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^^ PANAMA

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CANAL g

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David S. Parker Governor-President

Charles R. Clark Lieutenant Governor

Frank A. Baldwin Panama Canal Information Officer

PANAMA CANAL

ktvif\/ Official Panama Canal Publication

Morgan E. Goodwin, Press Officer

Publications Editors Willie K. Friar, Tomas A. Cupas

Writers Eunice Ricfiard, Fannie P. Hernandei,

Jose T. Tunon and Luis C. Noli

Editor

Review articles may be reprinted without Further clearance. Credit to the Review will be appreciated.

Subscriptions: SI a year, airmail SS a year,- back copies (regular mail), 50 cents each. Published twice a year. Make postal money orders payable to the Panama Canal Company, Box M, Balboa Heights, C.Z.

3I Offices are located in the Administration Building, Balboa Heights, C.Z. Printed at the Printing Plant, La Boca, C.Z.

Contents

Portobelo 3

Patiama plans restoration of

the fortress made famous by

Drake and Morgan.

Unlikely Pets 7

Quaint quail and capricious co- atimundi among. Canal Zone's

pet oddities.

Letters From the Sea 11 Bottles bobbin" on the ivaves

provide valuable scientific in- formation.

Early Warning System for Slides 14

Slide icatchers are ever alert

for dangers to Canal traffic.

The French Canal

Remnants of an abandoned

dream still remain.

Gold Rush Days on the Isthmus

Spurred by the passion for

gold, thousands of Forty-niners

took the shortcut through the

Panama jungles.

Ship Launching

It began as a pagan ceremony

but even today most seafaring

men won't set foot on an

unchristened craft.

Culinary Capers

A visit to the Darien and a sample of Choco cuisine.

Shipping Statistics

History

16 !!

19

23

24 ^

28

31

Our Cover

ALTHOUGH THEIR WOODEN

carriages have rotted away and

their voices long been silenced, the Una

of Spanish cannons still points toward

the entrance to the now peaceful harbor

of Portobelo. The picturesque little watchtower is

all that is left of the once formidable

ramparts of Fort San Fernando which

defended the town of Portobelo and the

treasures from Peru that accumulated in the Customs House.

Across the sparkling blue waters of Portobelo Bay can be seen the remains

of the town, the forts of Santiago and

San Geronimo, and the Spanish church

of San Felipe where pilgrims can visit the sacred efRgv of the Black Christ of Portobelo, which is carried through

the town in a procession that draws

hundreds of people each October 21. Although the jungle has taken over much of the town and its forts, and the famous Customs House is a ruin without

a roof, progress wiU soon reach out to the town of Portobelo. The Panama

Tourist Bureau, assisted with funds from

the Organization of American States,

will reconstruct the town and rebuild many of the houses on the foundations

of the old ruins. The Customs House will get a new roof and the forts on either side of the bay will be restored. Perhaps then, when the tropical moon

rises over the beautiful bay, the ghosts

of Sir Frances Drake and the Welsh

pirate Henry Morgan will walk again

the battlements of the fortresses they

robbed, raped, and tried to destroy.

Photograph by Arthur L. Pollack, Pan- ama Canal Information Office photographer.

Fall 1971
Portobela

^ AwakehM

ONCE THE MARKET PLACE OF

the Americas and the Caribbeaii

port through which the inestimable

treasure of the Incas found its outlet, Portobelo is about to awaken after a long

sleep of more than two centuries. The site of many a bloody buccaneer

raid and the final resting place of Sir Francis Drake is to be restored and rebuilt at a cost of $6.5 millon through the

efforts of a group of historical monument

experts from the Organization of American States working with the Panama

Government Tourist Bureau and AID.

Plans for the restoration of the historic old town and its system of fortifications will include the establishment of

a 22,500-acre national park, according

to Dr. Alfredo Castillero C, director of Historical Tourism in the Panama Tourist Bureau and director of the History

Department of Panama University.

Within the park area, the old town will be restored. This will include reconstruction of the old forts, churches, and public

buildings and the reinforcement of the foundations of the old ruins. The work

should be completed in about 4 years. Land access to Portobelo was opened

not long ago with the completion of a modern asphalt highway connecting the town with the Transisthmian Highway.

For the first time in history, Isthmian

residents were able to travel to the old

fortress town by car instead of going by

sea. Engineers from the OAS already

have started their surs'eys and have set aside sites along the beach to the east

of Portobelo for construction of modern

tourist hotels. Til" historv of the little town, with the magniRctnt harbor discovered by Co- lumbus in 1.502, has been turbulent. Founded by the Spanish more than 300

vears ago as a replacement for Nombre

de Dios, which was difficult to defend,

it became one of the strong fortresses along the Atlantic coast and the third strongest in Spanish America. It was named originally San Felipe de Porto- belo and old records say that by 1618

-»"f«»'i:ft

there were 130 houses in the main town,

not counting the suburbs, "the governor's house, the king's houses, a monasterv, a convent, a plaza, and a quay."

