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THE PANAMA CANAL, CROSSROADS OF IflE WORLD
TWO ANNIVERSARIES of profound significance, separated bv the centuries but closel) linked in history, are commemorated today on the Isthmus of Panama. Both serve to remind us of the privileged position

of this land in which we work and Uve. The Panama Canal enterprise is 55 \'ears old toda\'. More than a great engineering accomplishment, it

is a monument to the peaceful endeavors of man throughout time. Two countries, Panama and the United

States, made it possible. Men of diverse nationalities built it. Many nations of the world depend upon it to speed their commerce between the oceans. The City of Panama is 450 years old today. Founded less than 3 decades after the discover)^ of the New World, it has ever symbolized the crossroads of the world. The Panama Canal has helped preserve

for it that historical role. The record of both has been one of progress. The activity of the Panama Canal has grown beyond all expectations. Year in and year out, it has been setting records in moving ships through the waterway, both

in number and in tonnage. Today it is more efficient and in better condition than when it first opened. In 1969, the City of Panama is one of the flourishing capitals in the Western Hemisphere and its future holds

the promise of still faster and larger growth.

Panamanians and U.S. citizens have contributed to the growth of one and the other.

It is fitting that The Panama Canal Review should devote this issue to bringing to its readers some of the highlights of these two anniversaries. Its pages will reflect, I trust, the pride all of us feel at the accomplishments of the citizens of our two countries working together on a vital international utility serving the

world's commerce and living together in a great city.

W. p. Leber,

Governor.

August 15, 1969
W. p. Leber, Governor-Presidtnt

R. S. H\HTLiNE, Lieutenant-Governor

Frank A. Baldwin

Panama Canal Information Officer

*==^ ,ft»-ijai»i.

Official Panama Canal Publication Published quarterly at Balboa Heights, C.Z.

Morgan E. Goodwin, Press Officer Publications Editors LoLis R. Gkanc;eb, Tomas A. Cupas

News Writers Eunice Richard, Fannie P. Hernandez,

Jose T. Tunon, Willie K. Friar, and

Luis C. Noli

Printed at the Printing Plant, La Boca, C.Z. Review articles may be reprinted in full or part without

further clearance. Credit to the Review will be appreciated. Distributed free of charge to all Panama Canal Employees.

Subscriptions, $1 a year: airmail $2 a year; mail and back copies (regular mail), 25 cents each.

Postal money orders made pa\able to the Panama Canal Company should he mailed to Box M, Balhoa Heights. C.Z.

Editorial Offices are located in the Administration Biiildine, Balboa Heights. C.Z.

3ndiex Ourur Livover

Canal Builders 4

Three men, Gorgas, Stevens, and GoethaJs, all with diverse but magnetic personalities, made

the construction of the waterway possible. U.S. Closer To World Markets 8

Commodities made in the United States jiow

through the Canal dailij making their way to the

four corners of the earth. Europe—Mainstay Of The Canal 12

Half a world awaij, Europe relies heavily on the

Isthmus to quickly and cheaply get her nations'

goods to far away markets.

Latin American Nations Develop 14 Many "south of the border" nations were once

closed to important trade centers, but the Canal

makes icorld-wide trade possible.

Far East Builds On Trade 16

Japan leads Far Eastern nations in trade which

is tightly linked tcith her expanding industrial

development.

Shipping Notes 19

450th Anniversary Of Panama City 20

Founded by the Spanish, the old city grew as a crossroads base for exploration. Later, Panama

becomes a center for world commerce. The Republic Benefits 24

The Canal brings many benefits—tangible and

intangible—to Panama. In 1968 the country

received $149 million from the Canal Zone.

Anniversaries 25

They Keep The Ships Moving 26

Skills required to operate the waterway are

varied and include everything from line handling to rain measuring.

Shipping Statistics 30

Life On The Isthmus 32

Activities of nearly every variety—bird watching,

deep sea fishing, archeology—mean interests

for all.

The Panama Canal Review 3

INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING routes used by merchant

ships which move everything from sardines to kitchen

sinks to the four comers of the earth fan out from the

Panama Canal. Our cover for this 55th anniversary issue shows these ocean highways and how they converge on

the narrow isthmus of Panama. On August 15, 1914,

55 years ago, the SS Ancon made the first ocean-to-ocean

trip through the Canal. The Ancon carried approximately

200 persons including Panama President Behsario Porras and his cabinet and other Panama Government officials, members of the diplomatic corps and resident consulsgeneral, U.S. military officers and officials of the Panama

Canal. The following day, Sunday, August 16, seven

U.S. -flag merchant ship and one pleasure craft out of New York moved through the Canal. Thus began the pattern of routes displayed on the cover. Since the Ancon's

passage, nearl)' 420,000 ships from virtually ever)' nation

in the world have made the 50-mile crossing.

This special issue features another important date, the

450th anniversary of the Cit)' of Panama. It shows how

the Canal affects various regions of the world. It includes

photographs depicting some highlights of the Canal's

histor\', an article on recreational attractions on the Isthmus, another on the three principal men who guided

the Canal's construction, and finally, a story on the most

important ingredient of all—the people who make the

Panama Canal a realit)'.
Gorgas

Conquered Yellow Fever

Sttvens Opened The Way

Goethals

Engineer, Administrator c

A

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D

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Par

Excellence

THREE MEN, all out of different molds, all with varied talents, but with one thing in common—the\' built the Panama Canal.

Col. William Crawford Gorgas—

sanitarian, the phvsician who helped

free Havana of deadly yellow fever, and

who, against uncommon odds of nature and unbelieving superiors, made habit- able one of the most pestilential sections of the world—the Panama Canal Zone. John F. Stevens—engineer, basic

architect of the Canal. He made organization out of chaos, rebuilt the Pan- ama Railroad, provided food and water

supplies, installed sewers, erected docks

and storehouses, recruited labor, and

generally put things in order to open

the wa\' for the final construction of the waterwa}'.

Col. George Washington Goethals—

engineer and administrative genius. He

became the chief engineer credited with

completing the Canal who, according

to a construction-da\' worker remarking

at the time of Goethals' death: ". . . was

a great engineer and a great American.

We old-time Canal men have lost a father and a brother." Loved, Hated

Strong personalities all, and like manv men of destinv, the\' could be loved at one moment, and hated the ne,\t. Men

of heroic stature and towering abilitv. laboring with singular devotion, the\' were indispensable to the accomplishment that is the Panama Canal. There were other dedicated men,

engineers, doctors, surve\ors, and in the

colorful slang of the workers themselves,

"hoggers, the dinky skinners, the shovel

runners, the cranemen" and the men

who were doing the actual digging of the dirt. The idea of linking the two great oceans by a canal across the Isthmus was

in the minds of men long before the

Pilgrims landed on the shores of New

England in December 1620. It is believed Uiat Vasco Nufiez de Balboa,

discoverer of the Pacific, was the first to conceive the idea of uniting the two

oceans bv a canal. But it was Charles V

of Spain who initiated the mo\'ement

to build a canal in 1523. Though numerous surve\'s were made and reports

written, not a shovel of earth was turned

until the French effort which began

in 1880. For 6 years work progressed with

dispatch. The French planned to build

a sea-level canal at first but finallv that task seemed to be impossible and a change of plans \\as made to provide

for a high-level canal with a svstem

of locks. French Defeat But poor planning, disease, and

mismanagement forced the French to halt operations in Ma\- 1889. A new company was formed and b\' public

subscription enough mone\ became

available to renew operations on Octo- ber 20, 1894. For 6 \ears, thousands

of men moved 11 million tons of earth. But again, killing disease and the lack of proper equipment led to defeat for the French. This time it uas their last. Despite the failures, the French

accomplished much. The total excavation was more than 78 million cubic

yaids of earth, and an e,\tremel\' val- uable collection of maps, sur\'evs, drawings, and records was left. The greatest

August 15, 1969
praise is due the French for getting the work started. The\' gave reaUt}' to the dream of the centuries by actual!) making the dirt fly.

B\- the turn of the century the United

States had been established as a first- rate world power. The western lands had opened up in dramatic fashion when 90,000 easterners dashed west- ward for free lands and new homes.

Western ports were growing and it was

felt that the United States might need

a two-ocean navy. With growing pains and a spirit of adventure, political leaders and the public raised an old question: would it be beneficial to construct a canal and

thus cut man\' thousands of miles from

the coast-to-coast ocean route?

Congress Accepts

A commission was appointed and

finalh' recommended to President Theodore Roosevelt to accept a French offer

to sell its rights and property for $40

million. Congress accepted, and on Mav 4, 1904, the transfer was made.

Building a canal was not only a matter of digging a ditch and letting the water flow through. The decision between a sea-level and a lock canal had not been made. A thousand minor

questions of administrative and engineering detail had to be answered;

housing facilities had to be provided; water and sewerage systems had to be

installed; sanitation methods had to be

devised to convert a pest-ridden area

into a habitable and healthful communitv; equipment and supplies had to be

imported, and an enormous labor force had to be recruited and brought to the Isthmus. Foremost among the problems to be

solved was how to make the Isthmus

healthful. President Roosevelt appointed Colonel Gorgas to take charge of

that project.

Temperamentalh' Gorgas was mild,

amiable, and optimistic with the added

qualities of having quiet determination

and persistence. It was this combination

of seemingly opposing qualities that carried him successfullv through his Panama difficulties. Not Encouraged

Born in Mobile, Ala., on October 3, 18.54, he wanted as a bov to be a sol- dier like his father who during the Civil War commanded the Ordnance of the Southern Confederacv. But the idea was

not encouraged b\' his parents. He later decided to studv medicine, and during

his student da\ s at New York's Bellevue

Hospital Medical College, the spectre

of yellow fex'er dogged his footsteps.

When an outbreak occurred at Memphis,

(Srr p. 6}

READY TO QUIT—Many engineers were ready to give up when this slide occurred at Cucaracha in December 1913. It completely blocked Culebra Cut as this scene from

Contractors Hill shows. Coethals made only one comment: "Hell, dig it out again."

MOSQUITO CONTROL-A two-horsepower oil cart moves along a dirt road spraying

breeding areas of disease carrying insects. Such scenes were common during the early construction days when the biggest job was to rid the Zone of yellow fever and malaria.

The Panama Canal Review 5
MEN WENT CRAZY;

MEN TOOK TO DRINK

(Continued from p. 5)

Gorgas volunteered to attend the sick, but authorities refused to let him go. Upon graduating in 1879, still bent on

a militars- career, he entered the Army

as a first lieutenant. While serving in Texas an epidemic

of \ellow fever broke out in Bro%vnsville. He was sent as a volunteer to the

fever-stricken district where, among

others, he attended Miss Marie Dought)',

a visitor from Cincinnati. She recov- ered and the\- married in 1885. Gorgas

himself contracted the disease and

after recovering had the advantage of being immune.

After serving in several posts he was

sent in 1898 to Cuba as chief sanitary

officer in Havana. He believed the re- ports that yellow fever was carried by

mosquitoes. Carlos Finlay of Havana,

in 1881 advanced the thesis that the

infectious agent was transmitted by a certain mosquito. And in 1900, Maj.

