When the canal was opened the warships of the following nations assembled at Kiel: Austria-Hungary, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Holland, Italy, Norway and Sweden (then united), Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain Turkey and the United States. About eighty men-of-war of the most modem types displayed the naval strength of the day and there were 300 yachts and steamers. The ceremony began at Hamburg. The late King George V, then the Duke of York, represented the British Empire.

The ceremonies ware opened with a banquet given by the Senate of Hamburg, at which the German Emperor was present. At either end of the canal the decorations and arrangements were on an extensive scale, and at Hamburg an island was created for a special reason. The German Emperor had supervised every detail of the organization and had arranged the entire programme. When the scheme of the Hamburg festivities was laid before him he said that after the banquet the visitors should go to the Alster Island. The officials looked a little blank, but one plucked up the courage to tell the Emperor that no such island existed. “There is no island in the Alster basin your Majesty,” he said, “but we can soon make one.” And so the island was built, at a cost of about £25,000. Some 750 piles were driven and on them was erected an island of canvas, plaster, cement and wirework, completed with artificial rocks and with accommodation for 1,600 persons. When the work was begun, two swans, it is said, built a nest and two eggs were laid; the mother swan remained at her post, oblivious of the din around her. The imperial pavilion was luxuriously furnished and the pavilions for the guests were scarcely less magnificent. Before midnight the German Emperor left the artificial island in a dispatch-boat and proceeded down the Elbe to the entrance of the canal, where he went aboard the imperial yacht Hohenzollern. The guests followed.

The entrance locks of the Kiel Canal from the River Elbe at Brunsbüttelkoog. The Carl Hedrich seen in this photograph entering the locks is typical of the smaller coastal vessels that regularly use the canal. Altogether 20,636 steam and motor vessels passed through the canal from Brunsbüttelkoog to Kiel in 1934. In the opposite direction the total number of vessels was 20,601. Every type of ship uses the canal, including warships, cargo and passenger ships, fishing vessels, tugs, barges and sailing vessels.

Conforming to schedule, the Hohenzollern entered the locks at Brunsbüttelkoog at 3.30 a.m. next day. Half an hour later she passed out of the locks and her stem severed a cord stretched across the canal, thus officially opening it. Behind the Hohenzollern were twenty-three vessels, including the British royal yacht Osborne. The Hohenzollern started early because she was due at Holtenau just before 1 p.m.

Meanwhile the German Empress had arrived at Kiel the previous evening during a thunderstorm and every ship in the great fleet fired an imperial salute of thirty-one guns. In five minutes nearly 2,500 guns roared out, the flames and smoke filling the harbour against a background of storm-cloud in the sky.

While the twenty-three vessels were following the Hohenzollern through the canal there were more salutes at Kiel. At 8 a.m. every ship dressed flags rainbow fashion and flew the White Ensign of the British Navy at every masthead in honour of the anniversary of the accession of Queen Victoria. At noon every warship in the fleet fired a royal salute of twenty-one guns, the time being set by the British flagship H.M.S. Royal Sovereign. When the reverberations of the last gun of the Royal salute had died away the British ships flew German ensigns.

An Unrehearsed Incident
Promptly at 12.45 p.m. the Hohenzollern steamed out of the locks at Holtenau into Kiel Harbour and the fleet saluted her with an imperial salute of 31 guns. The Kaiseradler followed the Hohenzollern according to plan. Then came an awkward pause, for there was no sign of the Kaiser Wilhelm II, the third vessel in the procession. Rumours flew from forecastle to quarterdeck and so through every vessel in the assembled fleet. One rumour was that the British royal yacht Osborne had stuck; this story was wired to England and printed, only to be indignantly denied the next day. The culprit was the 7,000-tons Kaiser Wilhelm II. This vessel’s screw had fouled the bed of the canal and had “gummed up” with mud. She hurriedly signalled for tugs and they pulled her ignominiously through. The royal yacht Osborne, following her, was saved from going aground by the skill of her officers and ratings. She was kept clear, despite the strong wind that was blowing across the canal. Hours passed and it was not until five o’clock that the Kaiser Wilhelm II appeared. At the last moment, when it was feared she would have to be towed to her allotted position in Kiel Harbour, the Baltic water washed the canal mud off her propeller. She cast off the tugs and took her position under her own steam.

