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Untold lives blog An Alternative to the Suez Canal?
The opening of the Suez Canal in 1868 created a new trade route between Europe and Asia as an alternative to the long sea journey around the Cape of Good Hope, but a different route had also been given serious consideration.
The Isthmus of Suez and the River Euphrates in a detail from a map of Arabia by William Henry Plate (1847), IOR/X/3205, India Office Records, British Library
A survey of the Isthmus of Suez in 1798 had incorrectly shown the Red Sea to be 8.5m higher than the Mediterranean, an idea finally put to rest by a more accurate survey carried out by British army officer Captain Francis Rawdon Chesney in 1830. Chesney’s recommendation however was for the establishment of a permanent steam-boat service on the Euphrates River as part of an overland route linking the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean, and in 1834 the UK Parliament voted a grant of £20,000 towards determining the navigability
Before Suez Canal, the British had considered another trade route to Asia
In 1836, the Empire’s quest to explore an overland route linking the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean through the Euphrates river met with a tragic end. Apr 01, 2021 · 07:30 pm
The opening of the Suez Canal in 1868 created a new trade route between Europe and Asia as an alternative to the long sea journey around the Cape of Good Hope, but a different route had also been given serious consideration.
In 1798, a survey of the Isthmus of Suez had incorrectly shown the Red Sea to be 8.5 m higher than the Mediterranean, an idea finally put to rest by a more accurate survey carried out by British army officer Captain Francis Rawdon Chesney in 1830.
David Arrigo looks at cameos of potted history with deeply-rooted Malta connections through the extraordinary lives of the Malta-born Bell brothers.
When Malta became a Crown colony in 1814, early British colonialists left their mark by founding businesses, some of which are still operating today.
Charlotte Bell née Williams, Captain John Bell s second wife.
John Bell, captain of the brigantine called The Sisters, was firstly married to Suzanna Williams in 1812, then to her sister, Charlotte, in 1925. Their daughter, Susan Mary, was born in Bristol and, after coming to Malta, John Thomas and Thomas William Bell were born in 1815 and 1819.
The three children were educated at the Missionary School in Sliema, known as the ‘Institution’. Here, they learnt French, Arabic and Maltese, the knowledge of which took them away from the island ‒ the boys were employed as interpreters to Maltese workmen engaged on overseas missions.