English Channel
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Image:EnglishChannel.jpg The English Channel (French: La Manche, IPA: Template:IPA, "the sleeve"), also for some time known in England as the British Sea, is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean that separates the island of Great Britain from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. It is about 563 km (350 mi) long and at its widest is 240 km (150 mi). The Strait of Dover is the narrowest part of the channel, being only 34 km (21 mi) from Dover to Cap Gris Nez, and is located at the eastern end of the English Channel, where it meets the North Sea.
The Channel is quite shallow, with an average depth of about 120 m at its widest part, reducing to about 45 m between Dover and Calais, then remaining shallow where it lies over the remains of the former land bridge between East Anglia and the Low Countries. (See 'Formation of the Channel')
The Channel Islands lie in the Channel, close to the French side. The Isles of Scilly in the UK and Ushant in France mark the western end of the Channel.
The French département of Manche, which incorporates the Cotentin Peninsula that juts out into the Channel, takes its name from the surrounding seaway.
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Formation of the Channel
Before the end of the last ice age, around 10,000 years ago, the British Isles were part of mainland Europe. During the ice age today's North Sea and almost all of the British Isles were covered with ice. The sea level was about 120 metres lower then, and the "channel" was an expanse of low-lying tundra, through which passed a river which drained the Rhine and Thames towards the Atlantic to the West. As the icesheet melted, a large freshwater lake formed in the southern part of what is now the North Sea. As the meltwater could still not escape to the North (as the northern North Sea was still frozen) the outflow channel from the lake entered the Atlantic Ocean in the region of Dover and Calais.
At some point around 6500 BC, catastrophic erosion swept away the chalk to create the English Channel, which has since been further widened by wave action on the soft, chalk cliffs. The same mechanism continues to widen the English Channel today.
Historical significance
The Channel has been a key natural defence for Britain, a fact that is referred to in William Shakespeare's play Richard II:
- This precious stone set in the silver sea,
- Which serves it in the office of a wall
- Or as a moat defensive to a house,
- Against the envy of less happier lands
- – Richard II. Act 2, Scene 1.
It has allowed Britain to intervene but rarely be dangerously threatened in European conflicts. Without the gap Napoleon and Hitler would possibly have been able to overcome the enemy the British state represented.
Nevertheless, the Channel has been the scene of many invasions (or attempted invasions) including the Roman conquest of Britain, the Norman Conquest in 1066, the Spanish Armada in 1588, and the WWII Normandy landings in 1944.
The Channel has been the scene of many naval battles, including the Battle of Goodwin Sands (1652), the Battle of Portland (1653), the Battle of La Hougue (1692) and the engagement between USS Kearsarge and CSS Alabama (1864).
However, at times the Channel has served as a link joining shared cultures and political structures, from pre-Roman Celtic society, the Roman imperial culture, and the foundation of Brittany by settlers from Great Britain, to the Anglo-Norman state.
Cross-Channel trade has been a significant factor for societies on both sides of the Channel from prehistoric times, and a number of important ports have developed in England and in France:
Important ferry routes are
- Dover-Calais
- Newhaven-Dieppe
- Portsmouth-Caen (Ouistreham)
- Portsmouth-Cherbourg
- Portsmouth-Le Havre
- Poole-Saint Malo
- Weymouth-Saint Malo
- Plymouth-Roscoff
Adding to the high level of cross-Channel traffic is the very significant traffic passing through the Channel, linking the economies of northern Europe with the rest of the world. Combined, this maritime traffic makes the Channel one of the busiest seaways in the world, accounting for a large share of global maritime trade (some sources place this at up to one quarter).
The coastal resorts of the Channel, such as Brighton and Deauville, inaugurated an era of aristocratic tourism in the early 19th century which developed into the democratic seaside tourism that has shaped resorts around the world.
The Channel Tunnel
Nowadays, many travellers cross the English Channel underneath, by way of the Channel Tunnel or "Chunnel". This grand engineering feat, first proposed in the time of Napoleon and finally completed in 1994, connects England and France by rail.
It is now routine to travel between Paris, Brussels and London on the Eurostar train.
