Charis version of the Panama Canal

Ok so the spit of land that conects charis to margets land is only 34 miles wide at it's narrowest and there is now area engines so there are steam shovels soon enough and there is also TNT so I believe that Charis is now capable of blasting a canal through that spit of land and that would offer a lot of advantages in cut down travel time.

captinjoehenry wrote:Ok so the spit of land that conects charis to margets land is only 34 miles wide at it's narrowest and there is now area engines so there are steam shovels soon enough and there is also TNT so I believe that Charis is now capable of blasting a canal through that spit of land and that would offer a lot of advantages in cut down travel time.

But is it worth the effort? IIRC, Charis is nowhere near as large as the Americas or the Europe/Asia/Africa trifecta. A ship doesn't have to cross half a hemisphere to get sail from one side of Charis to the other. So the cost and time savings from going around Charis and/or Margaret's Land would be far less than a ship going around South America or Africa.

A better Panama candidate I've heard is the small strip of land that connects Northern and Southern Howard (or whatever the mainland continents are called). People talk about how capturing and holding that land would cut Desnair off from the CoGA. So if the land is really that narrow, then it's narrow enough to put a canal there... assuming there isn't one there already.

captinjoehenry wrote:Ok so the spit of land that conects charis to margets land is only 34 miles wide at it's narrowest and there is now area engines so there are steam shovels soon enough and there is also TNT so I believe that Charis is now capable of blasting a canal through that spit of land and that would offer a lot of advantages in cut down travel time.

There's not a lot of topographic detail on the available Safehold maps. But there's likely a lot more than a simple 34 mile stretch of flat-lands where a quick sea level canal can be dug. Also, digging a Panama or Suez canal capable of passing ocean-going shipping is a much more involved proceeding than the kinds of canals Safehold is familiar with.

Charis -- or any other Safehold nation -- already had the ability to dig a Suez style canal a mere 34 miles if it is relatively low elevations; it would just take more manpower and time than it would with steam power and high-explosives. It would still take several years; IIRC, it took over a decade to build the Panama canal after the US brought in steam shovels and trains.

I don't know if Charis will ever build the canal you propose, but I'm reasonably certain we won't see it happen on-screen.

evilauthor wrote:

captinjoehenry wrote:Ok so the spit of land that conects charis to margets land is only 34 miles wide at it's narrowest and there is now area engines so there are steam shovels soon enough and there is also TNT so I believe that Charis is now capable of blasting a canal through that spit of land and that would offer a lot of advantages in cut down travel time.

But is it worth the effort? IIRC, Charis is nowhere near as large as the Americas or the Europe/Asia/Africa trifecta. A ship doesn't have to cross half a hemisphere to get sail from one side of Charis to the other. So the cost and time savings from going around Charis and/or Margaret's Land would be far less than a ship going around South America or Africa.

A better Panama candidate I've heard is the small strip of land that connects Northern and Southern Howard (or whatever the mainland continents are called). People talk about how capturing and holding that land would cut Desnair off from the CoGA. So if the land is really that narrow, then it's narrow enough to put a canal there... assuming there isn't one there already.

Well for a journey from Charis to Silkiah it would save about 3000km which would be a huge savings and it would also bring in a lot more commence into howels bay from Chisolm and Corisande and Zebdiah because sailing through Charis would also save them a couple thousand km travel time to get to the Grand Duchy of Silkiah and to the east coast of Howard and they would need to pay two tolls to Charis one to get through the locks and the other to get through the canal which would provide a huge amount of income to Charis along with the tolls from ships going the other way. I assure you that merchants would love that as it would reduce both travel time and fuel use by several thousand km which would be a huge savings.

captinjoehenry wrote:Well for a journey from Charis to Silkiah it would save about 3000km which would be a huge savings and it would also bring in a lot more commence into howels bay from Chisolm and Corisande and Zebdiah

All true. If I read the maps correctly, there are some probably not minor hills in the way of that particular canal. That's probably the reason, why it's not there already.
However, with railroads on the table, you might want to go for building tunnels and having a track build there. I'd assume that this would be one of the first major railroads that Charis would build - right after this war...

anwi wrote:

captinjoehenry wrote:Well for a journey from Charis to Silkiah it would save about 3000km which would be a huge savings and it would also bring in a lot more commence into howels bay from Chisolm and Corisande and Zebdiah

All true. If I read the maps correctly, there are some probably not minor hills in the way of that particular canal. That's probably the reason, why it's not there already.
However, with railroads on the table, you might want to go for building tunnels and having a track build there. I'd assume that this would be one of the first major railroads that Charis would build - right after this war...

Also looking at the map a bit to the north of the narrowes section of the land he mountains end the canal would most likely be about three times longer but they would not need to cut through the mountians.

anwi wrote:

captinjoehenry wrote:Well for a journey from Charis to Silkiah it would save about 3000km which would be a huge savings and it would also bring in a lot more commence into howels bay from Chisolm and Corisande and Zebdiah

All true. If I read the maps correctly, there are some probably not minor hills in the way of that particular canal. That's probably the reason, why it's not there already.
However, with railroads on the table, you might want to go for building tunnels and having a track build there. I'd assume that this would be one of the first major railroads that Charis would build - right after this war...

Merlin's forward-area cave, established in OAR, is up near that area on the southern/Tellesberg end. It's a very mountainous spine that effectively isolates (southern) Charis from Margaret's Land. So it would be a real bear for blasting through for a canal, and probably far from easy for a railroad, either underground or over.

That said, I do agree that it's a compelling bit of transportation assistance to take care of. An alternative may be developing a better canal system from Howell Bay through to Margaret's Land's Margaret's Bay, perhaps with a spur west to the ocean coast. The Delthak-Howell Bay portion is already in business; running the rest north from there would be far more distance than the one right across the isthmus, but it's also likely a lot easier going and motivated by local concerns.

In the 1850s a railroad was built across Panama that forty-niners used as the least time route. so there is president for a railroad.

Poker

pokermind wrote:In the 1850s a railroad was built across Panama that forty-niners used as the least time route. so there is president for a railroad.

Poker

For that matter, they'd be complementary: clearing out the area for either of them does much of the work clearing it out for the other as well, and each would be useful in the maintenance of the other.

pokermind Wrote: In the 1850s a railroad was built across Panama that forty-niners used as the least time route. so there is president for a railroad.

My first thought was something on the order of: "So that's how the new players got to the west coast after the draft in New York." And, "Did all the west coast teams use that railroad to get to games on the east coast and vice verse?" ( )

My second thought is how the word draft now refers to football and not -as it did in my day- to national defense. And in some cases to something we thought was a personal disaster. Times change.