1.
Port Said
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Port Said is a city that lies in north east Egypt extending about 30 kilometres along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, north of the Suez Canal, with an approximate population of 603,787. The city was established in 1859 during the building of the Suez Canal, Port Said is also an important harbour for exports of Egyptian products like cotton and rice, but also a fueling station for ships that pass through the Suez Canal. It thrives on being a port, as well as a tourist resort especially during summer. It is home to the Lighthouse of Port Said, there are numerous old houses with grand balconies on all floors, giving the city a distinctive look. Port Saids twin city is Port Fuad, which lies on the bank of the canal. The two cities coexist, to the extent that there is hardly any town centre in Port Fuad, the only other metropolitan area in the world that also spans two continents is Istanbul. Most of them were from Mediterranean countries, and they coexisted in tolerance, the name of Port Said first appeared in 1855, It was chosen by an International committee composed of Great Britain, France, the Russian Empire, Austria, Spain and Piedmont. It is a name which composed of two parts, Port and Said, who granted Ferdinand de Lesseps the concession to dig the Suez Canal. Port Said was founded by Said of Egypt on Easter Monday, April 25,1859, the first problem encountered was the difficulty for ships to drop anchor nearby. Luckily, a rocky outcrop flush with the shoreline was discovered a few hundred meters away. Equipped with a wharf, it served as a mooring berth for the boats. Soon after, a jetty was built, connecting the departure islet, as it quickly became known. This rock could be considered the heart of the city, and it was on this highly symbolic site, forty years later. There were no local resources here, everything Port Said needed had to be imported, wood, stone, supplies, machinery, equipment, housing, food and even water. Giant water storage containers were erected to supply fresh water until the Sweet Water Canal could be completed, one of the most pressing problems was the lack of stone. Early buildings were imported in kit form and made great use of wood. A newly developed technique was used to construct the jetties called conglomerate concrete or Beton Coignet, artificial blocks of concrete were sunk into the sea to be the foundations of the jetties. Still more innovative was the use of the concrete for the lighthouse of Port Said
2.
Ismailia
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Ismailia is a city in north-eastern Egypt. Known in Egypt as The City of Beauty and Enchantment, Ismailia is situated on the west bank of the Suez Canal, the city has a population of approximately 750,000 inhabitants. It is located halfway between Port Said to the north and Suez to the south. The Canal widens at that point to include Lake Timsah, one of the Bitter Lakes linked by the Canal, Ismailia was founded in 1863, during the construction of the Suez Canal, by Khedive Ismail the Magnificent, after whom the city is named. Following the Battle of Kafr-el-Dawwar in 1882 the British established a base there, the head office of the Suez Canal Authority is located in Ismailia at the shore of Lake Timsah. It still has a number of buildings dating from British. Most of these buildings are used by Canal employees and officials. During World War I the British had an air base there, in 1973 the Battle of Ismailia took place in the city. The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Ismailia by Hassan al-Banna in March 1928, an underground paramilitary wing was established in the 1940s, primarily to fight British occupation forces. In the early 1950s, Ismailia hosted the British Military HQ, British forces pulled out of Ismailia in 1954. On 1982.12.17 an Eparchy of Ismayliah was established on territory split off from the Coptic Catholic Patriarchate of Alexandria and they face educational problems schools all around Egypt face. Private tutoring is widely accessible and is almost a requirement for all students. Two international schools, Manar Language School and Educational Language Complex School offer American Diploma, Ismailia is the home of Suez Canal University, established in 1976 to serve the region of Suez Canal and Sinai. Suez Canal University now is one of the fastest growing institutions in Egypt with many students studying abroad. The new university of Suez Canal University was established with the help of the Chinese Government, Ismailia hosts two important festivals each year. The first is the International Film Festival for Documentaries and Shorts that is held in June, in June 2014 the 17th consecutive festival was organized. The second is the Ismailia International Folklore Arts Festival that is held in September, in this festival folkloric troupes from all around the globe meet in Ismailia, where they perform folkloric dances representing the culture of their countries. A major attraction is the Ismailia Museum which was built in 1932, visitors will find a variety of significant archaeological finds especially from sites in the Ismailia governorate such as Tell el-Maskhuta, from North Sinai, and from Upper Egypt
3.
