Brest should be the first port of Europe

One of the most esteemed American engineers of this time, Mackenzie, has just given a conference in New York on intercontinental communication routes. Addressing the representatives of the largest industrial firms in the United States, he indicated that Brest would inevitably become, in the near future, both for air and sea navigation, the first transatlantic port in the world and the principal center of transactions for Western Europe.

On this side, he said, Montank, on Long Island, serving as an outer port for New York, currently chronically congested; on the other side, Brest. This geographical point is placed in such a way, on the map, that it is, from Continental Europe, the closest to North America and also to the Oceanian regions served by the Panama Canal. Savings on coal, reduction in freight prices: these are the reasons which, apart from its safety, argue in favour of Brest as the principal western transatlantic port. The roadstead, 10 kilometres wide and 23 kilometres long, is surrounded on all sides by sheer cliffs, providing ships with a closed, sheltered and safe anchorage. At the lowest tides, the depths remain at 20 metres over 1,000 square hectares, at 13 metres over 5,000 hectares and from 3 to 13 metres over the rest of the roadstead, or another 9,000 hectares. These figures are eloquent if we consider that the port of Antwerp is only 580 hectares and Liverpool 650.

"A five-kilometre-long bottleneck, with an average width of 1,500 metres, gives access to this incomparable roadstead. It is marked, at night, by a unique alignment of lights that make an avenue of light in which ships can circulate with as much safety as automobiles traveling along a large city avenue lined with its street lamps.

Brest has the depths essential to receive the largest tonnage vessels. During the war, we had decided first of all that Liverpool would be our main port of disembarkation in Europe. In the absence of other reasons, we had, at least, that Liverpool was the island harbor, the closest to America. We sent the Leviathan there, a 57,957-ton, 289-meter-long liner. The giant could not enter the port to drop off its cargo of men and equipment. It had to wait twenty-eight days in front of Liverpool for a favorable tide to enter the British port.

"On his next voyage, he headed straight for Brest, accompanied by other ships of considerable tonnage, and, without regard to the time of the tide or the weather, entered the harbor. Forty-eight hours later, he had unloaded an American division and its equipment. He set off again immediately and shuttled between America and France, entering Brest at all hours, day and night, in fog as in clear weather, protected from enemy submarines by the very configuration of the coast."

During the war, major works were carried out which allowed trains to access the docks. A fuel park was built, new jetties were constructed. On November 4th, during the last legislature, Mr. Raiberti, then Minister of the Navy, had submitted a bill with a view to being authorized to build tanks in Brest for 340,000 tons of fuel oil, for the needs of the navy and the Chamber of Commerce of Brest was, for its part, toying with the idea of ​​making this port an oil center.

What happened to these projects?

Mr. L.