By Chris Sudlow IN the last century, the average Navvy had to eat two pounds of beef and drink at least a gallon of beer a day to survive.

For these were the workaholics who carved through the earth to create the navigation canals which transformed Industrial England.

And there has been none bigger than the Manchester Ship Canal - 36 miles from Eastham Docks on the River Mersey to the heart of land-locked Salford, with a series of four locks lifting ships more than 60 feet along the way.

It's still a massive work of human endeavour and enterprise more than 100 years since The Big Ditch to the sea finally opened. Indeed, if this giant sluice was not in existence, rainfall from Winter Hill and surrounding high ground above Manchester would continually flood the plains of South Lancashire and North Cheshire.

Warrington, Widnes and Runcorn would be wiped off the modern map . . . somebody told me Leigh could also be in trouble!

But that was not the reason for building this huge cut. It was a great, and highly successful, business venture which could safely transport huge ships, loaded with vital cargo, directly into, and just as importantly, out of the centre of Manchester.

Cotton towns like Bolton were the immediate beneficiaries. There was now no longer any need to pay high transport costs to harriers taking materials by land to Liverpool. The MSC was an immense undertaking capable of moving ships as big as 17,500 tons right into the heart of Trafford Park at Salford Quays. And all this summer it has been possible to follow this magical journey, courtesy of weekend trips organised by Mersey Ferries.

There famous small ships, which normally criss-cross the great river at Pier Head, Liverpool, now travel up river, and into the canal six miles away at Eastham Docks, close to Ellesmere Port, on Saturdays, and return the following day.

It's a fascinating seven-hour journey through time, with an excellent, and by no means obtrusive live commentary by Jack Cooper, of the English Tourist Board.

We were lucky with the weather, but umbrellas abound on wet days, and one passenger I spoke said no amount of rain could prevent anybody enjoying the trip.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.