Walter Reed, who headed the U.S. Army's Yellow Fever Commission in Cuba, came to the same conclusion after conducting experiments using human

volunteers. "Go To It" Armed with these facts, Gorgas asked

for authoritv to rid Havana of the deadlv pest. "Go to it," was the answer.

In less than a vear, sanitation methods

emplo\ed bv Gorgas freed Havana of \ellow fever. Gorgas was sent to Panama with a small staff in June 1904. The death rate of American workers was increasing as an epidemic swept across the Isthmus. But he met with resistance from members of the Isthmian Canal Commission

who rejected the theory that the mosquito transmitted yellow fever. A new

commission was appointed, but it too was skeptical.

Among the new officers was John F. Stevens, chief engineer, who supported

Gorgas to the extent that he threatened

to resign if Gorgas left. President Roosevelt, seeing that a critical situation was

facing the construction efforts, and seek- ing advice from trusted advisers, con- cluded that Gorgas was right and gave him authority to continue with his work.

The battle against \ellow fever was

short and victorious. Stevens threw his

efforts into the campaign and put most

of the digging force into sanitation work.

B\' the end of 1905, \ellow fever had

been eradicated from the Canal Zone,

and Gorgas turned his efforts to malaria.

Insecticides were poured into holes,

ponds, and swamps; drainage ditches were mopped with oil, and even

railwas- trains that crossed the Isth- mus were searched for straggling mosquitoes. Malaria declined to a point

where it was a minimal threat to Canal

construction. Promotions

Gorgas went on to other medical

victories and in 1914 was promoted to Surgeon-General of the United States Arm\' and the following year promoted

to major general. Before he died in 1920, Gorgas headed a vellow-fever commission in South America, organized

the Medical Coips in World War 1 and directed the \ellow-fever work

under the International Health Board

of the Rockefeller Foundation. At the urgent request of the British Government, in 1920 Gorgas accepted appointment on a \ellow fever commission in West Africa. But on Ma\- 30, 1920, Gorgas, at 66, was struck uith a cerebral hemorrhage

in London. Three davs later he died. He had been the recipient of many

honors and had been decorated bv a number of foreign governments. During his last illness he was visited bv

King George and knighted.

In Julv 1905, Stevens was appointed

chief engineer. He arrived on the Isth- mus with President Roosevelt's words

still ringing in his ears: "Things are

in a hell of a mess down there." He

found it to be an understatement. Red

tape had bogged down the work, and

morale was at its lowest ebb. But Stevens was an organizer, a trouble shooter, and he immediatelx'

realized that without supporting activities the Canal would never be dug. Stevens was a New Englander b\'

birth and a westerner by choice. Although he lacked technical training,

he decided to become an engineer. In 1874, at the age of 21, he moved to Minneapolis and became an assistant engineer for the city. He shifted to railroading and moved to Texas where

he served as axman, rodman, instrument man, surveyor, engineer, construction

superintendent, and then to executive

positions.

He spent long periods in undeveloped

countrv searching for new routes for the railroads, and he found them.

Accepts Job Ever alert to great undertakings in other parts of the world, he became in- terested in the challenging problem of building a canal at Panama. Not expecting to ever be actively connected with

the Panama Canal project, Stevens accepted an appointment with the Phil- ippine Commission to head its railroad building program. As he prepared to leave for the Pacific islands. President

Roose\'elt, on the advice of railroad executives, asked him to head the Panama project.

A man of imposing stature and com- manding personality, Stevens tramped

the entire length of the canal viewing

the various works. Walking with energy, he radiated the confidence of a natural

leader. Often speaking to employees,

he told them that there were onh' three

diseases on the Isthmus: "\ellow fever, malaria, and cold feet; and the greatest

of these is cold feet." His first task was to renovate and

double-track the old Panama Railroad—

a vital link in moving supplies, men and

dirt. He then built construction camps,

roads, water supph' and sewers, erected docks and storehouses, recruited skilled and unskilled labor, and arranged for an adequate food suppls'.

NEARING COMPLETION—Men work on the west chamber of Miraflores lower locks

April 14, I9L3. The scene is looking north.

.#'

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Stevens and his team of engineers had

another task to accomplish before they

could be confident of success. Controvers\' over whether the Canal should

be a sea-le\el \vater\\a\' or a lock-t\pe canal had not been settled. In fact, it became the hottest issue builders of the Canal ever had.

Prior to the appointment of Stevens, President Roosevelt had designated an

International Board of Consulting Engineers to consider the tvpe of canal. Reporting to the President in January

1906, the board split 8-5 favoring a sea-level Canal.Lukewarm

Stevens, who strongh' fa%'ored the

lock-t\ pe proposal, testified in Washington. But his appearance was not enough

to swa\' Congress from the majority's

recommendation. Stevens then appealed

to the President but discovered that he

had become "lukewarm" in his stand

for a lock canal. As one who believed in vigorous

handling of superiors as well as subordinates. Stevens talked to the President

"like a Dutch uncle." Roosevelt was

again convinced and stood behind him

"like a brick." In the end, with support

of the President, Secretary of War Wilham Howard Taft, and the Isthmian

Canal Commission, the plans of Stevens

prevailed, and Congress, on June 29,

1906 adopted the high-level lake and

lock plan.

Before Stevens accepted the job as chief engineer, he made it clear to the President that he would remain with

the project until, in his judgment, its success or failure was determined.

Although a long wav ofiF, success seemed assured, and Stevens resigned

late in March 1907. As evidence of the esteem in which

he was held. Canal emplo\ees presented

him with two bound volumes of 10,000

signatures of a {petition in which the\

had requested him to reconsider his resignation and remain, a gold watch,

diamond ring, and a silver table setting.

On the day of his departure on the SS Panama from Colon, the largest

crowd since the United States began

construction of the Canal gathered on

the pier to bid him farewell. To Russia

After returning to the United States. Stevens continued his climb in the rail- road industrv. President Wilson ap- pointed him head of the U.S. Railwav

Mission to Russia in 1917, and from

1919 to 192.3, he was president of the

Inter-Allied Technical Board supervising

the Siberian railwavs. In these positions he obser\-ed the

DECEMBER 1914—The Administration Building was newly opened and living quarters were completed along El Prado in Balboa when this photo was taken.

Start of the Communist Revolution. He

was among the first observers to alert responsible leaders in the United States

to its dangers.

Returning home in 1923, he later became president of the American Societv of Civil Engineers. Stevens died in 1943 in North Carolina at the age of 90. He had made order out of chaos, but now that he had resigned, another special kind of man was needed to get the work finished. President Roosevelt decided to put someone in the job who would stay

for as long as Roosevelt wanted. That man was Lt. Col. George W. Goethals

of the Armv Corps of Engineers, a

strict disciplinarian with outstanding

administrative ability.

Unsmiling

Erect, soldierlv, and unsmiling, Goethals possessed, however, a keen sense

of humor. Stem of purpwse, he had a driving power that carried all before it. Bom in Brooklvn in 18.58, the son of Belgian immigrants, Goethals showed

such promise in the public schools that

his principal urged his appointment to the U.S. Militarv- Academv. He was

graduated second in his class, completed

a special course in engineering and

began a rapid rise. Soon he was consid- ered the engineering brains of the general staff, and in 1907, when President

Roosevelt asked the Secretary of War

to nominate a man to take charge of the work at Panama, the selection was

instant. Goethals was chosen. Known as "The Colonel," Goethals was

at his desk at Culebra until 11 o'clock nearlv everx' night. Ehiring the day be- ginning at 7 a.m., he was out on the

job throughout the morning and part

of the aftemoon, dashing from place to place in the "Yellow Peril," his familiar railcar, plowing through mud and

climbing over slides, rain or shine. A crane operator once remarked:

"Few men could have stood the amount

of work he put on himself. Men broke

doxNTi; men went crazy; men took to drink. The colonel kept as keen as a brier." Holds Court On Sunda\s he held court in his

office. Anv man could see him personally on that da\'. Women came to settle their troubles. Hour after hour he sat there,

smoking cigarettes, advising, listening. Just when it looked as though the long drudgerv of building the Canal was

nearlv finished, a major slide occurred

at Cucaracha in 1913. Many of the engi- neers were read)' to give it all up. Colonel Goethals was summoned hurriedly

to the scene. "What are we going to do now?" he was asked. He calmly looked over the

scene, lighted a cigarette, and answered:

"Hell, dig it out again." That was his onlv comment.

Decision

Constmction moved rapidly under

Goethals and thanks to him the far looking decision was made to increase the width of the locks from 100 to 110 feet. Despite slides and other delavs such as when Gatun Locks began

to sink a \'ear after he arrived, the Canal was opened nearly 5 months ahead

of schedule. Heralded as America's greatest engineer, Goethals became the Canal Zone's

first Govemor. The following year he was promoted to major general. Late

in 1916 he retired and founded his owTi engineering firm. When the United

States entered the war Goethals re- tumed to the Armv as acting quartermaster-general. Finallv, he became as- sistant chief of staff and director of purchase, storage, and traffic. Back in private life, he resumed

his profession of consulting engineer

and continued it until his death in Januarv 1928.

The Panama Canal Review
1

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COAST TO COAST-The MS "MacMillan" was specially built to haul lumber from

Canada's western timber lands to the U.S. east coast through the Panama Canal. UNITED STATES

Master at World Trade

ON A PALM lined atoll of the South

Pacific a huskv native fisherman trades

his day's catch for a colorful sport

shirt made in the textile mills of North

Carolina. In a tall office building in Tokyo

a Japanese industrialist signs a contract to buy coal from West Virginia

mines for the manufacture of iron and

steel products partially made with U.S. scrap metal. Further around the world a Ger- man cabinet maker selects a finely

grained piece of walnut from U.S. for- ests that will wind up as a table in a Berlin apartment.

