DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE FLORIDA CANAL 167 and Europe try to follow the great circle route, after giving due regard to ocean currents, hazards of icebergs, and other conditions which affect the safety of navigation at sea. The advantage of the great circle route is apparent on a globe, but it is not at all apparent on a flat map, particularly if the latter is on the customary rectangular or Mercator's projection. 8. The British Isles lie athwart the great circle route between the westerly entrance to the Kiel Canal and the North American ports. Therefore, vessels plying direct between New York, for instance, and the Baltic ports, approximate the great circle route by going to Pentland Firth, north of Scotland, thence across the North Sea, and around the Skaw, to the east of Denmark, for the reason that this route is somewhat shorter than that through the English Chan- nel and around the Skaw, or through the canal 9. The corresponding condition does not apply to the Florida ship canal. It will afford a very decided "short cut" for all shipping plying between Gulf ports andathose on either side of the Atlantic Ocean, including ports in the Mediter- ranean and some ports on the northwest coast of Africa. The Florida canal approximates more closely than the Florida Straits to the great circle route between ports in the Gulf of Mexico and ports in Europe, including those on the Baltic. For example, a vessel plying direct between Galveston on the Gulf of Mexico and Gdynia on the Baltic Sea will find its shortest distance by using the Florida canal rather than by going on through the Florida Straits. This applies to all European and Mediterranean ports and to all American ports north of Jacksonville. This advantage presented by the Florida canal is in- creased, on the whole, by reason of the Gulf Stream and certain other factors which affect in various ways round-trip navigation through the Florida Straits, as compared with navigation through the proposed canal 10. All the vessels engaged in the north Atlantic trade will profit by using the latter canal. However, because the Kiel Canal does not greatly shorten the north Atlantic great circle route between Baltic and American ports, the latter traffic does not pass through the Kiel Canal 11. It follows then that since the latter canal does not afford the trans- Atlantic commerce the same degree of benefit being offered by the Florida canal, the traffic of the former may be conservatively taken as an index of the com- mercial possibilities and benefits to accrue from the latter. A;TIVU DIMENSIONS 12 The comparative dimensions are indicated in the figures on page 14. 13. The Kiel Canal has a bottom width of only 144 feet, while the Florida canal will have a minimum width of 250 feet for about 00 miles, and the rest will apparently be not less than 400 feet wide. The Kiel Canal has a center depth of 36 feet in order to accommodate vessels of the German Navy, but most of the merchant vessels using the canal have a draft of not over 21 feet, and they may pass or meet other vessels without stopping. For deeper-draft vessels, bypasses or "lay-byes" are provided after the manner of railway sidings. These are equipped with posts for the mooring of vessels which must take the siding and come to a full stop. Of these bypasses, there are 11, the 4 largest of which are each 3,600 feet long by 540 feet wide. 14. The Florida canal will be sufficiently wide so that vessels may pass or meet without "lay-byes" and without any great reduction in speed. It will have a depth of 32 feet or more and will accommodate vessels having a loaded draft of 30 feet This draft embraces all but a small percentage of vessels in the Gulf trade. 15. In 1929, out of a total of 1,487 ships entering the Gulf and making 10,341 one-way voyages and which might have used the ship canal to advantage, there were only 11 ships, making 96 voyages, that exceeded 30 feet in draft. In general, 95 percent of the commerce of the world is carried in vessels of 30 feet draft, or less. 16 For strategic reasons, American war vessels no longer operate in the Gulf and there is no need for an excessively deep canal to accommodate them. However, the canal has a wartime advantage in that it will facilitate the movement of supplies or munitions of war from the numerous ports in the Gulf. Cotton, petroleum, grain, and other products produced in the great valley of the United States are all "materials of war" and find their natural outlet through the Gulf ports and hence through the trans-Florida canal which can be defended against an enemy with much greater ease than the channels be- tween the Florida Peninsula and Yucatan.