Freak Ships of the Nineteenth Century: The Cleopatra
This animation looks at the unique iron vessel that was designed and built to bring 'Cleopatra's Needle' - a 3500 year-old, 224-ton, 21-metre high ancient Egyptian obelisk made of granite - from Alexandria to London, where it still can be seen on the banks of the Thames at Embankment. This is the remarkable story of how it got there.
For the Egyptians, obelisks were sacred objects for the sun god, Ra; it’s thought that the shape symbolised a single ray of sun. They were placed in pairs at the entrances of temples, so that the first and last light of day touched their peaks. The obelisk that became known as Cleopatra’s needle was made around 1450 BC, in Heliopolis in what is now a part of Cairo. It was moved to Alexandria by the Romans in 12 BC, where it remained, lying on a beach, for almost two millennia.
But in 1819, to commemorate Horatio Nelson’s great naval victory over Napoleon in 1798 at the battle of the Nile, the Sultan of Egypt presented the obelisk to the government of Great Britain….but with no suggestion as to how the British might claim their reward. In Ebay terms - this was ‘collection only’. Unsurprisingly, The obelisk stayed where it was. Fifty-eight years later a Scottish traveller and soldier in the British army, James Alexander, heard of the story and became interested in the challenge that Cleopatra’s needle posed to a mighty maritime Empire. He convinced a wealthy and philanthropic businessman, William Wilson, to fund a project to move the 224-ton granite obelisk, 3000 miles to London - a seemingly impossible task.
Enter John Dixon, a talented and energetic civil engineer from Durham, who had made his name building the first railway in China. Dixon’s solution was to make a pre-fabricated iron vessel in London; take it in pieces to Alexandria and assemble it around the obelisk. The iron tube with the obelisk nestling inside, would then be towed back to London. The journey was nearly a disaster...
To go with this audio episode we have created a video animation which explains the history of the needle, the design of the Cleopatra, and her fraught journey to London.
#history #maritime #maritimehistory #maritimeeducation #anchor #historyfacts #historygk #egypt #egyptianhistory #pyramid #pyramids
Пікірлер: 10
Brilliant! I read the outlines of the story in *Look & Learn* nearly 60 years ago, but this is far more specific, detailed & clear. +1 for 19th C spelling of Gibralter!
It’s ALWAYS the Bay of Biscay! Sea currents and waves can just be such a nightmare there - and yes, I know so from experience….
Built by Thames Ironworks whose company football team became West Ham United.
Great animations
Que gran video! Tu canal se merece más vistas, dada la enorme calidad de su contenido. Saludos desde México!
It was a gift so the British put in the mind-power to bringing it back, but because it wasn't a theft they gave up.
So it only took 16tonnes of steel to make the hull? That's pretty light even for a small ship.
@beachbum4691
Жыл бұрын
"So it only took 16tonnes of steel to make the hull? That's pretty light even for a small ship." = (They didn't have to > "fit a bar") ;)
how did it fall but not break ?
Terrible explanation Marriott