Suez Canal
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The Suez Canal is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez. It was constructed by the Suez Canal Company between 1859 and 1869, after 10 years of construction, it was officially opened on November 17,1869. It extends from the terminus of Port Said to the southern terminus of Port Tewfik at the city of Suez. Its length is 193.30 km, including its northern and southern access channels, in 2012,17,225 vessels traversed the canal. The original canal was a waterway with passing locations in the Ballah Bypass. It contains no locks system, with seawater flowing freely through it, in general, the canal north of the Bitter Lakes flows north in winter and south in summer. South of the lakes, the current changes with the tide at Suez, the canal is owned and maintained by the Suez Canal Authority of Egypt. Under the Convention of Constantinople, it may be used in time of war as in time of peace, by every vessel of commerce or of war, without distinction of flag. In August 2014, construction was launched to expand and widen the Ballah Bypass for 35 km to speed the canals transit time, the expansion was planned to double the capacity of the Suez Canal from 49 to 97 ships a day. At a cost of $8.4 billion, this project was funded with interest-bearing investment certificates issued exclusively to Egyptian entities, the New Suez Canal, as the expansion was dubbed, was opened with great fanfare in a ceremony on 6 August 2015. On 24 February 2016, the Suez Canal Authority officially opened the new side channel and this side channel, located at the northern side of the east extension of the Suez Canal, serves the East Terminal for berthing and unberthing vessels from the terminal anytime of day and night. Ancient west–east canals were built to travel from the Nile River to the Red Sea. One smaller canal is believed to have been constructed under the auspices of Senusret II or Ramesses II. Another canal, probably incorporating a portion of the first, was constructed under the reign of Necho II, the legendary Sesostris may have started work on an ancient canal joining the Nile with the Red Sea. In his Meteorology, Aristotle wrote, One of their kings tried to make a canal to it, so he first, and Darius afterwards, stopped making the canal, lest the sea should mix with the river water and spoil it. Strabo wrote that Sesostris started to build a canal, and Pliny the Elder wrote,165. Later the Persian king Darius had the idea, and yet again Ptolemy II. This proved to be the canal made by the Persian king Darius I
4.
Egypt
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Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba to the east, the Red Sea to the east and south, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. Across the Gulf of Aqaba lies Jordan, and across from the Sinai Peninsula lies Saudi Arabia, although Jordan and it is the worlds only contiguous Afrasian nation. Egypt has among the longest histories of any country, emerging as one of the worlds first nation states in the tenth millennium BC. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt experienced some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, organised religion and central government. One of the earliest centres of Christianity, Egypt was Islamised in the century and remains a predominantly Muslim country. With over 92 million inhabitants, Egypt is the most populous country in North Africa and the Arab world, the third-most populous in Africa, and the fifteenth-most populous in the world. The great majority of its people live near the banks of the Nile River, an area of about 40,000 square kilometres, the large regions of the Sahara desert, which constitute most of Egypts territory, are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypts residents live in areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria. Modern Egypt is considered to be a regional and middle power, with significant cultural, political, and military influence in North Africa, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Egypts economy is one of the largest and most diversified in the Middle East, Egypt is a member of the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, Arab League, African Union, and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Miṣr is the Classical Quranic Arabic and modern name of Egypt. The name is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew מִצְרַיִם, the oldest attestation of this name for Egypt is the Akkadian
5.
