has been made. These have shortened the length of the Sulina canal by 11 nautical m., eliminated all the difficult bends and shoals, and provided an almost straight waterway 34 m. in length from Sulina to St George’s Chatal, with a minimum depth of 20 ft. when the river is at its lowest.
In the early days of the commission, i.e. from 1857 to 1860, the money spent on the works of improvement, amounting to about £150,000, was advanced as a loan by the then territorial power, Turkey; but in 1860 the commission began to levy taxes on vessels frequenting the river, and since then has repaid its debt to the Turkish government, as well as various loans for short periods, and a larger one of £120,000 guaranteed by the powers, and raised in 1868, mainly through the energy of the British commissioner, Sir John Stokes. This last loan was paid off in 1882 and the commission became free from debt in 1887. It has now an average annual income of about £80,000 derived from taxes paid by ships when[1] leaving the river. The normal annual expenditure amounts to about £56,000, while £24,000 is generally allotted to extraordinary works, such as new cuttings, &c. Between 1857 and 1905 a sum of about one and three quarter millions sterling was spent on engineering works, including the construction of quays, lighthouses, workshops and buildings, &c. Sulina from being a collection of mud hovels has developed into a town with 5000 inhabitants; a well-found hospital has been established where all merchant sailors receive gratuitous treatment; lighthouses, quays, floating elevators and an efficient pilot service all combine to make it a first-class port.
The result of all the combined works for the rectification of the Danube is that from Sulina up to Braila the river is navigable for sea-going vessels up to 4000 tons register, from Braila to Turnu Severin it is open for sea-going vessels up to 600 tons, and for flat barges of from 1500 to 2000 tons capacity. From Turnu Severin to Orsova navigation is confined to river steamers, tugs and barges drawing 6 ft. of water. Thence to Vienna the draught is limited to 5 ft., and from Vienna to Regensburg to a somewhat lower figure. Barges of 600 tons register can be towed from the lower Danube to Regensburg. Here petroleum tanks have been constructed for the storage of Rumanian petroleum, the first consignment of which in 1898, conveyed in tank boats, took six weeks on the voyage up from Giurgevo. The principal navigation company on the upper Danube is the Société Impériale et Royale Autrichienne of Vienna, which started operations in 1830. This company also owns the Fünfkirchen mines, producing annually 500,000 tons of coal. The society transports goods and passengers between Galatz and Regensburg. A less important society is the Rumanian State Navigation Company, possessing a large flotilla of tugs and barges, which run to Budapest, where they have established a combined service with the South Danube German Company for the transport of goods from Pest to Regensburg. A Hungarian Navigation Company, subsidized by the state, has also been formed, and the Hungarian railways, the Servian government and private owners own a large number of tugs and barges.
But it is the trade of the lower Danube that has principally benefited. Freights from Galatz and Braila to North Sea ports have fallen from 50s. to about 12s. or even 10s. per ton. Sailing ships of 200 tons register have given way to steamers up to 4000 tons register carrying a deadweight of nearly 8000 tons; and good order has succeeded chaos. From 1847 to 1860 an average of 203 British ships entered the Danube averaging 193 tons each; from 1861 to 1889, 486 ships averaging 796 tons; in 1893, 905 vessels of 1,287,762 tons, or 68% of the total traffic, and rather more than two and a half times the total amount of British tonnage visiting the Danube in the fourteen years between 1847 and 1860. The average amount of cereals (principally wheat) annually exported from the Danube during the period 1901–1905 was 13,000,000 quarters, i.e. about five times the average annual exportation during the period 1861–1867. It has been calculated that between 1861 and 1902 the total tonnage of ships frequenting the Danube increased five-fold, while the mean size of individual ships increased ten-fold.
