International Commission on the Penetration of the Isthmus of Suez

The International Commission on the Piercing of the Isthmus of Suez ( fr : Commission Internationale pour le percement de l'isthme des Suez ) was the commission of experts convened by Lesseps on behalf of the Khedive ( viceroy ) of Egypt Muhammad Said in 1855 to examine the feasibility of a Assess the canal between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea and identify the best solution for such a canal.

prehistory

The construction of a canal through the Isthmus of Suez was one of the great projects that moved Europe in the first half of the 19th century. During Napoléon's Egyptian expedition , an inaccurate survey in 1799 determined a height difference of more than 9 m between the two seas. This error was only corrected by the measurements carried out by Paul-Adrien Bourdaloue in 1847 on behalf of the Société d'Études du Canal de Suez . Negrelli also took part in this expedition , who particularly examined the Bay of Pelusium at the northern end of the proposed channel. Due to the political situation in 1848, however, no further steps were taken. Ferdinand de Lesseps had received the first concession for the construction of the Suez Canal on November 30, 1854 and had a preliminary design drawn up by the French Linant-Bey and Mougel-Bey ( Linant de Bellefonds and Eugène Mougel ), who worked in the Egyptian canal construction administration . From the beginning Lesseps was careful to put the canal project on the broadest possible political basis. He submitted the report to the viceroy, who ordered in the notification (Firman) of May 19, 1855, among other things, that the report should be further elaborated and then discussed by an international commission of experts.

Commission

The commission met for the first time on October 30, 1855 in Paris.

It consisted of the gentlemen:

Frederik Willem Conrad , royal Dutch engineer and chief of the Waterstaat in The Hague , also President of the Commission;
Harris , Captain of the Royal British Navy in London;
Benjamin Jaurès , captain of the French Imperial Navy and member of the Admiralty Council;
Carl Lentze , royal Prussian engineer and chief of the Vistula Buildings in Berlin;
Lieussou , engineer hydrograph of the Imperial French Navy in Paris, also secretary of the Commission;
John Robinson Mac Clean , engineer in London;
Charles Manby , engineer in London, also secretary of the commission;
Cipriano Segundo Montesino , royal. Spanish Director of Public Works in Madrid;
Alois Negrelli , General Inspector of the Railways in the Austrian Imperial State in Vienna;
Pietro Paleocapa , royal. sard. Minister of Public Works in Turin;
Louis Auguste Renaud , Inspector General and member of the Conseil général des ponts et chaussées in Paris;
James Meadows Rendel , engineer in London
Charles Rigault de Genouilly , Imperial French Contre-Admiral in Paris

The preliminary draft by Linant-Bey and Mougel-Bey had been looked through and it was decided to investigate the situation in Egypt on site. A plan of Pelusium Bay was also to be drawn up to confirm and complete the profiles of water depths in Pelusium Bay made by Negrelli in 1847.

Investigations in Egypt

On November 18, five of the 13 members met in Alexandria , namely Messrs. Conrad, Renaud, Negrelli, Mac-Clean and Lieussou. Negrelli handed over the profiles of the water depths he had made and a route he had also designed in 1847, which essentially coincided with the one proposed by the viceroy's engineers (Linant and Mougel). Over the next two days, the group surveyed the Alexandria roadstead. Then they traveled to Suez and explored the bay for four days. In the following days, examinations and drilling samples were carried out on the way to Wadi Tumilat and the route through the Nile Delta to Alexandria proposed by Jacques-Marie Le Père and Paulin Talabot was checked. However, the group quickly agreed that this route was not acceptable for a variety of technical and economic reasons. In the next few days, further investigations and test borings followed on the way through the isthmus to the Mediterranean. On December 31, 1855, the group was picked up by the Egyptian frigate Le Nil , which reached Alexandria on January 2, 1856. On board, the water depths, which have meanwhile been determined by M. Larousse, a French marine hydrologist sent to the commission, were discussed. It was agreed that a canal mouth further west (at what would later become Port Said) was preferable because of the steeper sloping bank there, even if the canal would be 6 km longer. In addition, a north jetty with a length of 3.5 km and a south jetty with a length of 2.5 km and a lighthouse are to be built. On January 2, 1856, a preliminary report was written to the viceroy, in which a direct channel was identified as the only meaningful connection, but the details would have to be reserved for a report of the full commission, for which further investigation was necessary.

The viceroy then issued the second concession .

Commission deliberations

The full commission met again on June 23, 1856 in Paris (Rendel was excused, Negrelli and Montesino arrived the following day) and negotiated for three days the results of the investigations in Egypt and all the details of the future canal. A unanimous decision was made in favor of the canal without locks proposed by Negrelli from the beginning, which should be led through the lower lying bitter lakes to be flooded without containment and should have a depth of 8 m. The width should be 100 m at the water line and 64 m at the bottom of the canal, but in a certain section only 80 m at the water line and 44 m at the bottom.

Final report from the Commission

In the final Rapport de la Commission Internationale of December 1856, a 195-page report, the decision in favor of the direct route was justified again and all details were laid down, including the ports, a telegraph line along the canal, ferries across the canal and lighting the Mediterranean coast and the entire Red Sea, ie its equipment with lighthouses, buoys and the like. As with the group who traveled to Egypt, the final report suggests that the port at the northern mouth of the canal be named Port Said .

In the report, the Commission expressly declared its activities to be terminated. Although she has expressed the wish that the canal will be built as soon as possible, she has not commented on carrying out the construction work or even suggested that Negrelli be entrusted with its management or supervision.

swell

The full report and the minutes of the study group and the deliberations of the plenary assembly were published by Lesseps in

Percement de l'isthme de Suez. Rapport et Projet de la Commission Internationale . Documents Publiés by M. Ferdinand de Lesseps. Troisième série. Paris aux bureaux de l'Isthme de Suez, Journal de l'Union des deux Mers, et chez Henri Plon, Éditeur, 1856. Digitized on Google Books (French; preface by Lesseps, complete report of the International Commission, without the original Cards, profiles etc.)

Negrelli reported to the KK Geographische Gesellschaft in Vienna about the intended canal construction, which published this in