Suez Crisis
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The Suez Crisis, also named the Tripartite Aggression and the Kadesh Operation or Sinai War, was an invasion of Egypt in late 1956 by Israel, followed by the United Kingdom and France. The aims were to regain Western control of the Suez Canal, after the fighting had started, political pressure from the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Nations led to a withdrawal by the three invaders. The episode humiliated Great Britain and France and strengthened Nasser, on October 29, Israel invaded the Egyptian Sinai. Britain and France issued a joint ultimatum to cease fire, which was ignored, on November 5, Britain and France landed paratroopers along the Suez Canal. The Egyptian forces were defeated, but they did block the canal to all shipping and it later became clear that the Israeli invasion and the subsequent Anglo-French attack had been planned beforehand by the three countries. The three allies had attained a number of their objectives, but the Canal was now useless and heavy political pressure from the United States. U. S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower had strongly warned Britain not to invade, historians conclude the crisis signified the end of Great Britains role as one of the worlds major powers. The Suez Canal was closed from October 1956 until March 1957, Israel fulfilled some of its objectives, such as attaining freedom of navigation through the Straits of Tiran. The Suez Canal was opened in 1869, after ten years of work financed by the French, the canal instantly became strategically important, as it provided the shortest ocean link between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. The canal eased commerce for trading nations and particularly helped European colonial powers to gain, in 1875, as a result of debt and financial crisis, the Egyptian ruler was forced to sell his shares in the canal operating company to the British government of Benjamin Disraeli. They were willing buyers and obtained a 44 percent share in the operations for less than £4 million. With the 1882 invasion and occupation of Egypt, the United Kingdom took de facto control of the country as well as the canal proper, the 1888 Convention of Constantinople declared the canal a neutral zone under British protection. In ratifying it, the Ottoman Empire agreed to international shipping to pass freely through the canal, in time of war. The Convention came into force in 1904, the year as the Entente cordiale between Britain and France. Following the Japanese surprise attack on the Russian Pacific Fleet based at Port Arthur, the British denied the Russian fleet use of the canal and forced it to steam around Africa, giving the Japanese forces time to consolidate their position in East Asia. The importance of the canal as an intersection was again apparent during the First World War. The attempt by German and Ottoman forces to storm the canal in February 1915 led the British to commit 100,000 troops to the defense of Egypt for the rest of the war. The canal continued to be strategically important after the Second World War as a conduit for the shipment of oil, petroleum business historian Daniel Yergin wrote of the period, In 1948, the canal abruptly lost its traditional rationale
6.
United Nations
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The United Nations is an intergovernmental organization to promote international co-operation. A replacement for the ineffective League of Nations, the organization was established on 24 October 1945 after World War II in order to prevent another such conflict, at its founding, the UN had 51 member states, there are now 193. The headquarters of the UN is in Manhattan, New York City, further main offices are situated in Geneva, Nairobi, and Vienna. The organization is financed by assessed and voluntary contributions from its member states, the UNs mission to preserve world peace was complicated in its early decades by the Cold War between the US and Soviet Union and their respective allies. The organization participated in actions in Korea and the Congo. After the end of the Cold War, the UN took on major military, the UN has six principal organs, the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Secretariat, the International Court of Justice, and the UN Trusteeship Council. UN System agencies include the World Bank Group, the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, UNESCO, the UNs most prominent officer is the Secretary-General, an office held by Portuguese António Guterres since 2017. Non-governmental organizations may be granted consultative status with ECOSOC and other agencies to participate in the UNs work, the organization won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001, and a number of its officers and agencies have also been awarded the prize. Other evaluations of the UNs effectiveness have been mixed, some commentators believe the organization to be an important force for peace and human development, while others have called the organization ineffective, corrupt, or biased. Following the catastrophic loss of life in the First World War, the earliest concrete plan for a new world organization began under the aegis of the US State Department in 1939. It incorporated Soviet suggestions, but left no role for France, four Policemen was coined to refer to four major Allied countries, United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and China, which emerged in the Declaration by United Nations. Roosevelt first coined the term United Nations to describe the Allied countries, the term United Nations was first officially used when 26 governments signed this Declaration. One major change from the Atlantic Charter was the addition of a provision for religious freedom, by 1 March 1945,21 additional states had signed. Each Government pledges itself to cooperate with the Governments signatory hereto, the foregoing declaration may be adhered to by other nations which are, or which may be, rendering material assistance and contributions in the struggle for victory over Hitlerism. During the war, the United Nations became the term for the Allies. To join, countries had to sign the Declaration and declare war on the Axis, at the later meetings, Lord Halifax deputized for Mr. Eden, Wellington Koo for T. V. Soong, and Mr Gromyko for Mr. Molotov. The first meetings of the General Assembly, with 51 nations represented, the General Assembly selected New York City as the site for the headquarters of the UN, and the facility was completed in 1952. Its site—like UN headquarters buildings in Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi—is designated as international territory, the Norwegian Foreign Minister, Trygve Lie, was elected as the first UN Secretary-General
7.