Bibliography.—Marsiglius, Danubius Pannonico-Mysicus (the Hague, 1726); Schulte, Donaufahrten (1819–1829); Planche, Descent of the Danube (1828); Széchenyi, Über die Donauschiffahrt (1836); A. Müller, Die Donau vom Ursprunge bis zu den Mündungen (1839–1841); J. G. Kohl, Die Donau (Trieste, 1853–1854); G. B. Rennie, Suggestions for the Improvement of the Danube (1856); Sir C. A. Hartley, Description of the Delta of the Danube (1862 and 1874); Mémoire sur le régime administratif établi aux embouchures du Danube (Galatz, 1867); Desjardins, Rhône et Danube, a defence of the canalization scheme (Paris, 1870); Carte du Danube entre Braïla et la mer, published by the European Commission (Leipzig, 1874); Peters, Die Donau und ihr Gebiet, eine geologische Studie (1876); A. F. Heksch, Guide illustré sur le Danube (Vienna, 1883); F. D. Millet, The Danube (New York, 1893); Schweiger-Lerchenfeld, Die Donau als Völkerweg, Schiffahrtsstrasse, und Reiseroute (Vienna, 1895); D. A. Sturza, La Question des Portes de Fer et des cataractes du Danube (Berlin, 1899); A. de Saint Clair, Le Danube: étude de droit international (Paris, 1899); D. A. Sturdza, Recueil de documents relatifs à la liberté de navigation du Danube, pp. 933 (Berlin, 1904); A. Schroth-Ukmar, Donausagen von Passau bis Wien (Vienna, 1904). (H. Tr.)
DANVERS, a township of Essex county, on the coast of
Massachusetts, U.S.A., about 19 m. N. by E. of Boston. Pop.
(1890) 7454; (1900) 8542, of whom 1873 were foreign-born;
(1910 census) 9407. Danvers includes an area of 14 sq. m. of
level country diversified by hills. There are several villages or
business centres, the largest of which, bearing the same name
as the township, is served by the Boston & Maine railway. In
the township are a state insane asylum, with accommodation for
1000 patients; St John’s Preparatory College (Roman Catholic),
conducted by the Xavierian Brothers; and, in Peabody Park,
the Peabody Institute, with a good public library and museum,
the gift (1867) of George Peabody. The Danvers historical
society has a valuable collection. Although chiefly a residential
town, Danvers has various manufactures, the most important of
which are leather, boots and shoes, bricks, boxes and electric
lamps. The total value of the factory product in 1905 was
$2,017,908, of which more than one half was the value of leather.
Danvers owns its water-works and its electric lighting and power
plant. A part of what is now Danvers was included in the grant
made by the court of assistants to Governor John Endecott and
the Rev. Samuel Skelton of the Salem church in 1632. Danvers
was set off from Salem as a district in 1752 and was incorporated
as a township in 1757, but the act of incorporation was disallowed
in 1759 by the privy council on the recommendation of the board
of trade, in view of George II.’s disapproval of the incorporation
of new townships at that time,—hence the significance of the
words on the seal of Danvers, “The King Unwilling”; in 1775
the district was again incorporated. Salem Village, a part of
the present township, was the centre of the famous witchcraft
delusion in 1692. In 1885 South Danvers was set off as a separate
township, and in 1868 was named Peabody in honour of George
Peabody, who was born and is buried there. In 1857 part of
Beverly was annexed to Danvers. Among distinguished natives
of Danvers are Samuel Holton (1738–1816), a member (1778–1780
and 1782–1787) of the Continental Congress and (1793–1795) of
the Federal Congress; Israel Putnam; Moses Porter (1755–1822),
who served through the War of Independence and the War of
1812; and Grenville Mellen Dodge (b. 1831), a prominent railway
engineer, who fought in the Union army in the Civil War,
reaching the rank of major-general of volunteers, was a Republican
member of the national House of Representatives in
1867–1869, and in 1898 president of the commission which
investigated the management of the war with Spain.
See J. W. Hanson, History of the Town of Danvers (Danvers, 1848); Ezra D. Hines, Historic Danvers (Danvers, 1894) and Historical Address (Boston, 1907), in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the first incorporation; and A. P. White, “History of Danvers” in History of Essex County, Mass. (Philadelphia, 1888).
DANVILLE, a city and the county-seat of Vermilion county, Illinois, U.S.A., in the E. part of the state, near the Big Vermilion river, 120 m. S. of Chicago. Pop. (1890) 11,491; (1900) 16,354,
- ↑ Ships pay no taxes to the commission on entering the river, but on leaving it every ship of over 1500 tons register pays 1s. 5d. per registered ton if loaded at Galatz or Braila, or 11d. per ton if loaded at Sulina. This includes pilotage and light dues. Smaller vessels pay less and ships of less than 300 tons are exempt.