Notable Channel crossings
On 7 January 1785 Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries travelled from Dover to Calais in a gas balloon, becoming the first to cross the English Channel by air. Pilâtre de Rozier perished while attempting a similar balloon crossing - the first recorded air crash.
William Murdoch's The Caledonia became the first steamboat to carry out a cross-channel crossing.
The first person to swim the channel was Matthew Webb in 1875.
In 1909, Louis Blériot (France) was the first person to fly over the English Channel in a heavier-than-air aircraft.
On August 23 1910, John Moisant flew the first aircraft flight with a passenger across the English Channel. His passenger was his mechanic, Albert Fileux, and he also took his cat.
On 6 August 1926, Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim the Channel, breaking the men's record of the time by two hours.
On November 24 1927, Mercedes Glietze swims across wearing a Rolex Oyster.
The Mountbatten class hovercraft entered commercial service in August 1968 initially operated between Dover and Boulogne but later craft also made the Ramsgate (Pegwell Bay) to Calais route. The journey time, Dover to Boulogne, was roughly 35 minutes, with six trips a day at peak times. The fastest crossing was made in 1995 at just 22 minutes.
In July 1972, Lynne Cox became the youngest person to swim the English Channel at age fifteen, breaking both the men's and women's records. She swam the channel again in 1973, setting a new record time of nine hours and thirty-six minutes.
In 1979, a 70 lb (32 kg) aircraft called the Gossamer Albatross won the £100,000 Kremer prize for being the first human-powered airplane to fly over the Channel. The pilot Bryan Allen pedalled for 3 hours to accomplish this feat.
In 1981 the Solar Challenger became the first solar-powered airplane to complete a crossing.
The fastest swim of the channel was by Christof Wandratsch in 2005. He crossed the channel in 7 hours 3 minutes and 52 seconds.
In 1997 the SB Collinda was the first vessel to complete a solar-powered crossing using photovoltaic cells.
On 31 July 2003, Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner, wearing high-tech carbon wings, jumped out of a plane 30,000 feet (9 100 m) above Dover, glided over the Channel, and opened his parachute above Calais.
On 14 June 2004, Sir Richard Branson broke the world record for crossing the Channel in an amphibious vehicle. The Gibbs Aquada, a two-seater open-top sports car, in which he did it, broke the record by some 6 hours.
Other swimming crossings include: Vicki Keith (first butterfly swim crossing); Florence Chadwick (first woman to swim the Channel in both directions); Marilyn Bell (youngest person up to 1955); Amelia Gade Corson (first mother and second woman); Mercedes Gleitze (first Englishwoman, 7 October 1927); Comedian Doon Mackichan has also swum the channel.
The oldest male swimmer to cross is American George Brunstad, who was aged 70 years and 4 days when he crossed on the 27th and 28th of August 2004, taking 15 hours 59 min.
Alison Streeter MBE holds the record for the most individual crossings - 43 - which includes one 3-way and three 2-way swims, while Mike Read has done it 33 times and Kevin Murphy has done it 32 times but plans another crossing soon.
The team with the must number of Channel swims to its credit is the International Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team with 35 crossings by 25 members (by 2005) Link: http://www.srichinmoyraces.org/channel/channel_swimmers/channel_swimmers_list
Total number of ratified swims to 2004: 948 successful crossings by 675 people (456 by men and 214 by women). There have been 25 2-way crossings (9 by men and 7 by women). There have been 3 3-way crossings (2 by men and 1 by a woman).
See also
cs:Lamanšský průliv cy:Môr Udd da:Engelske Kanal de:Ärmelkanal et:La Manche es:Canal de la Mancha eo:Manika Markolo fi:Englannin kanaali fr:Manche (mer) fy:It Kanaal gl:Canle da Mancha ko:영국 해협 id:Selat Inggris is:Ermarsund it:La Manica he:תעלת למאנש kw:Chanel lb:Äermelkanal nl:Het Kanaal ja:イギリス海峡 no:Den engelske kanal nn:Den engelske kanalen nrm:Maunche (mé) pl:Kanał La Manche pt:Canal da Mancha ru:Ла-Манш sk:Lamanšský prieliv sl:Rokavski preliv sv:Engelska kanalen uk:Ла-Манш zh:英吉利海峡