Editing Zuid-Willemsvaart (section)

=== The Meuse ship ===
In the mid-nineteenth century some calculations for shipping on the Meuse were given by the manager of the mines of [[John Cockerill (company, 1825–1955)|SA John Cockerill]]. He gave an example of shipping between Liège and Venlo over the Meuse. A Meuse ship {{lang|nl|Maasschip}} had an empty draught of 23&nbsp;cm, and had a cargo space of about 150-160 ton ([[tonnage]]). This meant that it could load about 100 wagonloads of coal. With 100 wagonloads of coal on board, the Meuse ship had a draught of 110–120&nbsp;cm. If the water was only three feet deep, the ship could only carry 75 wagonloads. With 20 inch (57.5&nbsp;cm) of water the ship could carry only 45 wagonloads. Therefore, a lower water level could raise the cargo price from 7.30 to 16.30 [[Belgian franc]]s per wagonload.{{sfn|Regout|1859|p=27}}

A wagonload of coal might be estimated at 800&nbsp;kg. One wagonload contained 10-12 muds of coal.{{sfn|Cachet|1882|p=336}} A mud of coal was 100 liter, weighing about 72&nbsp;kg, so 11*72~800. This also allows to compute the cargo capacity of the Meuse ship of the example at about 80,000&nbsp;kg, or 80 [[tonne]]s (100*800). The example ship is in line with the statement that ships on the Meuse measured 40-200 ton with a draught of 94–188&nbsp;cm, with the biggest rarely sailing further upstream than Venlo.{{sfn|Anonymous|1859|p=4}}

An example that shows the importance of transport cost for coal, dates from 1862. In Gent 1,000&nbsp;kg of Belgian coal then cost 24 francs including transport. Ruhr coal was cheaper at 20 francs. It was bought for 6 francs at the Ruhr, and transported to Gent via the Rhine, [[Dordrecht]] and the [[Ghent–Terneuzen Canal]] for 13-14 francs.{{sfn|De Bruyn Kops edit.|1862|p=404}}