In early November 1956 the Suez Canal in Egypt was choked with ships. But these vessels weren't sailing down the 120-mile waterway that connected the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. In fact, they weren't capable of sailing anywhere at all: their masts were plunging at sickening angles, and water splashed over their decks. All of them had been wrecked - sealing off one of the most profitable waterways in the world.
The decision to block the canal had come from Egypt's president, Gamal Abdel Nasser. While you might assume that a waterway running through Nasser's country had always been owned by the
