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by the commercially-savvy Venetians after their conquest of the Peloponnese. But the scale of the project proved too daunting, and they soon gave up.

Fittingly – as a grand scheme for a new country – the canal idea was revived after Greece gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1830. A French engineer was asked to produce a feasibility study, but his estimated cost (40 million gold francs) was out of the question for the new country’s modest budget.

Fresh impetus arrived with the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. The following year, Greece’s prime minister, Thrasyvoulos Zaimis, authorised a construction plan. French financiers and engineers won the project but, nervous of the bankruptcy that befell the French company digging the Panama Canal, no bank would advance them a loan. Their company went bankrupt.

A new concession was granted to a Hungarian – István Türr – and his Société Internationale du Canal Maritime de Corinthe in 1881. He was commissioned not only to build the canal but also to operate it for 99 years. Interestingly, his working plans were almost identical to those used by Nero some 2,000 years earlier.

Despite the company’s initial capital of 30 million francs, the money ran out after eight years and a bid to issue 60,000 bonds of 500 francs each fell over. The company went bankrupt, as did the bank attempting to raise funds for the project.

Construction resumed in 1890 when the project was transferred to a Greek company. The canal was finally completed and opened on 25 July 1893.

SABOTAGE

But the most serious damage suffered by the canal came in WWII. In 1944, retreating German forces triggered two explosions that dumped 645,000m3 of earth and rock into the canal to render it useless to the Allies.

Just to make sure, the also dumped large objects into the canal – a road/railway bridge, 130 rail boxcars, six locomotives – all booby-trapped with mines. They also sank the Vesta – a 3,400-ton steamship – in the canal.

It fell to the US Army Corps of Engineers to clear the canal. US President Harry Truman, fearful of a civil war in Greece and the possibility of a communist takeover, asked Congress for $400 million in aid. In May 1947 he signed an Interim Aid Bill establishing the American Mission for Aid to Greece (AMAG).

The Army Engineers managed to reopen the canal for shallowdraft traffic by July 1948, and for all traffic in September that year.

THE CANAL TODAY

The Canal is too shallow/narrow for large freighters and is used mainly for small vessels and cruising yachts. Still, the operators claim some 15,000 ships of at least 50 different nationalities use the canal every year.

They also believe widening/deepening the canal is a vital developmental project which will boost revenue and tourism. The proposed widening/expansion project has been included in the 2013-2016 Strategic and Operational Plan of the Corinth Canal (submitted to the Ministry of Finance in 2012).

With Greece’s current economic woes, upgrading the Corinth Canal is unlikely to be one of the Government’s most pressing projects. But given the stop-start legacy and the tribulations it’s endured, the Corinth Canal will surely survive. B