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"An incredulous shareholder’s voyage to the Suez works
The Suez isthmus. Journal de l’union des deux mers, no.150, 15 September, 1862.
In 1862, a certain Levasseur, small shareholder in the Compagnie maritime du canal de Suez, went to Egypt to see how work was progressing. At this time, there were still numerous opponents to the project and the campaign against it (mainly orchestrated by the British but also by a few French newspapers) had legitimately - stirred up the worries of those who had placed their capital in the sands of the Egyptian desert.
" To the Editor of the Journal L’Isthme de Suez,Dear Editor,
I have just got back to Paris and rushed to write you this letter
as proof of the satisfaction and pleasure I found with my tour
of the Suez isthmus. Before, I could not get a precise impression
of the enormous works which have made the British Parliament tremble
but now, I understand perfectly how it was that Lord Palmerston
did not want to believe it possible to construct a canal that
would unite the two seas. In fact, I do not know who to admire
most, the man whose idea it was or the one who directs this work
of giants, moving what I would call (nearly) mountains.
Please allow me, dear Editor, to tell you about my voyage and may
these few lines, written while still in the aura of the grandeur
of the enterprise, open the eyes of those who, like me up to two
months ago, do not believe in the Company or the enterprise or
even in the Suez canal, and who tremble at the thought of their
money lost, they think, in the sand. I wanted to see for myself
what was going on 800 leagues away; I wanted to carry the matter
further and now I want those who read this letter to say what
I now say: there is no Suez isthmus, there is no Suez canal to
create, it has already been done. […]
On our approach to site no.6, the closest to Timsah, I could hear
a drone which got louder and louder as we got closer. I thought
the noise came from the workers but my guess was nowhere near
what I was actually about to discover.
The trench was hidden from us by a dune which, once past it, revealed
a work site which stretched as far as the eye could see: on each
side of the canal, thousands of men were working and singing,
climbing up, happily carrying their baskets full of earth, going
back down the bank a little more quickly because the water, as
I have already mentioned, runs through this part of site no.6
and, as ground level is 19 above sea level, it runs down with
quite some force, I would say. Often someone slips and rolls into
the trench but they do not go very far because the upward flow holds them up. Then they laugh and carry on down ready
to come up again. There were about 15,000 men on the site; from
a distance, they looked just like ants hurrying in and out of
their holes. [...]
The day after my arrival at the sill, I travelled through the different
work sites on horseback as far as El Ferdane still accompanied
by one of the Company’s officials. Often, on seeing the happiness
of the workers and on hearing their songs, I would burst out laughing,
thinking about the British Parliament’s real tears cried at the
thought of poor, unhappy fellahs for whose work the Company had
the cruelty to pay, and which work they seemed to carry out without
any dislike.
[...]I arrived in Port Said in the morning by the small boat which provides
the postal service between Port Said and Raz-el-Ech.
This town-in-the-making is a charming sight. Despite its young
age, it already covers a considerable area: on the lake sides,
there are workshops of all kinds with their big chimneys; then
there are the houses, all built on stilts; on the right, the Arab
village, today inhabited by at least 2-3,000 people; then there
is the lighthouse which dominates the whole town. As I said, I
arrived this morning at the time when all the Arab women went
down to the water tower to fetch the fresh water which the company
supplies to the inhabitants each day. […] I visited all the workshops,
the joiner’s workshop, the foundry, the warehouses and the fitting
shop. I can say, without fear of being contradicted, that I have
never seen such well-equipped workshops in France they lacked
nothing. What a feat to have transported all this to a place void
of such tools and working methods!
In fact, seeing is believing, and if those who enjoy making fun
of the canal would only bother to go, not to the desert but just
as far as Port Said, they would be forced to admit that a company
which prepares its work with such means of force and power of
all kinds is a serious company and one which wants to do the job
it has been given properly and see it right through to the end.
[...] So, here we have all the things I saw and admired: I do not know
how else to say it; what I regret is not having made this trip
a long time ago; I would have saved myself a lot of worry and
trouble. Now I am convinced, not of the possibility but the facility
of the execution of this work; I doubted and had to get rid of
this doubt; I was a modern-day Thomas. I wanted to see and I
did see.
Levasseur
30, rue de Neuilly
Paris, 7 September, 1862
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