Behind her steamed the Osborne, with the Duke of York aboard and then came the rest of the procession. The trouble with the Kaiser Wilhelm II occurred in the bend of the canal at Levensau when the ship was almost at Holtenau.

The centre of the festivities at Kiel was the Festhalle, or Festival Hall, built, at the Emperor’s suggestion, to resemble a three-masted ship. The opening of the Kiel Canal showed the rest of Europe that Germany was now a sea power. Kiel continued to grow. The Emperor gave the port his patronage and even made it a yachting centre, in an attempt to rival Cowes Week. During the war of 1914-18, Kiel became one of the headquarters of the High Seas Fleet. On the conclusion of peace the great port, with its magnificent harbour, was diverted to commerce. The diversion of Kiel from war to trade is one of the triumphs of postwar Germany.

The port is divided into four sections: the Old Town Harbour, at the head of the inlet, Wik Harbour, on the south bank, at the entrance to the canal; the North Harbour, inside the canal locks on the south bank; and Vossbrook Harbour, north of the canal entrance.

The Old Town Harbour, which serves the town, has a depth of water of 20 feet alongside the 7,550 feet of quay walls. Wik Harbour, which is the free port of Kiel, has a depth of 33 feet alongside the 3,300 feet of berths, and has oil tanks and fuelling equipment. The North Harbour, built above the Kiel- Holtenau bridge, is a masonry quay about a third of a mile long, the depth of water being 28 feet. This harbour has been improved greatly in recent years, and there are a grain elevator, sheds for oil- and cotton-seed cake, and warehouses. Vossbrook Harbour was built on land that the city bought from the German State. This harbour was formerly a building yard for submarines. A breakwater jetty has been built.

The principal imports are coal, oil, oilcake, maize, timber, grain, flour, bricks and fish; the chief exports are grain, flour, timber, bricks, salt, manure, machinery and industrial produce.

In the days of the Imperial Navy merchant ships were crowded out. After the war of 1914-18 the port authorities set out to attract merchant ships, great and small, and converted into industrial concerns naval yards where great battleships had been built. The Kaiserliche Werft (Imperial Yard), where battleships had been built, became the German Stock Company. This company builds merchant vessels; diesel engines, electric motors, electric and other railway cars, diesel-electric cars, and electrical and steel goods.

Vital Short-Cut
There are many other works, shipyards and floating and dry docks. The numerous cranes, floating and stationary, lift up to 250 tons. The marine engineering plants of other companies add to the facilities of the port.

Its position at the Baltic end of the canal has enabled Kiel to build up a great transhipment trade. Ocean-going vessels do not find it profitable to visit the smaller Baltic ports for small amounts of cargo. They go through the canal to Kiel and unload cargo which is taken to all parts of the Baltic by smaller vessels.

From Kiel these smaller vessels link up by regular services with German ports on the Baltic, German North Sea ports, Rhine ports and ports of Denmark, Sweden and Finland. They, serve also London, Hull, Rouen and Le Havre. At less frequent intervals vessels go to practically every small port on the Baltic.

Considerable distances are saved between certain German ports. The chief reduction by using the canal instead of going round the Skaw is from Kiel to Hamburg, the distance being only 121 nautical miles as against 646 miles, a reduction of 525 miles. The saving in nautical miles from Kiel to other ports is also considerable.

In 1934, 20,636 steam and motor ships, with a net register tonnage of 7,781,670 passed through the canal eastbound, and 20,601 vessels, with a tonnage of 8,054,332, passed through it westbound.

The new locks, completed in 1914; are 1,082 feet long, 148 feet wide and 39 feet in depth. Vessels of the largest size can use the canal by night as well as by day, as the banks are lit electrically. The maximum dimensions for ships are: length 1,033, feet, breadth 131 feet, draught 31 feet and height of masts 131 feet. The locks of the old canal still exist. The width of the canal is 338 feet at water-level and 144 feet at the bottom. The road and railway bridges are fixed structures 138 feet above the mean water level; one swing-bridge was replaced by a fixed bridge in 1933.

From the navigating bridge of a passenger liner if often appears that the vessel may not clear the arches of the rail and road bridges that cross the Kiel Canal. The bridge shown in this photograph, taken from the Atlantis, crosses the canal at Grünental.