Keil canal - Page 2 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Hatterasguy · #16 03-04-2020, 06:13 PM

I'm rusty but I believe the Kiel canal was built in the early 1900's so the Kaisers fleet could get out of the Baltic without having to go past the Royal Navy.

t walgamuth · #17 03-04-2020, 10:24 PM

Looks like we're both right sort of. Parts were built in the 1700 s but was redone and widened for the Kaiser's navy.

History
The first connection between the North and Baltic Seas was constructed while the area was ruled by Denmark–Norway. It was called the Eider Canal, which used stretches of the Eider River for the link between the two seas. Completed during the reign of Christian VII of Denmark in 1784, the Eiderkanal was a 43-kilometre (27 mi) part of a 175-kilometre (109 mi) waterway from Kiel to the Eider River's mouth at Tönning on the west coast. It was only 29 metres (95 ft) wide with a depth of 3 metres (10 ft), which limited the vessels that could use the canal to 300 tonnes.[2]

After 1864 Second Schleswig War put Schleswig-Holstein under the government of Prussia (from 1871 the German Empire), a new canal was sought by merchants and by the German navy, which wanted to link its bases in the Baltic and the North Sea without the need to sail around Denmark.[2]

Construction and expansion
In June 1887, construction started at Holtenau (de), near Kiel. The canal took over 9,000 workers eight years to build. On 20 June 1895 the canal was officially opened by Kaiser Wilhelm II for transiting from Brunsbüttel to Holtenau. The next day, a ceremony was held in Holtenau, where Wilhelm II named it the Kaiser Wilhelm Kanal (after his grandfather, Kaiser Wilhelm I), and laid the final stone.[3] The opening of the canal was filmed by British director Birt Acres; surviving footage of this early film is preserved in the Science Museum in London.[4] The first vessel to pass through the canal was the aviso SMS Jagd; she was sent through in late April, before the canal officially opened, to determine if it was ready for use.

The first Trans-Atlantic sailing ship to pass through the canal was Lilly, commanded by Johan Pitka. Lilly, a barque, was a wooden sailing ship of about 390 tons built 1866 in Sunderland, U.K. She had a length of 127.5 feet (38.9 m), beam 28.7 feet (8.7 m), depth of 17.6 feet (5.4 m) and a 32-foot (9.8 m) keel.[5]

In order to meet the increasing traffic and the demands of the Imperial German Navy, between 1907 and 1914 the canal width was increased. The widening of the canal allowed the passage of a Dreadnought-sized battleship. This meant that these battleships could travel from the Baltic Sea to the North Sea without having to go around Denmark. The enlargement projects were completed by the installation of two larger canal locks in Brunsbüttel and Holtenau.[6]