Carr (FFG 52) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 67 text:

HHI I 1, 1 1 1 1 . . . . J 1 66

Page 66 text:

Palma De Mallorca Population: 319,620(1982 Est) Palma De Mallorca is the captial and principal city of the Balaeric Islands. They belong to Spain in the Western Mediterranean Sea, 100 miles off the Coast of Cathalonia. Palma is a commercial and tourist city as well as the Administrative Center of the is- land. Exports from the port are crucial to the economy which include cereals, wine, fruit, oil, flour and leather goods. The city has become a favorite resort for tourist and artists from all over the world. Points of interest include Bellv- er Castle, a Gothic Cathedral, and sev- eral museums and art galleries. Palma is thought to be founded in 2nd Cen- tury B.C. and was colonized by the Ro- mans. It was later ruled by the Byzan- tines and the Arabs. It was annexed to Aragon in 1229 and became part of Spain in 1469. The city has felt a rapid growth in the 20 Century due to and increase in tourism. 64

Page 68 text:

Suez Canal The Suez Canal, located at the crossroads of Asia, Europe, and Africa, is one of the world ' s most important waterways. It is a sea-level artifi- cial waterway that was opened in 1869. It crosses the narrow isthmus of Suez joining Africa and Asia and permits vessels to travel between the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea and the In- dian Ocean by using water from the Gulf of Suez and the Red Sea. The canal is owned and operated by Egypt and has a total length of 105 miles. It handles approx. 60 vessels a day at an average cost of approx. $250,000 one way. Transit time averages about 15 hours. The canal is strategically and economically important because it shortens the distance be- tween Europe and the Far East. The U.S.S.R. uses the canal to move its Navy from the Medi- terranean to the Indian Ocean. In 1983, the canal carried 283,294,000 tons of freight, of which pe- troleum accounted for 38%. One of the more interesting stories of the history of the idea for the canal is that in 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte ordered a survey made in 1799 for a direct canal from the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea, but the project was aban- doned when the French survey team mistakenly concluded that a sea-level canal was impossible. The actual construction of the canal was com- pleted in 1869 at more than double the originally estimated cost of $41,860,000. During the Six Day War (1967) between Egypt and Israel, ships were sunk by Egypt to block the waterway and it remained closed for 8 years. Israeli shipping rights were not restored until the signing of the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty on March 26, 1979. In 1980, 21,603 vessels passed through the canal. That same year, the first of several tunnels under the canal was opened to traffic.