Every day in nearly every country

of the world someone—fisherman, businessman, home owner—uses the raw or manufactured products of the United

States. Through Canal

Many of these commodities, numbering in the hundreds, flow through the Panama Canal, which has served the world's trade community virtually with- out interruption for the past .5.5 years. The benefits of the Canal to the United States, or any other country us- ing the waterway, are apparent through

the savings in distance, time and cost

it offers the shippers, and ultimately, the consumers of the world. The 50-mile-long passage between

the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans reduced

the distance between New York and San

Francisco from 13,135 to 5,263 ocean

miles—a saving of more than 7,800 miles. The distance between New York and

Yokohama was shortened by more than

3,000 miles and New York to Melbourne

b\' nearh' the same distance. At the end of fiscal year 1968, the number of vessels of every variety

which had transited the Canal since

it opened on August 15, 1914, had

reached more than 403,000. Nearh321,500 of these were of the ocean- going (300 Panama Canal net tons or

larger) commercial class. Ships, Cargo

During fiscal year 1968, 14,807 ocean- going ships made the Canal passage. Of this total, 13,199 were commercial

8 August 15, 1969
transits, 1,504 were U.S. Government

and 104 free and repair transits. The

cargo these ships carried came to 105.5 milHon long tons with 96.5 milHon tons

classified as commercial cargo. Although there are a dozen major

classifications of commodities that make

up the bulk of Canal cargo, the hst of items passing through the Canal in the holds of merchant ships is a long one and some of it reads like poetry. For

example;

Angles, shapes, and sections

Nails, tacks, and spikes

Plates, sheets, and coils Tubes, pipes, and fittings

Wire, bars, and rods. Before the Canal opened, tall-masted

sailing ships plied between the U.S.

east and west coasts and Europe haul- ing lumber, grain and nonperishable

food products. It was a 13,785-mile trip

between the timber country of Portland,

Oreg., and New York—a route that took

the trading ships around the treacherous Cape Horn at the southern tip of South

America, or through the Strait of Magellan, a slightly shorter passage just north of the cape but even more dangerous because of its relative narrowness and rocky shores. The Canal route, however, cut some

6,500 miles off the distance, allowing

shippers to reduce labor costs and to increase the tonnage moved by making more trips. Time, Money

A vessel traveling between New York

and San Francisco at a speed of 16

knots saves nearlv 3 weeks of saiUng

time bv using the Canal instead of traveling around the Horn. And in addition, depending on operating costs, a

' ship can save up to $50,000 on each

one-way trip, even after paying the Canal toll. The Suez Canal, which opened 100

years ago on November 17, gave Europe

a closer market for raw materials. The

Panama Canal did the same thing for

' American manufacturers and put them

on equal footing with their European

competitors.

The Southern States of North America,

which even in the earlv 1900's were still trving to dig out of the economic de- pression that followed the Civil War,

benefited greatlv bv the opening of the Canal. For the first time, these States had

a direct route to the Far East for their chief product, cotton. Up to that time, cotton shipments went to the east b\' three routes—rail to San Francisco and

then b\' ship across the Pacific Ocean; bv ship aroimd the Horn; and the third,

BUSY PORT-.Merchant ship is unloaded at Philadelphia.

but most important, by rail to New York

to be shipped through the Suez Canal.

Steady Rise

On August 15, 1914, gidf coast ports

found themselves 500 to 750 miles

closer to the Atlantic entrance of the Canal than they were to New York. Thus

the south gained an advantage over east coast ports in the shipment of products

to the Orient, and marked a steady rise

for the south in its exports of lumber

and forest products.

There is no doubt then, that gulf

ports, with their ability to bring the rail- road car and the merchant ship side by

side at shipping terminals, were in a considerabh- laetter position when the Canal

gave them shorter and quicker passages

to the west coast and Pacific areas. Peoples of the western States were

able to buy more cheaply from Europe

and the east coast and increase their

trade, both domestic and foreign.

Northern west coast ports became

the natural gateways for the export

and import trade of such areas as Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, and

British Columbia. For the industrial sections in the

eastern United States, the Canal opened

(See p. 10)

The P.^nama Canal Review
For The Future:

^^ ^^.n^^^KlHg Bm^ &io\^\n^ ^^

A^

(Continued from p. 9)

up the vast areas of western South

America, the Pacific and the Far East.

First 3 Months

According to The Canal Record for October 28, 1914, 113 oceangoing ships

transited the Canal during the first 3

months of operation. Forty-six were out

of east coast ports, and 2.5 of them

carried manufactured commodities from

the pwrt of New York. During this period, more than 1 milhon tons of cargo were transported

through the waterway. Four main

routes carried 95 percent of the traffic: U.S. intercoastal trade; Pacific coast

of the United States and Europe; west

coast of South America, the Atlantic seaboard and Europe, and between the

east coast of the U.S. and the Far East. As traffic has steadily increased during

the past 55 vears, these routes have re- mained among the leading sea lanes through the Canal. Last \'ear, the five primary routes in the order of importance were: East Coast United States and Asia; East Coast United States and West Coa.st of South America; Europe and West Coast United States, Hawaii and Canada; Europe and West Coast South America;

and United States Intercoastal. The main commodities hauled over

these routes, accoimting for 94 per- cent of the total oceangoing commercial

cargo in 1968 were: petroleum and

products; coal and coke; ores and metals; grains; nitrates, phosphates, and

potash (fertilizers); agricultural commodities; lumber and products; manufactures of iron and steel; canned and

refrigerated foods; minerals; chemicals

and petrochemicals, and machinery and

equipment.

Whatever the cargo, two thirds of it

is either heading to or coming from the United States. This was true in 1968 and

has been the general pattern through

the \ears.

Savings

Not only does the Canal mean savings

to consumers because of the cheaper

transportation costs, but it operates at no cost to the U.S. taxpayer.

To further enhance national security was certainh- part of the reasoning in the decision to take up where the

CARGO ASSEMBLED-Steel matting, foreground, and containers, in the background, are ready for loading at an east coast port.

\

STATES MARINE LINES —L..«3:

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CABLE SHIP—The largest cable laying and repair ship in the world, the U.S.-flag "Long Lines" ties up at Cristobal on a trip from the

Pacific to Florida. Although not a frequent visitor, she uses the Canal on trips between the two oceans.

French left off in their efforts to build

the Canal.

In World War I, the Canal enabled

the United States to defend itself, its Pacific possessions and Latin America more effectiveh'. During World War II, the Canal became even more crucial to American strategy as warships were mo\ed from ocean to ocean. During

this period a greater amount of strategic

supplies moved through the Canal than

ever before, although commercial trade dwindled to a trickle because of the

threat of submarine attack on merchant

ships and because trading nations were

no longer able to exchange their goods.

Marines

Again in the 19.50's, manv supplies were moved through the Canal to Korea, and at the time of the Cuban

missile crisis in 1962, U.S. Marines

from California were transported to the troubled Caribbean area. Although modern techniques of war

ha\e diminished the Canal's importance

for the movement of combat vessels, to- day, approximateh' 10 percent of the

ships that transit the Canal are carrying

supplies for the war in Vietnam.

International commerce is not static by any means—nor are the routes and

the goods that pass over them. Discoveries of new sources of raw materials, the development of natural resources and increased demand and production

of manufactured products all contribute

to changes.

In the early years of the Canal, a main commodity which passed through was Chilean nitrate destined for the

east coast of the United States. Today,

this resource is insignificant as new synthetic fertilizers have been developed.

Change In Direction

And although petroleum has always

been a major commodit)' in Canal trafBc, the flow has changed. Once it was pre- dominantly intercoastal, from the west

coast to the east coast of the United

States. Today petroleum comes mostly

from \'enezuela and is shipped west. This predominantly east-west trade may change again as the result of ex- plorations at Orito, Colombia, where

productive fields have been found. In

April of this year, 80,000 tons of crude

oil were pumped from Orito to Tumaco

on the Pacific coast and loaded into tankers. Some of the oil was sent to the west coast of the U.S. and some through

the Canal to the U.S. east coast. Should this continue, it would more

than double the Pacific to Atlantic sea- board crude oil shipments which last \ear amounted to 6.51,000 tons. Of the 13,199 commercial oceangoing

ships that transited the Canal in fiscal \ear 1968, a total of 1,647 were U.S.

flag vessels. Liberia followed closely

with 1,.543. Third was Norway with

1,498 and close behind was the United

Kingdom with 1,4.53.

U.S. Traffic That year the Canal handled 96.3

million long tons of commercial ocean

traffic. The U.S. portion of this—imports,

exports, and intercoastal traffic—totaled 62.5 million tons, or nearly two-thirds

' (See p. 30)

LUMBER—A major Canal commodity

heads for consumer.

The Pa.vama Canal Review 11
PANAMA CANAL

Trade Link fVith The Old fForld

With cargo booms raised skyward, an oceangoing merchant ship which just arrived from Europe is unloaded at a U.S. east coast port.

HALF A WORLD away lies Europea mainstay of the Panama Canal. Among the geographical areas for which the Canal is an artery of inter- national trade, Europe has ranked high

through the years in terms of transits,

tolls, and cargo tonnage. Figures of European trafiRc through the waterway

are impressive and reflect the sizeable portion of the Continent's overseas trade

that flows through the Isthmian water- way as well as its significant position as a Panama Canal customer. One-half of the commercial transits, one-half of the tolls and one-fifth of the total cargo in fiscal vear 1968 were

generated by European trade. Translated into figures, these portions meant

nearly 7,000 transits, more than $43.5

million in tolls, and 20.8 million long

tons of cargo. The ratio of European traffic to the

overall Canal activity has been consist- ent over the years. Three decades ago,

for example, the 3,215 commercial

transits b\' European-flag vessels repre- sented 58 percent of the annual total; the $12.9 millions in tolls paid by European ship operators accounted for 56

percent of the total collections, and the

8.7 million tons of cargo moving to and

from Europe were 31 percent of the

overall figure.

Top Nine

Little wonder, then, that the major

European routes through the Panama

Canal ha\e as consistently ranked among

the top nine sea lanes in traffic through

the Isthmus. They link the Old World

with the west coast of the Western

Hemi.sphere and with Oceania and Asia. The maritime nations, as is to be

expected, account for the bulk of European traffic. However, every major European country is included in the current

listing of vessel nationalities at the Pan- ama Canal. In the previous fiscal year thev numbered 22, ranging from just 2

transits b\' Rumanian vessels to a whopping 1,498 by Norwegian ships. IncidentalK , Norway, the United Kingdom and

West Germany ranked in that order

after the United States and Liberia in the compilation of transits for the 12- month period. Thirty years ago, 16 European countries were using the Pan- ama Canal, the range then being from

one transit by Finland to 1,281 by the United Kingdom.

Well Defined

The routes of European exports and

imports are well defined at the Panama

Canal; exports go mainly to the Far

East and to the Pacific coast of the

12 August 15, 1969
The Norwegian ore carrier "Sigvik" is taken through Caillard Cut by the oceangoing tug "Taboga" during Canal widening work. The

"Sigvik" is heading toward the maritime nations of Europe. Since the photograph was taken the dredging work has been completed.

Western Hemisphere; the bulk of imports originates in North and South

America. In fiscal year 1968, some 7

million tons of European exports moved

through the Canal, one-half destined to the Far East, the rest split among South

and North America and Oceania. Imports were double the exports (reflecting the exhaustion of raw materials in the Continent) and came principally from

South America, Canada, the United

States, and New Zealand.

To the Far East and the Americas,

Europe sent machiner)' and equipment,

iron and steel manufactures, fertilizers, pig iron and coking coal—7 million tons

in fiscal year 1968. From the Americas

and Australia, it imported lumber and

lumber products, grains, canned and

refrigerated goods, fishmeal, ores and

metals— 14 million tons. Thus the bulk

of European transits are to and from

the west coast of South America,

Canada, the Far East and Oceania.

