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Anthropologist Geoff DeVito is currently on board Seabourn Legend as a guest speaker with the line’s Seabourn Conversations enrichment program. The ship is sailing on her final voyage under the Seabourn banner. In this guest blog post, he shares the experience of transiting the Corinth Canal earlier this week.
April 13, 2015
Unlike most Seabourn voyages, which are filled with firsts, Seabourn Legend’s final journey has been peppered with lasts. Many of these are specific to Seabourn Legend as the rest of Seabourn’s fleet will continue on visiting most of the ports of calls and continuing her elegant traditions but today, however, closed a chapter of Seabourn history as the ship made her final journey through The Corinth Canal. As she approached the canal, nearly all were on deck, champagne and cameras in hand. The captain jokingly asked everyone to take a deep breath in as he explained we would have a mere five feet of clearance on either side. Looking over the edge, it seemed if he’d exaggerated it was to make us more comfortable as the walls of the isthmus appeared much closer.
The four mile passage from the Gulf of Corinth to the Aegean Sea lasts just over an hour and during this time guests and crew gazed at and considered this marvel of human construction. It was Emperor Nero who first, aggressively, attempted to change the physical landscape of the isthmus, but his plans would ultimately, like so many of his other efforts, fall short of expectations. It would be about 1800 years before engineers would complete the project allowing ships a more efficient transit. Now some 120 or so years after completion, the Corinth Canal is no longer a commercial necessity and is used almost exclusively for ships, like Seabourn Legend, that are able to marvel at the passage itself.
It is easy to draw parallels to the impossible dream of building this canal and the impossible luxury and career Seabourn Legend and all those who have sailed on her have enjoyed. As fewer ships each year transit the canal, it becomes something of a legend itself: two testaments to human achievement that are now fading out of use. For those of us onboard this final voyage we silently said goodbye to two “legends,†but the memories will live on.
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Click here to view the article.
Anthropologist Geoff DeVito is currently on board Seabourn Legend as a guest speaker with the line’s Seabourn Conversations enrichment program. The ship is sailing on her final voyage under the Seabourn banner. In this guest blog post, he shares the experience of transiting the Corinth Canal earlier this week.
April 13, 2015
Unlike most Seabourn voyages, which are filled with firsts, Seabourn Legend’s final journey has been peppered with lasts. Many of these are specific to Seabourn Legend as the rest of Seabourn’s fleet will continue on visiting most of the ports of calls and continuing her elegant traditions but today, however, closed a chapter of Seabourn history as the ship made her final journey through The Corinth Canal. As she approached the canal, nearly all were on deck, champagne and cameras in hand. The captain jokingly asked everyone to take a deep breath in as he explained we would have a mere five feet of clearance on either side. Looking over the edge, it seemed if he’d exaggerated it was to make us more comfortable as the walls of the isthmus appeared much closer.
The four mile passage from the Gulf of Corinth to the Aegean Sea lasts just over an hour and during this time guests and crew gazed at and considered this marvel of human construction. It was Emperor Nero who first, aggressively, attempted to change the physical landscape of the isthmus, but his plans would ultimately, like so many of his other efforts, fall short of expectations. It would be about 1800 years before engineers would complete the project allowing ships a more efficient transit. Now some 120 or so years after completion, the Corinth Canal is no longer a commercial necessity and is used almost exclusively for ships, like Seabourn Legend, that are able to marvel at the passage itself.
It is easy to draw parallels to the impossible dream of building this canal and the impossible luxury and career Seabourn Legend and all those who have sailed on her have enjoyed. As fewer ships each year transit the canal, it becomes something of a legend itself: two testaments to human achievement that are now fading out of use. For those of us onboard this final voyage we silently said goodbye to two “legends,†but the memories will live on.
[h=3]Image[/h]
Click here to view the article.
