Today, I will introduce two canals, one connecting the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, and the other connecting the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, yes, they are the Panama Canal and the Suez Canal. The opening of these two canals is of great significance, the Panama Canal has become an important waterway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans between South and North America, and the opening of the Suez Canal has made it a thing of history that ships from Europe to the Indian Ocean have to detour through the Cape of Good Hope, the southernmost point of Africa.
Panama canal
The Panama Canal is located in Panama, Central America, crosses the Isthmus of Panama, with a total length of 82 kilometers, roughly running in a northwest-southeast direction, with a width of 304 meters and a narrowest point of 152 meters. The canal connects the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and is an important shipping artery.
Map of the Panama Canal, which shows the order of locks and waterways
The opening of the Panama Canal has an extraordinary history, the Panama Canal is located at the junction of North and South America, making the Panama Canal an ideal place to connect the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, as early as the 16th world, king Charles V of Spain had ordered the excavation of the canal.
In 1881, the French began to build the Panama Canal, but due to illness and financial difficulties, it was finally declared a failure on February 4, 1889. Digging the canal was really a cost-wrenching project, which reportedly cost $287 million, drained the savings of 800,000 investors and lost 22,000 lives. Works were interrupted on 15 May 1889.
Excavator at work, 1886
The United States eventually took over the project in 1904 and was completed on August 15, 1914. The United States spent about $375 million on construction projects (about $9.17 billion today). This is by far the largest engineering project in the Americas. The canal was officially opened on 15 August 1914, after which the first transit was the cargo ship SS Ankon.
SS Ancon passed through the Panama Canal on 15 August 1914
Using the USS Missouri through the Panama Canal, 1945
Charges
Boats passing through the Panama Canal are subject to a fee, and in Warner Bros.'s cartoon 8 Ball Bunny, Bugs Rabbit tries to take a penguin to its "home" in Antarctica. When passing through the Panama Canal, he once complained: "Do you want me 25 cents for this thing?" Now, let's sneak around! "And these costs have become an important source of finance for Panama."
The cost of passage through the canal is set by the Panama Canal Authority and depends on the type and size of the vessel and the type of cargo carried.
For container ships, the cost of passage depends on the vessel's ability to load a 20-foot standard container.
The Panama Canal crossing costs are as follows:
1. If a freighter (ship) passes through the canal locks, two tugboats need to be used one after the other, using one tugboat is 195 US dollars, and using two tugboats is 390 US dollars.
2. There are 3 locks in the canal, and a boat that passes through 3 locks will increase the service fee for the use of tugboats by 1170 US dollars.
3. When each boat crosses the river, it needs to be towed by 4 locomotives on the shore, and each locomotive uses one or two steel cables to tow the cross-river vessels; a steel cable is raised by $6.5, 8 is $52, and through 3 locks is $156.
Passenger ships with a displacement of more than 30,000 tons pay tolls according to the number of passengers. Most other types of vessels are charged according to the standard displacement, of which "one ton" is calculated at 100 cubic feet (2.83 cubic meters) (in fact, the standard displacement calculation method for commercial vessels is complicated). In fiscal year 2016, this fee was:
For the initial 10, 000 tons, the cost per ton is 5.25 USD.
After that 10, 000 tons, $ 5.14 per ton.
The rest is $5.06 per tonne.
The canal levied relatively low fees on cargo ship ballast, at $4.19, $4.12 and $4.05, respectively.
On April 1, 2016, the Panama Canal began implementing a more complex toll collection system. Small vessels (less than 125 feet in length) with a displacement not exceeding 583 standard net tons when carrying passengers or cargo, or 735 standard net displacement net tons when carrying ballast, or 1048 fully loaded discharge tons at full load, will be subject to a minimum toll based on the full length of their vessels, at the following rates (effective from 29 April 2015):
Vessel total length fee (USD) not exceeding 15.240 m (50 ft) 80015.240 m (50 ft) to 24.384 m (80 ft) 1,30024.384 m (80 ft) to 30.480 m (100 ft) 2,000 over 30.480 m (100 ft) 3,200 INTRA MARITIME CLUSTER -
Local tourism boats over 24.384 m (80 ft)
2,000
+ 72/20 ft standard container
How nuclear submarines pass through canals
Nuclear submarines rarely cross the Panama Canal, usually twice a year, and almost never during daylight. But in 2015, U.S. nuclear submarines actually passed through the locks of the Panama Canal during the day.