Ln the past 2 years, Panama Canal

trafiic figures have reflected a significant service to European trade. 6-Day War

The closing of the Suez Canal in mid-1967 as a result of the 6-day war

between Israel and Eg^pt disrupted

trade lanes that had relied on the

Middle East waterway. Europe was among the areas affected. The re-rout- ing through the Panama Canal of many

European ships formerly using the Suez Canal accounted for an increase esti- mated at 4.5 million tons of cargo through the Isthmian waterway in the

the first 12-month period following the

closing of Suez. All but half a million tons of this increase was attributable to Europe, which exported via the Panama

Canal 3.5 million tons of goods that normally would have moved through

Suez, destined mainly to Australia and

the Far East. Thus, pig iron exported

to Japan by European Communist Bloc

countries now is going through the Pan- ama Canal instead of Suez. The same

is true of Polish coking coal. With the Suez Canal still closed, the Panama Canal continues to perform

this valuable service to the European

trading community.

All in all, the Panama Canal has borne

out the predictions made 55 year ago

with respect to its use by European

countries. The February 1914 issue of the National Geographic Magazine, in an article entitled "The Probable Effect

of the Panama Canal on the Commercial Geography of The World," said

". . . the European countries will use

the Canal in most of their traffic with

western America and in exceptional

instances with northern Asia, Australia,

and New Zealand." There is no question that Europe has relied through the

years on the Panama Canal for its com- merce with western America; now an

"exceptional instance"—the closing of Suez—has increased the value of the Isthmian waterway to Europe as a funnel for its trade with distant lands.

The Panama Canal Review 13
i^-

'-^t^^*^

14 August 15, 1969
Tk

Way

I'

Open'

GREEN GOLD. Black gold. Ores. Copper and silver. Coffee and sugar. Fishmeal. For South American countries all these mean dollars and marks and

pounds and francs with which to buy

the iron and steel manufactures that are a major part of their import needs

for progress. Most of this trade, however, would

not have been economically possible were it not for the Panama Canal. Developing Latin American nations have

an almost incalculable commercial in- terest in the Canal. This is especially true of the west coast countries—Ecuador, Peru and Chile—which trade ex- tensively with Europe and the U.S.

east coast. Their reliance upon the Canal is dramatized by the fact that the total trade of each constitutes from onethird to more than one-half the gross national product.

Bananas, Coffee

The inter-dependence of the Americas

is convincingly demonstrated by Pan- ama Canal trade figures. The United

States, increasingly dependent on raw

material imports to sustain its economy,

obtains substantial portions of its re- quirements from Latin America—bauxite

and bananas, tanning extract and coffee, industrial fiber (sisal, henequen, abaca),

petroleum and sugar, copper and iron

ore, and lead. In return, Latin American countries take more of the United

States industrial production.

A similar exchange takes place be- tween South America and Europe, also through the Panama Canal.

During fiscal year 1968, nearly 8.4

million long tons of cargo moved over

the Panama Canal trade route be- tween the U.S. east coast and South

America; 2.8 miUion tons over the East Coast South America-West Coast U.S.- Canada route, and 7.6 million tons over

the Europe-South America route. These

figures underline the Panama Canal's

role in the economy of South America.

The trade statistics of Ecuador, Peru and Chile offer striking examples.

Green Gold

Take Ecuador. Its chief export, bananas (green gold), most of which went

to the United States and West Germany,

accounted for close to 979 thousand long

tons of Canal traffic in fiscal year 1968. But bananas are only one of Ecuador's

exports. Others include refrigerated and

chemical products, coffee, coal, coke,

lumber, copper, and cotton, which bring

her total to more than 1.2 million long

tons. Add imports of about l.I million long tons and the total—well over 2.3

million tons—represents 2.4 percent of the total cargo that moved through the waterway in that 12-month period. Peru's reliance on the Canal for its international trade is equally dramatic.

Peruvian ores and minerals, nitrates, phosphates, potassium, sugar, molasses,

cotton, coffee, petroleum, and fishmeal, flow through the Canal to Atlantic ports

in the United States and Europe. In

fiscal year 1968, the Canal handled

nearly 4.9 million long tons of Peruvian

exports and approximately 2.3 million tons of the country's imports.

Chile also is heavily dependent on the Canal for its commerce. The flow of

goods to and from Chile in fiscal 1968

amounted to approximately 3 million tons in each direction. Copper and

sulphur led the list of Chilean exports. Petroleum and machinery, coal and

coke, and wheat flour were among its principal imports.

Consumers

This is not all, however. Goods from

practically every South American country move regularly through the Panama

Canal en route to consumers abroad. There is substantial trade between east coast countries in South America and

the west coast of North America.

Thus, Venezuelan petroleum "black gold" accounted for 7,882,381 long tons

of the cargo shipped through the Canal

in fiscal year 1968; Colombian coffee

for 210,696; Brazilian ores and metals

for 123,552 tons, to cite a few examples.

The fact that South America is still an untapped reservoir of vital raw materials combined with the growing industriali- zation of this part of the world point

inevitably to increasing South American

traffic through the Panama Canal in the

years to come.

In its 55th year of operation, the Panama Canal's key role as a vehicle

for hemispheric progress grows larger.

It has helped develop a major part of the economy of the South American nations, nine tenths of whose total foreign commerce is dependent upon merchant

shipping. And in fulfilling that role with

eminent efficiency, the Panama Canal

stands out today as a living, practical

symbol of hemispheric solidarity.

The Panama Canal Review 15
ana ^nc Canai

The passage through the Isthmus

is as important to the booming Far East

as raw materials and markets

FOLLOWING CENTURIES of feudal

seclusion, Japan began to emerge as a major industrial power during the same era that saw the completion of the Panama Canal. The use of the Canal by Far Eastern

shippers, however, began slowlv. But

as Japan's industrial development grew,

the passage through the Isthmus became

as important to Imperial Japan as the raw materials it imported.

Todav, 61 percent of all cargo passing southbound through the Canal is en route to the Far East. Of this total almost 32.2 million long tons, or 86 percent, is destined for Japan. She ranks

sixth among the 48 nations that used

the Canal during fiscal year 1968

with 1,036 oceangoing merchant ships

making the transit.

For a period of 10 vears before December 7, 1941, when Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor, transits of Jap- anese registered ships had averaged

nearly 300 a year. Most of those homeward bound were loaded with scrap and raw materials, cargoes that have re- mained important Japanese imports.

More recentl)', coal has been added to the major imports of Japan.

Greatest Impact

In the \ears when the Canal was

reaching completion, economists pre- dicted accurateh' that the great Australasian and Asiatic markets, then scarcelv touched, would receive the greatest impact. The possibilities of the Asiatic market, which the Canal brings so much closer to the United States, were

reckoned as almost incalculable.

16 August 15, 1969
^'^—^»^>.^ ^

.J^^-C J*^^

With the possible exception of the

countries on the west coast of South

America, Japan probably has benefited more than anv other foreign country

from the Panama Canal.

In 1936, cargo destined for Japan

alone totaled nearly 1.8 million long

tons. In 1968, only 32 years later, cargo reached aknost 32.2 million long tons. Japan's role in the industrial development of the Far East is a dominant one and it can be said at present that the

island nation has definitely broken out

of its economic shell. It is building up

through eastern Asia into the Middle

East and Africa, and is developing its industrial investments in the Americas.

Japan's industrial s\va\' over the Far

East as well as its increasing dependence on the Panama Canal is illustrated

Opposite page, at left: The "Japan Pine,"

assisted by the tug, "Gulf Raider," enters Miraflores Locks. The ship, 734.9 feet long

with a beam of 104.3, is owned by Japan

Line Ltd., which operates a number of

similar bulk carriers now using the Canal.

Opposite page, at right: American exports

are loaded in New Orleans for shipment

through the Canal to the Far East.

Above, left and center: Japan's booming

ship builders construct a large percentage

of the ships using the waterway. The "Melodic" and the "Arctic" are typical of regular customers bringing coal south. The

"Melodic" set a tonnage record in 1968 and the current record is held by the "Arctic" with 60,309 long tons of coal shipped from Norfolk to Japan in January.

Above right: Oklahoma coal is loaded in New Orleans for shipment to Japan.

At right: The Japanese Floating Fair ship, "Sakura Maru," visited Panama in April.

b\- the vast quantities of raw materials going through the Canal to feed the

steel mills and manufacturing plants of Japan. Of particular importance is the

coal sent from the United States east coast to keep the Japanese industrial empire operating.

U.S. Coal

A report made in 1967 b)- Ely M.

Brandes, senior economist at Stanford

Research Institute, said 95 percent of the coal shipped through the Canal is U.S. coal destined for Japan. Involved

are coke and coal required for use in

steel production. Projections of future

coal shipments show some gro\vth in exports of coal to Japan as well as to South America and to the west coast

of the United States. (See p. IS)

The Panama Canal Review 17
Tk ua>i

(Continued from p. 17)

U.S. coal used in Japan occupies a unique position, he said. Delivery cost

is considerably higher than the cost

of the nearest competitive coal which

comes from Australia but which does

not match the quahty of U.S. coal.

Another raw material gaining importance among the products going through

the Canal to the Far East, is alumina

from British Guiana, the West Indies, the east coast and gulf ports of the United States. Of the more than 1.3 million long tons of alumina shipped

southbound through the Canal last year, nearly 73 thousand long tons went

to Japan.

Influence On Canal

Although the Canal has meant much

to Japan and other Far Eastern countries since it was opened to trafiBc 55

years ago, the Far East also has had

influence on the Canal.

Japan, with its booming postwar ship

building business, is constructing a large

percentage of the ships that use the Pan- ama Canal and sail under the Japanese

flag and the flags of other nations. Some of these regular customers are those bringing bulk coal southbound

and which sometimes return with iron ore from Peru for Baltimore or Europe.

Many of them, such as the Onomichi

Maru, the Melodic, and the Arctic, have

set Canal cargo records. Others, like the

Jir'iko Alaru, carry rolled steel made in Japan to the U.S. east coast and return from New York with scrap iron. Many of the ships being built in Japan are too big for Canal transit, but

a great majority have been designed

with a view of using the Canal either on a regular basis or only occasionally

such as the world's first LASH (lighter

aboard ship), a 43,000-ton, 860-foot long cargo liner launched in May and

due to go through the Canal in October.

Christened the Acadia Forest, she will operate under a long term charter from

,T

• '^,^1^

-3 q^.---.,.." - ^'Slii^.

CARGO OF COAL—The "Vestfold," a Norwegian-flag bulk carrier, squeezes through

Miraflores on its way from Norfolk to Japan. The 823-foot ship has a beam of 106 feet.

Norwegian owners between the U.S.

gulf ports and north Europe carrying

paper outbound and general cargo on

return. Many of the ships put into trade by

other Far Eastern countries following

World War II and the Korean war were

built in Japan. South Korea, for in- stance, has increased its national shipping through the addition of several new vessels built in Japan. The Korean

Pioneer was the first to make regular

trips through the Canal. South Korean

vessels made 40 transits in fiscal 1968. Ships flying the Philippine flag made

94 transits during the past fiscal year. Many of these engaged in trade with

Europe and the east coast of the United

States, were built in Japan. Other Asian

countries using the Canal regularly are

the Republic of China, Thailand, and

Indonesia. Know-How

Japan's know-how in steel and machine manufacturing won the contract

for the Mitsubishi Shoji Kaisha Inc. for the construction of the new Panama

Canal towing locomotives and locks cranes which were delivered to the Canal Zone in 1961 to replace the ones

that had been in operation since 1914.

