Gota Canal

1979: Göta Canal (Engraver - Czeslaw Slania)

Lets take a trip down Sweden's Göta Canal

in the Juno launched in 1874 and  still going strong - the 'world's oldest registered ship with overnight accommodation'.  Sail serenely through Sweden for 120 miles, take a leisurely view of the world while passing through the 58 locks.  The view on the stamp is of the Borenshult five flight lock and the boat coming down is the Wilhelm Tham another vintage ship built in 1912 and still carrying passengers on the canal.

I love canals with their winning combination of engineering, history and wildlife.  The top left stamp shows the old roller bridge at Hajstorp which was originally hand drawn, top right is the Lock guard and Ricksberg locks. If you enjoy messing around on boats then above is a sailing boat at Godhogen and a canoeist in the oldest lock (1813) on the canal, Forsvik lock.  The stamps are engraved by Czeslaw Slania from photographs and I think this photograph is a set up to show the scale of the lock gates for I have never seen canoeists use locks.  It is quicker to take the canoe out and walk up past the locks, not to mention sitting in a tiny canoe and having tons of water pouring down as the lock fills up but it does make a great picture.

If you have taken the 6 day cruise on the Juno stopping off at various points on the way then at the end it traverses Lake Vanern, the biggest lake in Western Europe.  The journey route can be seen here

The construction of the canal was started in 1810 with the Swedish admiral Count Baltzar von Platen commissioned to build this shortcut between Stockholm and Gothenburg.  (His grave is on the side of the Göta Canal in Motala, the postmark on the FDC).  He had the advice of one of my engineering heroes, Thomas Telford, the son of a Scottish shepherd, apprenticed as a stonemason who became one of the greatest engineers of the 19th Century.  The unsung heroes are of course the workers or navies who actually constructed these marvels but in the case of the Gota Canal this was 60,000 conscripted soldiers (16 regiments), a company of Russian deserters and a number of skilled civilian workers with some British foremen and craftsmen thrown into the mix.  The canal was completed in 1832.

Sunday Stamps II theme this week is - Commemorative - 150 years from the death of Baltzar von Platen who never saw the canal completed - See It On A Postcard