Gamal Abdel Nasser
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Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein was the second President of Egypt, serving from 1956 until his death. Nasser led the 1952 overthrow of the monarchy and introduced far-reaching land reforms the following year, Nassers popularity in Egypt and the Arab world skyrocketed after his nationalization of the Suez Canal and his political victory in the subsequent Suez Crisis. Calls for pan-Arab unity under his leadership increased, culminating with the formation of the United Arab Republic with Syria, in 1962, Nasser began a series of major socialist measures and modernization reforms in Egypt. Despite setbacks to his pan-Arabist cause, by 1963 Nassers supporters gained power in several Arab countries and he began his second presidential term in March 1965 after his political opponents were banned from running. Following Egypts defeat by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War, Nasser resigned, after the conclusion of the 1970 Arab League summit, Nasser suffered a heart attack and died. His funeral in Cairo drew five million mourners and an outpouring of grief across the Arab world, Nasser remains an iconic figure in the Arab world, particularly for his strides towards social justice and Arab unity, modernization policies, and anti-imperialist efforts. His presidency also encouraged and coincided with an Egyptian cultural boom, Gamal Abdel Nasser was born on 15 January 1918 in Bakos, Alexandria, the first son of Fahima and Abdel Nasser Hussein. Nassers father was a postal worker born in Beni Mur in Upper Egypt and raised in Alexandria and his parents married in 1917, and later had two more boys, Izz al-Arab and al-Leithi. Nassers family traveled frequently due to his fathers work, in 1921, they moved to Asyut and, in 1923, to Khatatba, where Nassers father ran a post office. Nasser attended a school for the children of railway employees until 1924, when he was sent to live with his paternal uncle in Cairo. Nasser exchanged letters with his mother and visited her on holidays and he stopped receiving messages at the end of April 1926. Upon returning to Khatatba, he learned that his mother had died giving birth to his third brother, Shawki. Nasser later stated that losing her this way was a shock so deep that time failed to remedy and he adored his mother and the injury of her death deepened when his father remarried before the years end. In 1928, Nasser went to Alexandria to live with his maternal grandfather and it was in Alexandria that Nasser became involved in political activism. After witnessing clashes between protesters and police in Manshia Square, he joined the demonstration without being aware of its purpose. The protest, organized by the ultranationalist Young Egypt Society, called for the end of colonialism in Egypt in the wake of the 1923 Egyptian constitutions annulment by Prime Minister Ismail Sidqi, Nasser was arrested and detained for a night before his father bailed him out. When his father was transferred to Cairo in 1933, Nasser joined him and he took up acting in school plays for a brief period and wrote articles for the schools paper, including a piece on French philosopher Voltaire titled Voltaire, the Man of Freedom. Two protesters were killed and Nasser received a graze to the head from a policemans bullet, the incident garnered his first mention in the press, the nationalist newspaper Al Gihad reported that Nasser led the protest and was among the wounded
8.