Last vear, Mitsui and Co. Ltd. of Tokvo, was awarded the contract for the installation of a power regulating transformer at Miraflores Substation

which ^vill be the largest piece of machinery of its kind ever to be assembled on the Isthmus by the Panama Canal

organization. It was manufactured b\' the Toshiba Electric Companv and will be used to regulate the flow of power

of the Pacific and Atlantic intercon- nection with the Panama Power and

Light Company.

Recenth', a contract for the instal- lation of new central office telephone

switching equipment in Balboa was

awarded by the Panama Canal to C. Itoh and Co., Ltd. of Tokyo. It is one of the first steps in the proposed

long range plans to modernize the Canal Zone, Panama and the U.S.

military exchanges.

18 August 15, 1969
SHIPPING

Tonnage Conference

The Panama Canal has been watching

with interest the tonnage measurement

conference in London, sponsored by the Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Organization, a specialized agency

of the United Nations. Representatives

of the world's major shipping nations agreed in June to unify ship meas- urement rules by revising the two-tier SNStem of gross and net tonnage. They

ruled that gross tonnage should express the volume of the ship in weight, and

net tonnage the displacement of the

ship. At present, gross tonnage represents the volume of the whole ship in units of 100 cubic feet per ton. Net ton- nage is the same volume minus the space required for machinery, propelling equipment, crew quarters and

between-deck space. The conference voted to issue a recommendation that the new net ton- nage based on the displacement be used

as a vardstick for tolls and dues. The new measurement would eventually re- place six SNStems now in use; that of the Oslo convention—used by most Euro- pean nations—and one each used bv Britain, the United States, the Soviet tfnion,

and the Suez and Panama Canals. Canal Zone Governor W. P. Leber,

commenting on the proposed new sys- tem of tonnage measurement at the conference, said the Canal would try to use any universal tonnage measurement

system agreed on and accepted, but

much would depend on the particular

system chosen bv the conference.

Stout ships

SLX PASSENGER liners built in the United States in the 1920's and early 1930's recently were praised by the

British shipping magazine "Fairplay

International Shipping Journal" for

their excellence of construction. The vessels were the former Grace

Line ships Santa Paula and Santa Rosa,

and the Matson Line's Malolo, Mariposa, Monterey, and Lurline. All are now sailing under different names.

PANAMA CANAL TRAFFIC

STATISTICS FOR 12 MONTHS

OF FISCAL YEAR 1969 TRANSITS (Oceangoing Vessels)

i.96.9 1968

Commercial 13,150 13,199

U.S. Government 1,376 1,504 Free 76 104

Total 14,602 14,807

TOLLS

Commercial $87,492,565 $83,942,429

U.S. Government 8,422,043 9,211,220

Total -$95,914,608 $93,153,649

CARGO"'

CommerciaL-- 101,391,132 96,550,165

U.S. Government 7,210,068 8,497,221 Free 182,.357 482,483

Total 108,783,557 105,529,869

s^68
¥ i

Fulfilling Her Destiny,

Panama City

Becomes Municipal Giant

UPPER PHOTO—Modem Panama City seen from Ancon Hill. Shrimp fleet is anchored in Panama Bay at low tide. LOWER PHOTO—Similar view in 1855. The realistic sketch by unknown artist shows Panama Railroad terminal at left center.

'i^^iy-K

•« f

^.v
FROM THE beginning, four and a half centuries ago, the quest was for a

crossroads site. The immense Pacific Ocean, or South

Sea, as it was then called, had just been

discovered and man already sensed

that here, on this neck of land, lay the passage between the oceans.

It was July 1514. A fleet of 20 ships,

flying the Spanish banner, had arrived

off Santa Maria la Antigua del Darien—

the first mainland settlement in the Americas, founded onlv 4 years earlier. In command of the expedition was

the dashing Colonel Don Pedro Arias Davila (to be known in history as Pedrarias), bv ro\'al appointment Governor and Captain General of Castilla del Oro, the gold-rich land along the Atlantic coast of Panama that Columbus

had explored during his fourth voyage

to the New World in his epic search

for the route to the Indies.

Settlements Already the conquistadores had

planned their ne.xt step—an overland

trail between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Armed parties had set out south and west from Santa Maria la Antigua to build settlements along the proposed

trail. One of the parties had built one

such settlement on the San Bias coast and another farther inland from the Caribbean shore. Now it was preparing

to push toward the Pacific coast to carry out its orders to build a third settlement there. But the Indians rose in vengeful

rebellion, laying siege to the Spaniards

at the inland settlement. Pedrarias, a

resolute man, disjoatched a punitive ex- pedition to rescue his men. The force, under Captain Antonio Tello de Guzman, beat back the besiegers and then

set out to complete the trek southward

across the Istlimus. At last, the Pacific coast was reached—

at a miserable fisherman's hamlet the Indians called Panama.

A Fishery

Pedrarias himself wrote to the Spanish Court in 1516: "Your Highnesses should

know that Panama is a fisher)' on the

coast of the South Sea and the fishennen

are called panama by the Indians." By July 1519, Pedrarias was undis- puted ruler of Castilla del Oro. At his orders, Vasco Nuiiez de Balboa, the Discoverer of the South Sea and his

rival for power, had been beheaded,

and now the new ocean was Pedrarias'

to explore. But to carry out his plans, Pedrarias

needed a coastal city with a suitable harbor that would serve as a crossroads base for the lands he hoped to discover

THE SPANISH MAIN-From a map published in Amsterdam about 1630, the area shows

much of the lands that today are Colombia. The Spanish Main was the area in the Atlantic

just above Terra Firma, or Panama. Old Panama was destroyed by pirates in 1671.

to the south. He undertook the exploration of the Pacific coastline of the Isthmus bv sea and by land. Pedrarias

himself set out by ship and after taking

possession of the Pearl Islands anchored

off Taboga. Anxious for news of the land force of 300 men commanded b\' his lieutenant, Caspar de Espinosa, he

dispatched a search partv to the mainhmd that soon brought back the news

that the men were at the fishing hamlet

of Panama.

Pedrarias hurried to the mainland to

take council with his captains. Among

them were Francisco Pizarro and Diego

de Almagro, who were to conquer Peru,

and Hernando de Soto, who was to land

in Florida 20 years later. The decision: to establish a city at the

site of the Indian hamlet of Panama.

Three Leagues

The site for the citv, measuring

3 leagues, was cleared about half a league from the hamlet itself to take advantage of a small harbor.

(Sec p. 22)

The Panama Canal Review 21
CUy.^3 ^IrJt SettlerJ —

100 Spanhk Soldiers

(Continued from p. 21)

On August 15, 1519, on the feast day of Our Lady of the Ascension, the

City of Panama was founded by Pedrarias. The founding of Lima, Peru, was

16 years away; that of Bogota, Colombia, 19; that of New Amsterdam-the

future New York-94.

The fledgling city's first settlers were

100 Spanish soldiers. "The chosen site," one of Panama's

foremost historians, Juan B. Sosa, has

written, "was undoubtedly quite ap- parent for the purposes that drove the Governor of Castilla del Oro. Sur- rounded bv a green plain, it had, besides a more benign climate than Santa

Maria, the advantage of its position in the southeastern and narrowest part of the country, which was ideal for the

projects of new conquests across the South Sea, at the same time offering better prospects for traffic, trade and

agriculture in the future." On September 15, 1521, 2 years later, the city obtained its royal charter and

a coat of arms.Conquest

Pedrarias did not live to see the city

he founded flourish. The one event that was to set the historical seal of cross- roads upon the City of Panama for all times—the conquest of Peru—was ac- complished 3 years after his death. He

died in 1531, at the age of 91, in Managua, Nicaragua, where he had moved

4 years earher upon being appointed

Governor of Nicaragua.

Now it was 1669. Past were the days when the population of the City

of Panama had dwindled to 32 or 33

Spaniards—the handful that for diverse reasons had not been drawn by the

magnet of riches in Peru. Now it was

a city of 400 houses, "which though

of wood, are of good appearance,"

as one chronicler wrote. There were 500 Spanish inhabitants—sometimes as many as 800, depending upon traffic through the city—and 3,000 Negro

.slaves toiled within the city's environs. What had happened in that first half-century is told in the words of

historian Sosa: Builds Reputation

"The discovery and boom of the

lands to the South and in Central

America; the traffic across the Isthmus

that gave occasion to the departure

ever) year of fleets, sometimes numbering 40 vessels; the considerable hauling

of foods; the business and trading in the city and the other coastal settle- ments on the Atlantic; the Cnices and

Nombre de Dios trails, busy with the coming and going of numerous mule

trains and gangs of burden-bearing

slaves, and the Chagres phed by barges

transporting travellers, goods and valuables; the working of the Veraguas

mines in which more than 2,000 laborers were employed; the pearl trade in the Royal Pearl Islands which keeps

the owners and crews of 30 brigantines

engaged in fishing, all contributed to enable Panama, in the space of slightly more than half a century, to attain the

reputation as one of the principal cities of the new world, the emporium and

center of trade between the Spanish

metropolis and its possessions in the

Pacific. . . "The layout of the citv was quite

adequate: straight streets, wide for the

traffic of pedestrians and riders, all paved with round stones from the sea

shore; the houses well built, most one

story high, with balconies, wooden

grill work on the windows and a wide

door for access inside, all with rooms

well distributed and with such comforts

as were required by the climate and as afforded by the owner's means ..."

Destroyed

The very wealth of the city—symbolized by its reputation as the "Cup

of Gold"—brought on its destruction

in 1671. In the 152 years since its establishment, the city had survived

three major conflagrations, one disas- trous earthquake, at least four civil revolts, one slave uprising and one attack bv pirates. It had risen to the status of See of the Civil and Ecclesiastical Administration of the Mainland Kingdom.

But nothing availed against Sir Henry

Morgan, the English buccaneer. After storming Fort San Lorenzo, at the mouth of the Chagres, Morgan ad- vanced on the Citv of Panama. The

end, by sword and bv fire, came on Wednesday, January 28, 1671. The

city of 1,000 houses and about 10,000

inhabitants was laid waste.

Vasco Nunez de Balboa

Discovers the Pacific

22 August 15, 1969
A Spanish force, asembled to defend

the Crown's possessions, landed at Portobelo in late 1671, under command of Don Antonio Fernandez de Cordoba y Mendoza, who came invested as president, governor, and captain general of the mainland. Fernandez de Cordoba

lost no time proposing to the Crown

the transfer of the city to the nearby

Ancon site, which offered better defense

facilities. His proposal received royal

approval and a charter was issued for the new City of Panama.

On Saturday, January 21, 1673, on

the feast day of Saint Lnes, Virgin and

Martyr, the transfer of the city from

its old to its new site was carried out with full ceremony. Center of Trade

Today, halfway through its fifth century of existence, the City of PanThe City of Panama is turning into a municipal giant, plagued with the problems of growth—quick growth. Its population, now nearing 400,000, hves

in 85,000 dwellings, consumes 30 mil- lion-plus gallons of water daily, requires

1,089,000 kilowatts of electricity daily

to operate, uses nearly 55,000 tele- phones to communicate, moves on the wheels of 40,000 vehicles making a

total of 200,000 trips daily, and generates two-thirds of the Gross National

Product, about $600 milhon.

