DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1035#0634
BY STEAM WITH INDIA. 587
expose a boat to the dangers of the rocks themselves.*
However, from their size, they will only admit the smallest
craft, and no vessel could with safety approach them, or
hope to find safety in their shallow and confined basins, f
The use of steam-boats effectually obviates the necessity of
adopting the precautions resorted to by the ancients, or by
the Arab mariners ; and nothing more is required to ensure
safety than the possession of an accurate survey of the Red
Sea, and consequently the means of avoiding its reefs and
shoals.
The passage from Bombay to Kossayr and Sooez has
already been tried by steam, and found to succeed, and the
time employed in coming from India to Egypt is fixed to
the short period of twenty-one days. But a question has
arisen as to the most expeditious, and in general terms the
most eligible method of effecting the steam communication
through Egypt; some having proposed Berenice for the
place of debarkation from Bombay, others Kossayr, and
others again Sooez, at the northern extremity of the Gulf.
The first I consider highly objectionable, on account of its
great distance from the Nile, and from the difficulty of pro-
curing water on the road: the circumstance of there being
no modern town at Berenice, and its having no port (though
the roadstead might perhaps supply its place): the difficulty
of obtaining water and provisions there : the great privations
and fatigue to those who cross to the Nile : the great time
they must lose, and in short numerous other objections,
which, as I imagine no one acquainted with the road would
seriously propose it, I consider it unnecessary to mention.
It now remains to decide between Sooez and Kossayr ;
* Boats that break from their moorings are inevitably lost; and
this sometimes happens even in these ports.
t Rowing boats may enter them safely in search of water, if re-
quired, or if it is to be found in their vicinity, as at Wadee Saffagee.
expose a boat to the dangers of the rocks themselves.*
However, from their size, they will only admit the smallest
craft, and no vessel could with safety approach them, or
hope to find safety in their shallow and confined basins, f
The use of steam-boats effectually obviates the necessity of
adopting the precautions resorted to by the ancients, or by
the Arab mariners ; and nothing more is required to ensure
safety than the possession of an accurate survey of the Red
Sea, and consequently the means of avoiding its reefs and
shoals.
The passage from Bombay to Kossayr and Sooez has
already been tried by steam, and found to succeed, and the
time employed in coming from India to Egypt is fixed to
the short period of twenty-one days. But a question has
arisen as to the most expeditious, and in general terms the
most eligible method of effecting the steam communication
through Egypt; some having proposed Berenice for the
place of debarkation from Bombay, others Kossayr, and
others again Sooez, at the northern extremity of the Gulf.
The first I consider highly objectionable, on account of its
great distance from the Nile, and from the difficulty of pro-
curing water on the road: the circumstance of there being
no modern town at Berenice, and its having no port (though
the roadstead might perhaps supply its place): the difficulty
of obtaining water and provisions there : the great privations
and fatigue to those who cross to the Nile : the great time
they must lose, and in short numerous other objections,
which, as I imagine no one acquainted with the road would
seriously propose it, I consider it unnecessary to mention.
It now remains to decide between Sooez and Kossayr ;
* Boats that break from their moorings are inevitably lost; and
this sometimes happens even in these ports.
t Rowing boats may enter them safely in search of water, if re-
quired, or if it is to be found in their vicinity, as at Wadee Saffagee.