Anecdote:
There are many interesting things to do about the charges of the Panama Canal, and today we will take stock of those small anecdotes that will definitely open your eyes.
1
Fun facts one
Morgan Adams of Los Angeles was the first person to pay the Panama Canal toll for the U.S. government. His cruise ship Lasata passed through the Panama Canal on August 14, 1914. The trip was more than 6,000 miles long, from Jacksonville via Florida to Los Angeles.
2
Fun facts two
The highest vessel toll to date occurred on the Norwegian Pearl on April 14, 2010, when the vessel paid a fee of 375, 600, US dollars. The average toll is around $54,000.
3
Fun facts three
The lowest toll to date is 36 cents, paid by American Richard Halliberton when he swam through the Panama Canal in 1928.
Suez Canal
Located on the western side of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, across the Isthmus of Suez at the junction of Asia and Africa, and between the two cities of Port Said on the Mediterranean side and Suez on the Gulf of Suez in the Red Sea, the Suez Canal is one of the few lockless canals in the world with the capacity of large merchant ships.
The canal connects north-south water transport between Europe and Asia, and ships do not have to bypass the Cape of Good Hope on the southern tip of Africa, saving a lot of voyages.
As far back as the Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt, Pharaoh Sinusel III (whose name is the source of the word "Suez") ordered the excavation of an "east-west" canal connecting the Red Sea with the Nile in order to conduct direct trade.
The scene of the construction of the canal in 1860
On December 15, 1858, the Compagnie Universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez was established. They forced the poor Egyptians to work in very difficult conditions, sometimes even with whipping. Eleven years later, after overcoming many technical, political and financial problems, the Suez Canal was finally successfully excavated. The final cost was as high as £18.6 million, more than double the initial budget. The canal opened to traffic on 17 November 1869, a day that was designated as the anniversary of the canal's opening.
One of the first passages through the canal in the 19th century
Drawing of the Suez Canal in 1881
Whether it is a civilian or military ship, there is a fee to pass through the Suez Canal or the Panama Canal, unless it is chartered by the government of the country. In fact, the tolls for the two canals mentioned above are an important fiscal revenue for Egypt and Panama, especially Egypt.
Fees are charged according to the tonnage of the vessel. Specifically, the Suez Canal crossing fee is calculated based on the Suez net tonnage per boat and the canal rate schedule. The first time each vessel crosses the Suez Canal, the authorities measure a Suez net tonnage and use it to calculate the canal fee, which is over-accumulated, and the result calculated from the Suez net tonnage and rate table is multiplied by a SDR to US dollar ratio, and the result is the canal fee to be paid. In the case of a 5,000-box container ship, the price of one-way passage through the canal is about $300,000.
Ships filled with containers are passing through the canal.
The ultimate question
Can both canals pass through the aircraft carrier?
In fact, the answer is no, the Panama Canal cannot pass through aircraft carriers.
The load capacity of navigable ships on the Panama Canal is generally 45 000t, the maximum is 65 000t, the length is less than 297m, and the width is less than 32. 58m, max draft 12.04m. In the dry season, the water depth of the canal is insufficient, and the maximum draft of the ship must be less than 11. 58m to pass through the canal.
Taking the US aircraft carrier as an example, the current US aircraft carrier is beyond this limit, (the smallest Kitty Hawk is 318.8 meters long and 39.6 meters wide), so the current US aircraft carrier is around the top of South America whenever it moves between the two oceans.
But during World War II, U.S. aircraft carrier designs were within the range of sizes that allowed navigation.
The Suez Canal can pass through aircraft carriers, and American aircraft carriers pass through the Suez Canal.
The U.S. Navy's USS Bush aircraft carrier passes through the Suez Canal on March 10, 2017.
There are many F-18 carrier-based fighter jets parked on the aircraft carrier. There is also the MH-60R military carrier-based helicopter on the flight deck. The aircraft carrier sailed on the Suez Canal, the scene was shocking, and the staff of the aircraft carrier also came out to watch.
Although the opening process cost the people money, it is precisely because of the existence of these two canals that maritime trade is more convenient and fast. "One will achieve ten thousand bones", every great project in the world, behind it is not the white bone of Sensen?