All this boils down to an annual rate of growth of 10 percent.

History Congress

The week of August 10 to 17 has

been set aside by the Panamanian

Government for the observance of the 450th anniversary of the capital city. The highhght is to be a History Conthe city in 1995. On the basis of orderly

tendencies of growth, the planners fore- see a vast metropolitan area shaped Uke

a half-moon, with the Pacific coast

as the base and Plaza 5 de Mayo—the

city's present major commercial center —as the hub.

Expected Growth

One figure alone provides an idea of the magnitude of the city's expected

growth in the next quarter century and

the problems this will f)ose: The esti- mated population for the metropoUtan

^rea in the year 2,000 is 1,220,000

inhabitants. This metropolis will trace its lineage

to the tiny settlement 3 leagues long

founded close to an Indian fishing hamlet 450 years ago this month. Founded

in hope and destroyed in adversity, the

WIDENING TRANSISTHMIAN—A 4V4-miIe section is being widened in the heart of Panama City to relieve increaiing trafRc.

ama still is "one of the principal cities of the New World, the emporium and

center of trade. . . .'" But instead of the trade between the Spanish metropolis and its possessions

in the Pacific of 400 years ago and

the gold- and silver-laden galleons that came from fabulous Peru to disgorge

their treasures at its shores, it is the

trade of the world and the ships of many nations, laden with the sinews of progress, that flow past it, entering or leaving the Panama Canal.

It is also a crossroads in the air age—

a major gateway for travel to points

north, south, east, and west. At To- cumen International Airport, approximately 32,000 planes landed and took

off and 174,000 passengers arrived and

departed in 1968.

gress to which delegates from the

Central American countries, Mexico,

Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru,

and Spain are being invited. The conclave will examine the geography, his- tory, physical structure, institutions, economy, society, importance and fu- ture of the city. There will be cere- monies amid the ruins of Old Panama

and concerts, art displays, theatrical presentations, folklore festivals, a sports

parade and literary contests.

If the citv's growth in the past few

decades has been impressive, the out- look for the future is astonishing.

"The Plan of Panama," drawn for the

Institute of Housing and Urban Development (IVU) of the Panamanian

Government by De Diego y Fabrega,

a firm of urban consultants, envisions

city rose again to overshadow its past. Of the original site, again in the words

of historian Sosa, "there remained for the coming generations, clear evidence

of its importance in the ruins of its buildings, in the arcades of its bridges

and cisterns, in the superb tower of the Major Church which still bears, straight

and elegant, the weight of the centuries on its powerful structure." At the base of that tower, a bronze

plaque, placed there by Court Santa Maria 497, of the Catholic Daughters

of America, contains a summary of the

history of the cathedral. Its final, elo- quent paragraph serves as the epitaph

for the old City of Panama: "These

ruins call forth admiration, for amid the profound silence of death they recall human glory and riches gone forever."

The Panama Canal Review 23
FOR MUTUAL BENEFIT

PANAMA-CENTER of the World; Heart of the Universe.

The phrase sums up this country's greatest boon—a privileged

position relatively equidistant from the great land masses of the world.

In the process of the evolution of the Isthmus, a unique

international partnership developed at the turn of this century

between the United States and Panama in fulfillment of a paramount mission of service to the world. For more than half a centurv, citizens of both nations have worked together effec- tively in operating the Panama Canal—a vital international

utilit\' that plays an influential role in the progress of many

nations by speeding the flow of world commerce in all directions. Both nations have endured hardships and sacrifices as a result of that partnership.

The Cains But there have been benefits for both countries, too. Elsewhere in this issue are set forth some of the gains the United States has derived from the Panama Canal. Its partner—Panama—also has received substantial material ad- vantages from the presence of the waterway in its territory

which plaved and still plays an important part in the

nation's economy.

In 1968, the Panama Canal represented for .Panama, $149

million—in salaries and wages for Panamanians employed in the Canal Zone; in retirement and disabilit}' payments; in direct purchases by U.S. agencies; from private companies and

contractors operating in the Canal Zone; in personal ex- penditures by Canal Zone residents; and in the annuity paid

by the United States. Panamanian revenues generated by the Panama Canal have

been increasing steadily in the past years. The 1968 figure, for example, was over $14 million higher than that for 1967. Annual Payroll

One of the major benefits for Panama, of course, is the employment of its citizens with the Canal organization. Nearly

12,000 of them at present draw an annual payroll of nearly

$47.4 million. All Panamanian citizen employees in the Canal

organization now share in most of the benefits of U.S. Federal

employment. For instance, since 1966 the minimum wage

law has applied to the Canal Zone, making the current mini- mum pay for any government emplo)ee $1.30 an hour and

providing for annual increases which will be raised to $1.60

in 1971.

Practically every phase of Panama Canal operations is reflected dollarwise in Panama; for instance, construction and

maintenance projects for the waterway in the 3-vear period

from 1966 to 1968 resulted in an average annual expenditure

of $9.5 million in Panama for materials and services. Residents of the Canal Zone made expenditures of $33.9

million in Panama last year. Panama Railroad

Some installations in the Canal Zone, while designed

primarily for the operation of the Canal, also serve Panama.

The centenarian Panama Railroad, which played such a key

role in the independence of Panama in 1903, supplements

communications between the countrv's two principal cities, transporting passengers, mail and cargo. The Canal organization has 13 docks and piers which total 3.3 miles of berthing space for operations at Cristobal and Balboa. These facilities are utilized hv Panama for its international commerce. Medical

institutions and services provided by the Panama Canal organization serve its employees and their dependents, American

and Panamanian alike. Unquestionably one of the vital benefits for Panama from

the construction of the Panama Canal was the massive sanitation effort begun bv the United States at the outset of the building of the waterway and carried on unceasingly

for the past seven decades. It has significantly contributed to making Panama Citv and Colon among the healthiest cities in the world. The opening of the Panama Canal fulfilled the promise of service to mankind which is emblazoned on the Panamanian

coat of arms-PRO MUNDl BENEFICIO, For the Benefit

of the World.

PANORAMA OF BENEFITS—Nearly all Panamanian imports come through Canal Zone ports of Cristobal and Balboa which combined

have 3.3 miles of berthing space. Here, five ships are moored at Balboa. At upper left is the $20 million Thatcher Ferry Bridge linking Panama City and Canal Zone with the Interior. The bridge is an important connection in the Pan-American Highway.

4
^ANNIVERSARIES^

(On the basis of total Federal Service)

MARINE BUREAU

Emmanuel A. Burton Lead Foreman Painter Benito E. Sykes Leader Painter Edmund Dantes

Linehandler (Deckhand)

Charles M. Inniss Time and Leave Clerk TRANSPORTATION AND TERMINALS

BUREAU

Clyde W. Carew

Supervisory^nj'ounts ^dSIHWll^nce

George Kirt" Guard

Ivan S. Brown

Meat Cutter Bertram I. Walters

Supervisorv Supply Clerk (T\ping)

CIVIL AFFAIRS BUREAU

Alfred E. Osborne

Director- Assistant Superintendent and

Director Latin American Schools HEALTH BUREAU

Rosan R. Trowers

Medical Aid (Sterile Supplies)

OFFICE OF THE COMPTROLLER

Egen \V. Mike

Bookkeeping Machine Operator Maenner B. Huff

Supervisorv Systems Accountant

B. D. Licorish Accounts Maintenance Clerk MARINE BUREAU

Paul A. Kunkel

Leader Blacksm th (Heavv Tires) Francis E. Westley

Boilermaker Maintenance

Alphonso Gooding

Toolroom Mechanic (Maintenance) Alvah W. Simpson

Pipefitter (Maintenance)

Simon P. Blackburn Machine Operator

Rupert Gill Boilermaker (Maintenance)

Carlos Lopez

Carpenter James E. Pomare Seaman (Launch)

Oreste Madrigal Motor Laimch Operator

Reginald P. Ramsey

Leader Seaman

Morris Campbell

Painter (Maintenance)

C. V. McPherson

Leader Linehandler (DeckhandBoatswain) Clarence G. Webley

Linehandler (Deckhand)

Luther V. Gordon

Motor Launch Operator

Lester Hayles

Lead Foreman (Operations Lock Wall) M. P. Thompson

Helper Lock Operator

Truman H. Hoenke

Supervisorv General Engineer

Glenn C. Dough

Shipwright

Bonifacio Mece

Linehandler

Vivian E. Bonus

Helper Lock Operator

\'fncent S. Belgrave Motor Launch Operator

Manuel E. Benitez Sailmaker

Elton A. Jones Carpenter

TRANSPORTATION AND TERMINALS

BUREAU

Harold A. Goodrich

Brakeman

John F. Frensley, Jr. Yard Locomotive Enginei Robert H. Rathgeber

Lead Foreman (Fuel Operation Wilfred C. Werner

ChaufTeur

Vivian S. Deane

Fabric Worker

Maurice A. Long

School Bus Driver Theodore Young

Linehandler Nonnan E. J. Demers

Transportation Operations Officer George A. Black, Jr. Administrative Officer (Water

Transportation) Vincent E. Lowe

Stevedore Adolph Manuel

Stevedore

Sylvester L. Morgan

Leader Maintenanceman (Dock) John Inniss Maintenanceman (Dock)

C. A. Leslie Brakeman

SUPPLY AND COMMUNITY SERVICE

BUREAU

Sylvester E. Smart

Clerk

Carlos Valiente Leader Garbage Collector Reggie A. John

Sales Store Clerk Simeon Pinnock Laborer (Heav\)

Clarence N. Brin Y. Supervisory Distribution Facilities Assistant Percival V. Johnson Guard

Charles H. Blades

Service Station Operator John K. Mall Gardener

Lovell L. Ledgister Counterman ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION

BUREAU

John E. Jennison General Foreman Pipefitter Manuel Moreno

Painter David J. Morgan

Helper Cable Splicer Herbert A. Waith

Maintenanceman (Dock)

Enrique Borbua

Helper Welder

Juan B. Quintana R. Wliarfbuilder Edward R. Hayle

Seaman

Elias Valdiviezo HeiiiMii^neral^

rd

lachinist Maintenance

pefitter

AugDHili^^^Iorgan

Leader Sandblaster

Clifton A. Nurse

Helper Electrician Adolfo M. Ruiz

Oiler (Floating Plant) Richard R. Potter Supervisory Electrical Engineer

(General) Victor E. Bailey

Guard

Richard J. Mahoney

Supervisorv Construction Representative

(Building and Utilities) Roger M. Howe

Supervisory General Engineer

Peter A. Warner

Chief Foreman (Public Works)

Vicente Resales Surveving Aid William E. Dyar

Leader Seamen

Morty K. Blanchard Leader Seamen

Gregorio Martinez

Oiler (Floating Plant) Elias Sanchez Leader Laborer (Cleaner) (See p. 31}

The Panama Canal Review 25
\nctf nccf Tnc Skip* iTI cvin

s

The "silent canal" requires

16,000 dedicated men

and women to keep

the thousands of ships

a year moving smoothly

through the Isthmian

waterway. Like many

organizations, it's mostly

a behind-the-scenes

operation. The persons

who don't steer the ships,

handle the lines, or

operate the lockssuch as the lighthouse

keepers 300 miles

away at Quita Sueno

Bank in the Atlantic,

and the icoman who

is the official

rainfall observer at

the historic town

of Portobelo—contribute

as much as any

of the others.