Ferdinand de Lesseps
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Eventually, the project was bought out by the United States, which solved the medical problems and changed the design to a non-sea level canal with locks. The origins of de Lesseps family are traceable back as far as the end of the 14th century and his ancestors, it is believed, came from Spain, and settled at Bayonne during the regions occupation by the English. From the middle of the 18th century the ancestors of de Lesseps followed diplomatic careers and his uncle was ennobled by King Louis XVI, and his father was made a count by Emperor Napoleon I. His father, Mathieu de Lesseps, was in the service, his mother, Catherine de Grévigné, was Spanish on her mothers side. She was a daughter of Henri de Grevigné and wife Francisca Antonia Gallegos, Ferdinand de Lesseps was born November 19,1805 in Versailles, Yvelines. His first years were spent in Italy, where his father was occupied with his consular duties and he was educated at the College of Henry IV in Paris. From the age of 18 years to 20 he was employed in the department of the army. From 1825 to 1827 he acted as assistant vice-consul at Lisbon and this uncle was an old companion of Jean-François de La Pérouse and the only survivor of the expedition in which La Pérouse perished. Barthélemy de Lesseps had left the expedition in Kamchatka to travel to St Petersburg overland, in 1828 de Lesseps was sent as an assistant vice-consul to Tunis, where his father was consul-general. He aided the escape of Youssouff, pursued by the soldiers of the Bey, of whom he was one of the officers, Youssouff acknowledged this protection given by a Frenchman by distinguishing himself in the ranks of the French army at the time of the French conquest of Algeria. De Lesseps was also entrusted by his father with missions to Marshal Count Bertrand Clausel, the marshal wrote to Mathieu de Lesseps on 18 December 1830, I have had the pleasure of meeting your son, who gives promise of sustaining with great credit the name he bears. In 1832 de Lesseps was appointed vice-consul at Alexandria, while the vessel de Lesseps sailed to Egypt in was in quarantine at the Alexandrian lazaretto, M. This work struck de Lessepss imagination, and gave him the idea of constructing a canal across the African isthmus, because of this, de Lesseps received a warm welcome from the viceroy and became good friends with his son, Said Pasha. In 1833 de Lesseps was sent as consul to Cairo, and soon given the management of the consulate general at Alexandria. While he was there an epidemic of plague broke out and lasted for two years, resulting in the deaths of more than a third of the inhabitants of Cairo and Alexandria. During this time de Lesseps went from one city to the other and constantly displayed an admirable zeal, towards the close of the year 1837 he returned to France, and on 21 December married Mlle Agathe Delamalle, daughter of the government prosecuting attorney at the court of Angers. By this mariage de Lesseps became the father of five sons, Charles Théodore de Lesseps, Charles Aimé de Lesseps, Ferdinand Marie de Lesseps, Ferdinand Victor de Lesseps and Aimé Victor de Lesseps. In 1839 he was appointed consul at Rotterdam, and in the following year transferred to Málaga, in 1842 he was sent to Barcelona, and soon afterwards promoted to the grade of consul general
9.
United States dollar
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The United States dollar is the official currency of the United States and its insular territories per the United States Constitution. It is divided into 100 smaller cent units, the circulating paper money consists of Federal Reserve Notes that are denominated in United States dollars. The U. S. dollar was originally commodity money of silver as enacted by the Coinage Act of 1792 which determined the dollar to be 371 4/16 grain pure or 416 grain standard silver, the currency most used in international transactions, it is the worlds primary reserve currency. Several countries use it as their currency, and in many others it is the de facto currency. Besides the United States, it is used as the sole currency in two British Overseas Territories in the Caribbean, the British Virgin Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands. A few countries use the Federal Reserve Notes for paper money, while the country mints its own coins, or also accepts U. S. coins that can be used as payment in U. S. dollars. After Nixon shock of 1971, USD became fiat currency, Article I, Section 8 of the U. S. Constitution provides that the Congress has the power To coin money, laws implementing this power are currently codified at 31 U. S. C. Section 5112 prescribes the forms in which the United States dollars should be issued and these coins are both designated in Section 5112 as legal tender in payment of debts. The Sacagawea dollar is one example of the copper alloy dollar, the pure silver dollar is known as the American Silver Eagle. Section 5112 also provides for the minting and issuance of other coins and these other coins are more fully described in Coins of the United States dollar. The Constitution provides that a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and that provision of the Constitution is made specific by Section 331 of Title 31 of the United States Code. The sums of money reported in the Statements are currently being expressed in U. S. dollars, the U. S. dollar may therefore be described as the unit of account of the United States. The word dollar is one of the words in the first paragraph of Section 9 of Article I of the Constitution, there, dollars is a reference to the Spanish milled dollar, a coin that had a monetary value of 8 Spanish units of currency, or reales. In 1792 the U. S. Congress passed a Coinage Act, Section 20 of the act provided, That the money of account of the United States shall be expressed in dollars, or units. And that all accounts in the offices and all proceedings in the courts of the United States shall be kept and had in conformity to this regulation. In other words, this act designated the United States dollar as the unit of currency of the United States, unlike the Spanish milled dollar the U. S. dollar is based upon a decimal system of values. Both one-dollar coins and notes are produced today, although the form is significantly more common
10.
