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This photograph was labelled the "small" Iron Gates.
These rocks were a big obstacle to early navigation.
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Iron Gates, listed variously as 1878 and 1883, etching. This is a copy, as an etching, of the photograph above.
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This appears to be the upstream end of the canal before construction commenced, but after railway lines had been laid to the construction site.
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Many drilling ships were needed to break up the rocks in other parts of the Iron Gates gorges, in shallow areas. These drilling holes were then filled with underwater explosives and the rock blasted apart. The spoil was then removed by dredges.
In the case of the canal, excavation and levelling was completed after the canal site was isolated from the river by levees.
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This is a Felsenbrecher, or stone breaker. The mechanism was used to break up rock formations on the floor of the river bed.
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This is a bagger, or dredge, called "Vaskapus", the Hungarian name for the Iron Gates. It was used to haul up the spoil from the floor of the river, using a conveyer belt. This would have been useful for smaller rocks, gravel and sand. It appears to have a flag flying with the name of the vessel.
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This much bigger dredge uses just a single bucket to remove larger rocks from the river bed.
It would seem that drilling ships and excavators were brought from around the world to help in this project. No two items of equipment are the same.
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A French drilling ship.
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An American drilling ship. Note the large number of drilling rigs on this huge vessel, the large crew, and the multiple anchors lined up on the shore.
Everything's bigger and better in the USA, it seems to say!
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A drilling ship. Note the man on top of the drilling rig.
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Excavator.
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A drilling raft. This was probably only used in very shallow water, where the other rigs could not go. Note its position close to the levee, and the duck boards across shallow water leading to it.
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Drilling rigs and excavators in line astern.
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Underwater explosion. Note the drilling rig nearby, which placed the charges in the holes it drilled.
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This photograph portrays vividly the large number of men and the equipment needed to create the canal. This is the upstream entrance to the canal, temporarily barricaded by a levee bearing a railway, so that the work could be done in relatively dry conditions.
Water can be seen in the background, where work has been completed on the downstream end, perhaps because the levees at that end were breached when no longer needed. The shallow water on the canal floor in the foreground could be leakage through the levee, or it could be water lying around from recent rain.
Note the locomotives on the levees, used for carrying equipment and rock spoil, and the women in the foreground.
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The Sip Canal was nearing completion in this view. As can be seen, the base of the canal has been levelled, and levees constructed on either side. Note also the temporary railways on top of the levee and on the canal floor, both used for hauling spoil and equipment to where they were needed.
Note the locomotives, both on the canal floor and on the levee, and the family group in the foreground.
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This photograph shows the upstream entrance to the canal after it was completed and flooded, with the railway used to pull river craft up the canal on the right bank. The river flows from left to right in the photograph.
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Postcard showing the newly completed Sip Canal.
Photo: Ada Kaleh CD
Canal steamer, the "I. Ferenc Jozsef", moving upstream against the 15.5 knot current.
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M.F.T.R. Schiffswerfte
Historical photograph showing the shipyards based in Orsova. This site is now underwater.
The company now known as SC Santierul Naval Orsova SA began operations in 1890, as a small workshop designed for repairing of the ships used for the construction of the navigable channel between Portile de Fier (Iron Gates) and SIP Yugoslavia.
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Inspecting the construction of the Sip Canal - Minister Spacič, King Alexander (1876-1903, king of Serbia 1889-1903) and his mother.
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