.a » m''*

SEABIRDS, CANAL MEN—Maintenance is carried out on the lighthouse at Fraile del Sur Island in the Pacific about 6 miles off the Azuero Peninsula. It is typical of lighthouses

marking the Canal route. Men of Aids to Navigation Branch service it periodically.

26 August 15, 1969
"THE PANAMA CANAL is the silent canal," Viscount Craigavon, former liai- son officer for the P&O Lines, once

told friends in one of the swank bars aboard the liner Oriana as it transited the waterway.

The shipping officer thus summed

up his admiration for the operation of the Canal—efficient, fluid, smooth. None

of the noise and the bustle found in other waterwa\s.

Bv calling the Panama Canal "the

silent canal," Viscount Craigavon paid

tribute to the Canal personnel—"the men and women who move the ships"

in the words of Canal Zone Governor

W. P. Leber,

The casual observer of a ship in transit through the Panama Canal seldom real- izes the number of persons and the

diversitx' of skills required to operate

the waterwav.

Duties

The Canal emploxs 16,000 peoplenearh' 12,000 Panamanians and about

4,000 U.S. citizens who perform an al- most inconceivable varietv of duties. The Personnel Bureau lists 1,800 posi- tion titles— from gardeners to surgeons. Panama Canal emplo\ees are covered

bv hospital insurance and retirement s\s- tems. In addition to the medical instal- lations in the Republic of Panama, there

are two general and two specialized

hospitals in the Canal Zone. When the Canal operations began,

practically all the personnel had to come

from outside. But even from the beginning, the administration placed emphasis on the training of local labor. Combined

with the educational advances in the Republic of Panama, this has made

possible impressive achievements in the past decade. Non-U. S. -citizen employees, most of them Panamanians, have

increased 34 percent from 8,946 in 1959

to 11,964 toda\'. Their hourlv average

salarv in 1959 was 80 cents; todav it

is .$1.86. Their total pa\roll 10 vears ago was $17.5 million; toda\ it amounts

to nearly $47.4 million a year. The Panama Canal is conducting a number of programs to assure that its personnel requirements will be met in the \ears ahead. These programs are constanth' being enlarged.

Apprentices

Of particular pride to the Canal

administration is its training program for voung men just entering the labor market. Almost from the earliest da\s, the Canal organization has provided train- ing for apprentices in various tradeselectricians, lathemen, radio mechanics,

automobile mechanics, welders, structural iron workers, and shipfitters. After

4 \ ears of training, apprentices are certified as journeymen and qualified to work in the Canal shops. At present,

225 high-school graduates are enrolled

in the apprentice program.

In the past few years, four other programs have been added: one to train journeymen helpers; another to train

office workers; a third for students of the Universities of Panama and Santa Maria La Antigua, under which participants gain practical experience with the Canal in their field of stud\'; and a stu- dent-aide program which emplox s both

imiversitN' and high-school students during the vacation months. More than 400

young people are benefiting from the

latter program. There are unusual job opportunities

\yith the Canal which call for unique

skills. High on the list are the pilots

who put the ships through the water- wav. Long navigational experience is one of the requirements for pilots-intraining; hence, local recruitment for

this position has not been possible.

Another Panama Canal position re- quiring unusual skill is that of admeasurer, whose job is to determine the

capacity of transiting ships for fixing the transit tolls. Then there are the tugboat masters, ever ready to assist the big ships in the waterway. Among

the latter are several Panamanians, in- (luding Capt. Jorge A. Panav whose

service record goes back 2.3 years. He

was trained by the Canal organization

and advanced through various positions

to his present job.

Key Men

Towing locomotive operators on the

locks also are among ke\' personnel in the Canal. Man\' ships fit into the locks with but inches to spare; it is the towing

locomotive operators, e-xecuting the or- ders from the pilot on the bridge, who

keep the vessels from hitting the thick

walls. There are quite a few Panamanians among them. One is Santiago Nemesio Kellv, a one-time press photographer, who has found a future in the great famih' of Canal employees.

Boatmen and linehandlers also per- form unusual duties in the Panama

Canal. They handle the thick towing

cables between the vessels and the loco- motives. Their skill has been honed b\- long \ears of work. Most of these men

are Panamanians, many of whom retire onl\ because the\' have reached the maximum retirement age of 70. The Marine Bureau, through its Traffic Control office, directs the move- ment of ships through the waterway and

the operation of the locks. It also runs

the NIount Hope industrial complex on

the Atlantic side, including shops, ship-

\ards, and a large dr\dock. Among the (See p. 28)

PROBLEM SOL\'ERS-Threc members of the Engineering Division discuss a problem over

a drafting table. From left are: Joaquin Ponce, Manuel Lopez Espla, and Ricardo Castillo.

The Panama C^anal Revie\\'
A 700-Mile Route

From Ocean to Ocean

(Continued from p. 27)

many Panamanians who work in Mount Hope is Carlos A. Alvarado, a naval engineer and mechanic who graduated from the University of Buenos

Aires, Argentina, with a major in naval architecture. One of the Panama Canal's most

important units is the Engineering and

Construction Bureau. Many of its emplo\ees are Panamanians, some in high

positions. Rubelio Quintero heads the

electrical engineering staff and Julio E. Cordovez, an architect who, although

number three man in the Architectural Branch, has served as acting chief. One of this bureau's divisions is closeh' linked with the day-to-day operation of the Canal. The Dredging Division is responsible for keeping the waterway and its harbors and bays free

of obstacles and at the required depth. But it does more than just dredge. Its Aids to Navigation Branch, for example,

sees to it that the beacon lights and

buoys marking the Canal route are in operation at all times. International shipping circles refer to the Panama

Canal as one of the best lighted

waterways in the world. The Panama Canal is generally

described as being 50 miles long, from

deep water in the Pacific to deep water

in the Atlantic. But the Canal route

proper, extending from the Caribbean

approaches to the Pacific gateway.

actually covers some 700 miles. It starts at Quita Sueiio Bank, 300 nautical miles north of Cristobal, and ends in the Pacific on Jicarita Island, 225 miles southwest of Balboa Harbor, on one

side, and at San Jose Island Light, in the

Pearl Islands 60 miles south of Balboa, on the other. Hazardous

The work of the men in the Aids to Navigation Branch assigned to the first three beacon lights on the Caribbean

section of the route is hazardous. The

lights are located on Quita Sueiio,

Serrana, and Roncador banks. Quita

Sueiio (Take Awa\' Sleep) derives its name from the fact that in the davs of

sailing vessels, no master dared go to

Koc.KV siiom;- a 225-pouiul gas lank after g on an island along the Canal route where an automatic light signal operates. The men of the Aids to Navigation Branch must be experienced seamen.

28 August 15, 1969
^n :;i^ \ ><^ n^^^kL-.-^.-^^^^^ _- ^ ,^\-Cfs>L«,

GROWTH CONTROL—The fight against aquatic vegetation never ends in the tropical waters of the Panama Canal. These three men

of the Dredging Division are using chemical herbicides to battle the abundant plant life.

sleep until his ship was past the treacher- ous banks. Its shoals, just below the

surface, lie in the spawning grounds

of Caribbean hurricanes. The Aids to Navigation Branch, headed b)' Arnold

S. Hudgins, maintains the automatic

beacon lights on each of the banks,

servicing them several times a year. Time and again, his men have had to have to for as long as a week before coming close to the treacherous reefs. Ship Graveyard

On the Pacific route to the Panama

Canal is Cape Mala, 90 miles southwest

of Balboa. The Cape, a ship graveyard

for many years because of its strong

cross-currents and reefs, lies squarelv on the Canal route. A large lighthouse was built there in 1914. It is tended by

five employees residing in the nearby

town of Pedasi, in the heart of central Panama's farm and cattle country.

Many Panamanians hold important

positions in the Dredging Division. Engineer Hernan Barsallo is one of them. His duties include projecting

speci ca ions or new capi a equip- guOY CHIEF-Amold S. Hudgins, chief of the Aids to Navigation Branch, checks an ment and modifications for existing -^.^^^^ li,t ^.^^^ ^„ „^„hall ;f these big buoys before they are returned to their (See p. 31) positions in the waterway.

The Panama Canal Review 29
CANAL COMMERCIAL TRAFFIC BY NATIONALITY OF VESSELS
Anniversaries

(Continued from p. 25)

Dagoberto Illueca Helper Electrician Cyrus Small Laborer (Cleaner) Norbert H. Marquis

Carpenter

Alfred Hylton

Painter Ralph V. Morris

Painter Gladstone A. Cooper

Carpenter

Stanley R. Price Leader Carpenter

Wilmoth A. Green

Pipelayer Luther S. Buchanan

Sur\'eying Aid

James D. Maloney

Teaoie^tlernentary, Oscar A. Murrell

Recreation Aid

William J. Cronan

Police Private Henry C. Deraps

Police Lieutenant

Jesse Y. Bunker

Police Private Richard P. Patton

Police Private Emily E. Butcher

Supervisor (Music—Latin American

Schools)HEALTH BUREAU

Coral A. Strickler Supervisory Clinical Nurse

John R. Thomson

Hospital Administrative Officer

rersonnel

(Continued from p. 29)

equipment. Another is Ricardo A. Pasco, an agronomist with degrees from the

Universities of Arkansas and Wisconsin.

Among those working outside the Canal Zone proper is Mrs. Valentina O.

Perez, a rainfall recorder in Portobelo,

the historic town 10 miles northeast of the Atlantic entrance to the Canal. The average annual rainfall there is 159 inches; the all-time high, 237

inches. Portobelo holds the world's rec- ord for 5-minute rainfall: 2.47 inches on November 29, 1911.

PRINCIPAL COMMODITIES SHIPPED THROUGH THE CANAL

(All cargo figures in long tons) Pacific to Atlantic

Commodity

Fiscal Year 1969

Ores, various Boards and planks

Iron and steel plates, sheets and coils Sugar

Fishmeal

Food in refrigeration

(excluding bananas)

Metals, various Pulpwood

Bananas

Petroleum and products

Iron and steel manufactures,

miscellaneous Plywood and veneers Potash Wheat

Canned food products

All others

1969

Total4,349,108

3,630,798

2,930,096

2,567,471

1,975,409

1,400,249

1,265,586

1,241,042

1,160,903

1,088,430

1,056,857

940,225

709,973

707,464

607,750

11,008,964

1968

36,640,325

4,708,073

2,350,325

1,551,974

2,734,739

1,700,472

1,397,245

1,282,043

973,435

1,329,729

1,374,920

1,762,967

658,820

643,940

692,440

709,824

11,319,100

5-Yr. Avg.