Tugboat
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A tug is a boat or ship that maneuvers vessels by pushing or towing them. Tugboats are powerful for their size and strongly built, and some are ocean-going, some tugboats serve as icebreakers or salvage boats. Early tugboats had steam engines, but today most have diesel engines, many tugboats have firefighting monitors, allowing them to assist in firefighting, especially in harbors. Seagoing tugs fall into four categories, The standard seagoing tug with model bow that tows its payload on a hawser. The notch tug which can be secured in a notch at the stern of a specially designed barge and this configuration is dangerous to use with a barge which is in ballast or in a head- or following sea. Therefore, notch tugs are usually built with a towing winch and these units stay combined under virtually any sea conditions and the tugs usually have poor sea-keeping designs for navigation without their barges attached. Vessels in this category are considered to be ships rather than tugboats. These vessels must show navigation lights compliant with those required of ships rather than required of tugboats. Articulated tug and barge units also utilize mechanical means to connect to their barges, the tug slips into a notch in the stern and is attached by a hinged connection. ATBs generally utilize Intercon and Bludworth connecting systems, aTBs are generally staffed as a large tugboat, with between seven and nine crew members. The typical American ATB operating on the east coast customarily displays navigational lights of a towing vessel pushing ahead, compared to seagoing tugboats, harbour tugboats are generally smaller and their width-to-length ratio is often higher, due to the need for a lower draught. In smaller harbours these are also termed lunch bucket boats, because they are only manned when needed and only at a minimum. The number of tugboats in a harbour varies with the harbour infrastructure, things to take into consideration includes ships with/without bow thrusters and forces like wind, current and waves and types of ship. River tugs are also referred to as towboats or pushboats and their hull designs would make open ocean operation dangerous. River tugs usually do not have any significant hawser or winch and their hulls feature a flat front or bow to line up with the rectangular stern of the barge, often with large pushing knees. Tugboat engines typically produce 500 to 2,500 kW, for safety, tugboats engines often feature two of each critical part for redundancy. A tugboats power is stated by its engines horsepower and its overall bollard pull. The largest commercial harbour tugboats in the 2000s-2010s, used for towing container ships or similar, had around 60-65 tons of bollard pull, Tugboats are highly maneuverable, and various propulsion systems have been developed to increase maneuverability and increase safety
11.
Crane vessel
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A crane vessel, crane ship or floating crane is a ship with a crane specialized in lifting heavy loads. The largest crane vessels are used for offshore construction, conventional monohulls are used, but the largest crane vessels are often catamaran or semi-submersible types as they have increased stability. On a sheerleg crane, the crane is fixed and cannot rotate, in medieval Europe, crane vessels which could be flexibly deployed in the whole port basin were introduced as early as the 14th century. During the age of sail, the hulk was used extensively as a floating crane for tasks that required heavy lift. At the time, the heaviest single components of ships were the main masts, and sheer hulks were essential for removing and replacing them, in 1920, the 1898-built battleship USS Kearsarge was converted to a crane ship when a crane with a capacity of 250 tons was installed. Later it was renamed Crane Ship No.1 and it was used, amongst other things, to place guns and other heavy items on other battleships under construction. Another remarkable feat was the raising of the submarine USS Squalus in 1939, in 1942, the crane ships a. k. a. Heavy Lift Ships SS Empire Elgar, SS Empire Bard, and SS Empire Purcell were sent to the Russian Arctic ports of Archangel and their role was to enable the unloading of the Arctic convoys where port installations were either destroyed by German bombers or were non existent. In 1949, J. Ray McDermott had Derrick Barge Four built, the arrival of this type of vessel changed the direction of the offshore construction industry. Instead of constructing oil platforms in parts, jackets and decks could be built onshore as modules, for use in the shallow part of the Gulf of Mexico, the cradle of the offshore industry, these barges sufficed. In 1963, Heerema converted a Norwegian tanker, Sunnaas, into a vessel with a capacity of 300 tons. This type of vessel was better adapted to the harsh environment of the North Sea. In 1978, Heerema had two semi-submersible crane vessels built, Hermod and Balder, each with one 2,000 ton, later both were upgraded to a higher capacity. This type of vessel was much less sensitive to sea swell. The high stability also allowed for heavier lifts than was possible with a monohull, the larger capacity of the cranes reduced the installation time of a platform from a whole season to a few weeks. Inspired by this success similar vessels were built, in 1985 DB-102 was launched for McDermott, with two cranes with a capacity of 6,000 tons each. Micoperi had M7000 built in 1986 with two cranes of 7,000 tons each, however, due to a oil glut in the mid 1980s, the boom in the offshore industry was over, resulting in collaborations. In 1988, a joint venture between Heerema and McDermott was formed, HeereMac, in 1990 Micoperi had to apply for bankruptcy
12.
