
wide at its narrowest point (pls see the photos taken from the internet). This
man-made canal was completed in 1883. Being too narrow, it is mainly a tourist
attraction now and not very useful for larger cargo ships. Its depth allows
ships with only appx 24feet draft to navigate through it.
When made, this appx. 6km
long canal saved about 185 nautical miles (362km appx) in sea distances.
Ship handling in such canals
is very challenging because there is no quick 'refilling' of the displaced
water from any other sources as the large ship passes through such a narrow
canal. Therefore, the passing large ship cannot have the necessary hydro
dynamics and stability for her to safely manoeuvre, that's why in this canal
the smaller pulling boat is seen towing the bigger ship, the towing boat though
small is powerful and is called a 'Tug boat'. As the larger ship finds her steering
highly challenging, the Tug Boat gives pulls with the two ‘tug lines(ropes)’
from the bow of the passenger ship and helps her to counter any untowardly sharp
swing and bang on the canal sides. It is possible that some of the ships would
have some sort of fendering on her ship-sides to prevent damaging the ship's
sides because it would be very difficult not to rub hard on the canal sides at
some point, at least that seems so looking at some of the photos!
Thus, now out of major use,
the canal joining two smaller seas around Greece seems to make good tourism
opportunity for recently weakened economies.... of course, it also takes a
shipowner to take such risks of possible damage to the ship and also the canal
sides, as well as possible claims that would follow!
On merchant ships, it's the
local expert mariners who help take the ships through the challenging waters, they
are highly skilled and called the 'Marine Pilots' (much different in the role than
the aeroplane Pilots); the ship's Captain himself/ herself remains responsible
but doesn't always conn the ship in such specialised places himself/herself,
unless he/she is a locally permitted expert himself/ herself.
Thanks to loads of
history available on the internet (to be used with the discretion of course) I was
also keen to figure out more about the idea of this canal being more than 2
centuries-old, to know more about many subsequent wars and war strategies used
in the Eastern European area. There are references in the history of this canal
that one of the Kings had launched the idea of a greased road with rollers that
would transfer the ships across instead of the expensive project of digging the
canal – that was abandoned many times before 1883 over the centuries. Similar ideas
were said to have been actually deployed during the Byzantine and Ottoman wars
for the control of Constantinople (Istanbul) and the Bosporus straits.
The Corinth canal has Military
references in World War II history too.
For tourism though, this is
an extraordinary experience indeed! and it is possible with the tourism
development by countries, cruise companies and the travel agencies! with the
modern means of ship propulsion and steering plus the assistance of the towing
Tug boat/s (pulling and controlling the ship through) the passengers would get
a lifetime of thrilling experience. It is no wonder that the latest passage on
the largest ship passing through it was fully booked and the next one will only
be in 2021 as per the news.
It is heard that the canal
often needs to be closed for maintenance.
But it was not all, the rail-link that was made in 1988 at the sea level makes the passage possible, the
tracks submerge to the depths of appx.8 meters to allow ships to pass as per this
link https://www.amusingplanet.com/2013/09/submersible-bridges-at-corinth-canal.html
It also explains the draft restrictions on the passing ships!
These rail bridges at sea level are the engineering marvel as well!
One of the submersible Corinth rail bridges (courtesy Google images on the internet)
Taking a large ship through a very narrow
waterway or a canal needs assistance from the powerful 'Tug Boats'
For those interested in the Coastal Engineering studies this link
may be found informative <<<<< https://www.witpress.com/Secure/elibrary/papers/CE05/CE05028FU.pdf
Boundary
element slope instability modeling of Corinth Canal, Greece due to nearby fault
activation G.-A. Tselentis & F. Gkika Seismological Laboratory, University
of Patras, Greece >>>>>
For the recent Military references the Amazon.com
link on Google may be interesting too
- - Capt. U.S.
Gogate