1961-65

35,190,046

1,009,694 N.A.

N.A.

2,296,584 N.A.

898,880

1,187,362

517,629

1,161,381

1,805,862

N.A.

N.A.

24,519

1,186,662

957,472

19,648,535

30,694,580

Atlantic to Pacific

Commodity

Coal and coke Petroleum and products

Phosphates

Com

Metal, scrap Soybeans

Ores, various Sorghum

Metal, iron Sugar

Wheat

Chemicals, unclassified Paper and paper products

Fertilizers, unclassified Autos, trucks and accessories.

All others

Total 64.750,807

Fiscal Year 1969

1969

16,260,931

15,796,516

4,661,919

3,057,082

2,640,903

2,500,502

1,845,458

1,345,244

1,228,363

1,073,774

968,434

816,738

813,810

626,176

594,647

10,520,310

1968

13,142,764

15,884,387

4,228,043

2,831,285

2,800,352

2,494,783

1,825,243

1,159,174

2,084,123

988,603

916,662

747,568

720,020

556,097

543,216

10,437,799

61,360,119

5-Yr. Avg. 1961-65

6,061,195

11,384,781

2,137,487

1,501,869

2,663,773

1,449,114

309,593 N.A.

198,647

1,011,013

565,795

657,500

428,942

388,007

333,328

8,327,284

37,418,328

CANAL TRANSITS - COMMERCIAL AND U.S. GOVERNMENT
?!k"

ft:V^-;'

.o\i^"

\ro9^

"^t^^re

trees

\^^

ntnting

::»^-.0 •-•"--; '•- .

PANAMA IS SMALL, old, and most

of the year, green, lush, sundrenched,

rain-washed and beautiful. As a residential area or as a crossroads for those who have come and gone since the Spanish conquest more than four centuries ago, it has meant manv things

to many people. To persons who todav

live and work on this narrow neck

of land that joins two massive conti- nents and sejoarates two mightv oceans, Panama is home—a happ\- home.

In its essential aspects, Panama has much in common with other Latin American nations, sharing a common cultural heritage, traditions and language.

The pattern of home and community

living for a U.S. citizen on the Isthmus

is similar to that of an average town

or city in the United States. Each res- ident car\'es out his own interests at his own pace. He works and plavs at more or less the same vocations and

hobbies as in the U.S., with the advantage of more leisure to pursue hobbies

and sports. Usually, there are enough

daylight hours after work to enjoy nine

holes of golf, play two sets of tennis, go

horseback riding, or do a little fishing.

The climate is tropical and the

relatively high but even temperature

permits year-round enjo\'ment of out- door activities and water sports. The

two oceans hugging the Isthmus offer

s\\ imming, boating, skin diving, surfing, water skiing and have produced record

shattering gamefish. A total of 528

pleasure boats registered in the Canal

Zone reflects the large number of lei- sure-time sailors in the community.

White sand beaches stretching for miles

invite sun worshipers, particularly such

Pacific side beaches as Rio Mar and

Santa Clara which compare with the

finest in the hemisphere.

Sport Center Panama is one of the leading sport centers in Latin America and offers such

spectator sports as horse racing everv weekend and on holida\s. From Dec- ember to Febriiar\' fans jam the National Stadium to watch the Panama

Professional Baseball League in action. Bullfighting ma\- be seen from Januar\

to April at the Plaza de la Macarena

in snh'irban Panama Cit\'. The Panama

Opc!i brings some of the u'orld's top professional golfers and attracts thousands

32 August 15, 1969
NATIVE DANCERS—Cuna Indians from the San Bias Islands perform a native dance for a Canal Zone audience. The women are wearing molas and wrap-around skirts.

YOUNG ANGLER-Fishing from the rocks on the Fort Amador causeway, this young

angler may bring in a delicious corbina, red snapper or a kingfish mackerel.

CAYUCO RACE—Explorer Scouts paddle their cayucos through the Canal nearing the end of an annual ocean-to-ocean race sponsored by the Canal Zone Boy Scouts,

to the Panama Golf Club. Basketball games are popular, and less known by

U.S. citizens is cockfighting, a spectator

sport that features wagering.

Hunting

For the hunter, the primitive jungles

offer a chance to stalk jaguar, ocelot,

puma, deer, wildcat, and wild pig. Bird

hunting enthusiasts may search out wild

turke\', duck, quail, and wild dove. The

entire countr\' is a bird watcher's paradise, but the big exotic creatures are found in the deep forest. Church, civic, fraternal and social

activities form an important part of the

daily life. For the men there are Masonic organizations. Elks, Knights of Columbus, veterans' organizations, Lions

and Rotar\', Canal Zone Pacific Power

Squadron, and baseball leagues. There

are judo clubs, bowling and Softball leagues, gun clubs, camera clubs, theater guilds and manv other social and

sport groups to occupy all interested members of the communitv during the evening hours and on weekends.

The Balboa Women's Club and the

Cristobal \Vomen's Club, tlie Inter- (Sce p. 34)

The Panama Canal Review 33
;«•.

J:>. •

T^i''•^?^^'^?•'iY-'"''?^>-'-^^^^

(Continued pom p. 33)

American Women's Club, Order of the Eastern Star, veterans' organization auxiliaries, Pen Women, church groups, and other social and cultural organizations offer a wide range of doings for the ladies. Many Activities

Appealing to the hobbyists are several organizations to satisfy the spare time

pursuits of most enthusiasts. The Canal

Zone Gem and Mineral Society, Isth- mian Numismatic Club, Panama Shell Club and bottle collectors hold periodic

exhibits which attract community interest. There are also opportunities to studv art, music, histor)', archeology,

and other subjects. Persons interested

in pre-Columbian and colonial history

of Panama and artifacts may join the Archeological Societv of Panama or the Friends of the National Museum of Panama. A Canal Zone svmphonette

and chamber music group offer the musically inclined a chance to fulfill their interests. Good roads permit residents to travel

to most parts of Panama and on weekends and holidays many persons head

for the Interior, famous for its rich, green mountains, crystal clear waterfalls and inviting beaches. A number of U.S.

citizens own summer homes in a pictur- esque valley called El Valle de Anton,

home of "golden" frogs and square trees, which provides a cool respite from the heat of the city.

Contrasts On a long weekend, one may venture

further north to Panama's province of

contrasts, Chiriqui, where a short drive through varied landscapes takes us from

the tropical climate of David, the principal city, to the lovely and cool mountain

village of Boquete or to the breathtaking

hamlets of Cerro Punta and Volcan. Here there are excellent fruits and vegetables, trout fishing, beautiful flowers and magnificent mountain scenery.

TABOGA—Tamarind trees provide cooling shade for strollers on beautiful Taboga Island, one of the favorite resorts near the Canal Zone for swimming and boating.

About 1 hour b\' car in the opposite

direction from Panama City is Cerro

Azul. Here a man-made lake at 2,500

feet above sea level offers boating,

swimming, fishing, and other recreation. A sweeping view of the rolling green mountains and of the lake is well worth

the 25-mile drive. For a very special weekend there is Taboga, the "Isle of Flowers," a tropical resort about 12 nautical miles from

the citv. Here there are no honking

autos nor exhaust fumes to pollute the clean sea breezes that mingle freely with

the bouquet of sweet jasmine, oleander,

and a myriad of wild flowers. A modem

hotel, white sand beaches, and pictur- esque houses skirting the shore make

Taboga one of the favorite resorts.

Islands Bocas del Toro and the San Bias

Islands beckon from the Atlantic side of the Isthmus. At Bocas, the climate

and beaches are unsurpassed and the

fishing is superb.

On the San Bias Islands, accessible by air or boat, life goes on much as it did when Columbus discovered America. The Cuna Indians live in settlements

scattered through 365 islands and maintain their tribal customs and ceremonies.

This is where the mola, a decorated

cotton panel, embroidered, and perfor- ated to show underlying colors, is worn

by San Bias women. Two molas make

a blouse with the addition of shoulder

pieces and short sleeves. Many Canal

Zone residents own at least one mola, not

for wearing, but framed and displayed on a wall. Rare is the American in Panama who

does not partake of the merriment of Carnival which starts 4 davs before Lent and closes at dawn on Ash Wednesda\'.

Manv persons also attend and participate in the many rural fairs held on the Isthmus during the dry season—usually

from mid-December to mid-April.

Night life in Panama is as gay as one

wishes to make it. He mav dine under

the stars in one of the many tropical restaurants, luxur\' hotels in the citv or

at an attractive motel-type inn located

near the airport. Excellent food, both

continental and native dishes are served. Panamanian dishes and seafood to match

those of any countr\' are served at openair restaurants on the shores of Panama

Ba\'. Home barbecues are popular on

the Isthmus and beach parties are held

frequently during dry season.

Gardens

For picnics, in the Canal Zone there

is Summit Gardens, which has been

called one of the most remarkable tropical gardens in the world. Here the

visitor can enjoN' nature in its fullest tropical splendor walking through the 300 acres of native and imported tro- pical plants. The zoo at the gardens

also is an attraction for both children and adults. The pattern of children's lives differs

little from that of those in an average

tov\ai in the United States. They attend

schools in the Canal Zone, from kinder- garten through junior college, which

compare favorably with the finest in the United States. Plenty of recreational and character building activities are provided b\' Boy Scout and Girl Scout

troops on both sides of the Isthmus. A summer recreational program sponsored hv the Schools Division keeps

them busy during the summer months. So does Scout camp. Several riding clubs

give young horse enthusiasts an opportunity to display their equestrian skills. A large number of swimming pools ac- commodate children of all ages. Teen

clubs serve as a gathering place for \oungsters after school and after athletic events and provide a setting for evening dances. Courses in SCUBA

diving, judo, swimming, weight-lifting

and ballet are available at the YMCA.

Children's activities include bowling,

roller skating, baseball, football, tennis, amateur theater productions, Iriver's training, soap-box derbies, volunteer work, Bovs' State and Girls' State and

working as student assistants for the Panama Canal organization. One of the most exciting events is the ocean-to- ocean ca\uco (native canoe) race by the Explorer Scouts each April.

34 August 15, 1969
HISTORIC MOMENTS

Officially opening the Panama Canal on August 15, 1914, the old SS "Ancon" nears the midway point in her historic 50-mile journey.

The ship had been used as a cement carrier during construction days, and after the Canal opened was converted as a transport for Panama Canal employees. It took the "Ancon" 9 lours and 40 minutes to make the transit from Cristobal to the Pacific Ocean.

^P*

Mini

The North German Lloyd cruise ship SS "Bremen," the largest passenger ship ever to transit the Canal, goes south through Gatun Locks

February 15, 1939. At the time, the "Bremen" was the fifth largest ship in the world with an overall length of 939 feet and a beam of 102 feet. She was a tight fit, and there was some concern that the bridge, which extended more than 7 feet beyond the ships side, would clear control house platforms. During World War II, the "Bremen" was damaged in a bombing raid while she was moored at her home port in Bremen, Germany. She was later scrapped. At the left, northbound locks are dry during a periodic overhaul.

The Panama Canal Review 35
a- FUNNEL FOR WORLD COMMERCE

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