Raid on the Suez Canal
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Substantial Ottoman forces crossed the Sinai peninsula, but their attack failed mainly because of strongly held defences and alert defenders. Since its opening in 1869 the Suez Canal had featured prominently in British policy, among its great advantages were as a line of communication and also the site for a military base as the well equipped ports at Alexandria and Port Said made the region particularly useful. However, the popularity of the British was in decline in Egypt as the people disliked the occupation, the Convention of Constantinople of 1888 by the European Powers guaranteed freedom of navigation of the Suez Canal. In August 1914 Egypt was defended by 5,000 men in the Force in Egypt, Abbas Hilmi, the reigning Khedive, who had opposed the British occupation, was out of the country when the war started. When the British declared the Protectorate on 18 December 1914 they deposed Abbas Hilmi, the population agreed to these changes while the outcome of the war was unknown and the fighting continued. The first hostilities occurred on 20 November when a 20-man patrol of the Bikanir Camel Corps was attacked at Bir en Nuss 20 miles east of Qantara by 200 Bedouin, the Bikanir Camel Corps lost more than half their patrol. By December El Arish was occupied by an Ottoman force and the defence of the Suez Canal was organised, there had been a pre-war suggestion that a force of camels could hold Nekhl just to the south and in the centre of the Ottoman Empire and Egyptian frontier. The 100 miles long canal had a railway running along its length and was supplied with water from the west. The length of the canal included about 29 miles of the Great and Little Bitter Lakes and Lake Timsah, which divided the three sectors organised for the defence. The northern stretch of the canal was shortened by 20 miles by cutting the Canal bank at Port Said on 25 November to flood a portion of the desert which stretched to El Kab. Another major cutting in the Asiatic bank was made on 2 January north of Qantara and these troops were deployed at the Ballah, Qantara East, Qantara West, El Kab, Tina, Ras El Esh, Salt Works, New Canal Works and Port Said posts. Section 1 Egyptian Mountain Battery 2 Sections Field Artillery with Cavalry Brigade 3 Indian Field Ambulances and this force would be supported by warships located in the Suez Canal and the lakes. Three floating bridges were constructed, at Ismailia, Kubri and Qantara, on the western bank trenches were dug at intervals between the posts. The canal was closed each night during the threat, two battalions of the 32nd Brigade were deployed north of Lake Timsah to Ballah in Sector II commanded by Brigadier General H. D. Watson with the New Zealand Infantry Brigade and the Otago and Wellington Battalions reinforcing Sector I, to protect their strategic interests, by January 1915 the British had assembled some 70,000 troops in Egypt. 30,000 of the troops stationed in Egypt manned defences along the Suez Canal, the Ottomans had only three available routes to reach the Suez Canal through the road-less and waterless Sinai Peninsula. A coastal advance that would have water supplies and usable tracks, a central route from Beersheba to Ismailia or a southern track between El Kossaima and the Suez Canal. The central route was chosen as it would provide the Ottoman soldiers with proper tracks to follow once they crossed the canal, the Bavarian Colonel Kress von Kressenstein had been appointed Chief of Staff of the VIII Corps, Fourth Army on arrival from Constantinople on 18 November 1914
