Approximately how much travel time was saved by the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869?
score:37
That would have depended on the ship and your destination.
To get a sense of the savings (the travel times are from today), consider the presentation that's referenced on the Suez Canal wiki page.
As a point of comparison, London to New York is a bit over 3,300 nautical miles (6,200km) when traveling by sea. So going through Suez when traveling from Hormuz to London is like avoiding a trip and a half across the Atlantic.
This separate question has a few sources where you will likely be able to locate how much savings in days that would have meant.
In passing, crossing through Suez had an additional benefit: not needing to worry about the at times enormous waves near the Cape of Good Hope. (The sea is even more treacherous at Cape Horn.)
Upvote:21
Three steam ships of the Blue Funnel Line used both routes (round the Cape of Good Hope and via the Suez Canal) between Europe and Asia from 1866 to 1870. Upon switching from round the Cape to through the Suez Canal, these same ships saved between 10 and 12 days.
Arthur Holt's Blue Funnel Line sister ships Agamemnon, Ajax and Achilles all sailed on their first trips from London to Singapore via the Cape of Good Hope in 1866. Agamemnon, the first to sail (in April), took 59 days. Achilles, the last to sail (in August), was the fastest at 57 days.
Cargo steamer SS 'Agamemnon'. After several years sailing round the Cape, this was one of the first cargo ships to pass through the Suez Canal. Image source: magnolia box
The three ships continued to ply this route (they also went on to various Chinese ports) until the Suez Canal opened. Between 1866 and 1869, they averaged 58 days from London to Singapore. By June 1870, these same three ships had all switched to the Suez Canal route, saving 10 to 12 days, but they were not the fastest in that year: the steamship Shantung set a new record when it made the trip form Glasgow to Singapore in 42 days.
Even without the Suez Canal, the Blue Funnel Line ships had already cut the sailing time between Europe and the Far East, being much faster than sailing ships such the Eileen Radford which set the best (non-steamship) London - Singapore time in 1867 at 116 days (see also the Great Tea Race of 1866 - 3 ships took 99 days from Foochow, though they were all beaten by the auxilliary steamship Erl King which took 77 days). Equally important for the shipping company was that the steamers carried far more tonnage than the sailing ships.
Main source:
Macolm Falkus, The Blue Funnel Legend: A History of the Ocean Steam Ship Company, 1865-1973
More post
- 📝 Were smoke signals used in conflict between European-American and Native Americans?
- 📝 Cultural history of Saudi Arabian rulers' uniform beard style?
- 📝 Help identifying a strange uniform jacket
- 📝 Was it true that Nelson Mandela refused to renounce violence while in Prison?
- 📝 When Lenin met Mussolini, what was Mussolini's impression of Lenin?
- 📝 Did Charlemagne save Latin literature?
- 📝 Vietnam war: did infantry really have to clear the way for tanks as depicted in "Full Metal Jacket"?
- 📝 Are historians required to memorize or be knowledgeable of every significant event in history?
- 📝 How many languages did Zhang Shenfu speak?
- 📝 Did the Jewish Temple influence Nazi architecture?
- 📝 Have gun rights ever increased without a revolution?
- 📝 Book on history of international trade
- 📝 What was the relationship between Ottoman emperor Murat IV and his mother Kosem Sultan?
- 📝 Why was Caesar at the Rubicon?
- 📝 Why did Franklin Roosevelt promote Nazi sympathizer/eugenicist Frederick Osborn to high levels of office?
- 📝 Was the secession of the Confederate states illegal?
- 📝 What wars were there which were contemporaneous with but unconnected to ww2?
- 📝 How was the 4th Duke of Norfolk executed?
- 📝 Was (Mahanian) "control of the seas" an Athenian goal in the age of the trireme?
- 📝 Why exactly did Messiaen never meet the Nazi guard who helped him again, after the war?
- 📝 Does anyone know a quote, from an opponent of MLK (e.g. a sheriff) which presents him as radical?
- 📝 (Why) did the PRC not [ever] recognize the incorporation of the Baltic states into the USSR?
- 📝 What were the international space arrangements and scientific purposes Eisenhower spoke of in October 1957?
- 📝 What factors related to the Eastern Crisis contributed to the outbreak of World War 1?
- 📝 How was President Andrew Jackson able to eliminate U.S national debt in 1835?
- 📝 What happened to Marcus Licinius Crassus' Gold?
- 📝 How much firepower did the British navy represent in 1940?
- 📝 When Hitler started WW2, did he realize that if he lost he would die?
- 📝 What was the first recorded reference to the fact that the sun rises and sets at different times across the Earth?
- 📝 Are there historic examples of slave emancipation leading to mass starvation?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Approximately how much travel time was saved by the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869?
- 📝 How important was the Suez Canal to the Allies during WWII?
- 📝 How much leisure time was enjoyed by English peasants in the 16th century?
- 📝 How much damage was USSR already capable of doing by the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis?
- 📝 What was the shortest time between a historical event occuring and a museum opening dedicated to said event?
- 📝 How much oil was spilled by the naval combatants during WW2?
- 📝 In Viking combat, how much damage was done using the shield?
- 📝 How widespread was the notion that space travel was impossible prior to the successful launch of Sputnik 1?
- 📝 How much of the *Iliad* was confirmed scientifically?
- 📝 How much was the wealthy elite harmed by the Bolshevik revolution?
- 📝 How much of "Russia" was actually occupied by the Germans in World War II?
- 📝 How much time did people have to take shelter during the Blitz in 1940-41?
- 📝 How was Alexander the Great able to rule so much territory?
- 📝 How much knowledge of the past was destroyed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries?
- 📝 Did Viet Nam suffer a famine any time during the 1980s? And if not, how close was it to famine?
- 📝 When was the last time period where one could travel by steam powered locomotive across the United States today?
- 📝 In early WW2, how much of the merchant marine was American?
- 📝 What was the travel time from Zagreb to Pittsburgh in 1895?
- 📝 What time of day was Hitler's opening speech of the 1936 Summer Olympics?
- 📝 How serious was Fermat's statement about the ancients?
- 📝 How much evidence is there regarding the naval punishment of keelhauling?
- 📝 How and when was the modern company ownership structure invented?
- 📝 How was the United States able to produce excellent tanks in 1942?
- 📝 How much were telegraphists in the 1950s paid?
- 📝 How much did it cost to attend events at the ancient Roman colosseum?
- 📝 When was the last time a reigning monarch personally participated in battle?
- 📝 Why was PTSD not written about as much before the 20th century?
- 📝 How popular was the Soviet Union?
- 📝 How difficult was to escape from a naval battle after engaging into one during the Age of Sail?
- 📝 How likely is it that any non-Celtic language was spoken in the British Isles when the Romans invaded?