The main city will rise again, according to the restoration plans. It was well

built originally of stone and brick and

most of the ruins of the official buildings

still remain along with the official Cus- toms House which is nearly intact. The

early town had suburbs, one of which was set aside for freed slaves. The build- ings were chiefly of cane with palm

An artist's conception of the plan for the restoration of the town of Portobelo is shown by

Janine Lizuain, secretary in the Historical Department of the Panama Tourist Bureau.

The Panama Canal Review
Maria Elena Hart, secretary in the Historical Department of the Panama Tourist Bureau,

holds a picture showing how the Royal Customs House in Portobelo will look when it is' restored under the plan for restoration of historical sites.

The Customs House as it appears today, rooHess but with its walls still standing sturdily.

It was built in 1630 and served until the end of the Spanish colonial period in 1821. It was often crammed with chests of gold end silver.

thatch, all of which disappeared long

ago, without a trace, into the jungle.

Jungle Outposts

It was but an outpost in the jungle

after all. No man alone dared travel the

royal road from the city's gate after

nightfall. In the streets, snakes, toads,

and iguana were frequently seen. The

native wildcat prowled in the suburbs

and, besides carrying off fowls and pigs,

sometimes attacked human beings. But Portobelo was a market town as well as a fortress. It came to life at least once a year during the trading fairs which lasted from 40 to 60 days. The

flood of gold that poured through the

trails across the Isthmus, after Pizarro began his plunder of Peru, was traded

for goods from Spain and Eiu-ope. The

fair beg;ui when the fleet of merchant

ships and galleons arrived in port from

Cartagena and Spain loaded with goods

to be traded for gold and silver. The

goods were shipped to South America

and even to the Philippines.

Bustle and Excitement

The town took on an air of bustle and

excitement at the time of the fail". The

houses were crowded with people, the square and the streets crammed with

goods, the Customs House with chests of gold and silver, and the port filled with

vessels. Portobelo became the emporium

of the riches of the two worlds and the most important commercial depot of

that period. In the square facing the Customs

House, merchants erected cane booths

and tents made of sails from the ships

while all available space was filled with

goods. With the fleet of merchant and

warships came nearly 6,000 soldiers, merchants with their clerks and porters, buyers of all nationalities and, of course, the sightseers. So crowded was the Uttle town that it appeared to be in the possession of a mob.

The Customs House, built in 1630

during the administration of Alvaro de

^uinones, served until the end of the Spanish colonial period in 1 82 1. The

Council of the Indies had ordered the Customs House to be built in the most

convenient sjxjt with one entrance and

one exit only to help prevent fraud. A royal tax collector was on hand to

collect the royal fees. Because of the wealth stored at Porto- belo and its use as a trading center, its fame spread over the Spanish Main.

Although Portobelo was substantially

built and protected by four strong for- tresses and several minor batteries, the

Fall 1971
town was repeatedly taken by the British and other marauders. The first to attack was the Enghsh pirate William Parker

in 1602, and the last was Adm. Edward

Vemon of the British Navy, who captured the town in 1739. He caused the most damage when he blew up and

dismantled the fortress. The most savage of all the scores of

raids was made by Sir Herur Morgan,

who according to Esquemeling, the Dutch historian, attacked for the first time in 1668 and killed or wounded a majority of the inhabitants. At that time

the garrison consisted of 300 soldiers and the town was inhabited by 400

families.

17-Caimon Line

The main forts, which are to be totally restored by the Tourist Bureau are La

Fortaleza de Santiago and San Felipe,

botli dating from 1600; Fort San Geronimo, which is located within the present town; and the famous Fort San Fer- nando, built about 1753, across the

beautiful bay. This fort has a 17-cannon

line that somehow has escaped most of the ravages of time. High above San

Fernando, a second platform of cannons

points toward the sea and atop an even

higher crest stands Casa Fuerte, Portobelo's prime lookout and vantage point,

which gives a superb view of the complex of forts below.

San Felipe, once known as Todo Fierro or the iron fort, was built in 1600

at the entrance to the bay and was partiallv destroyed by raiders. At the time

the Panama Canal was being built, the

site was turned into a quarr\-, and it was said that what the English pirates started to do, the Americans completed.

The fort of Santiago de la Gloria was

built in 1604 within the town Umits

while Santiago was built on the coast road leading to the town. The Fort known as Famese or Famesio is on the south side of the harbor and not too far from the island where history says Drake

is buried. All in all, there are about 12

fortifications to be restored.

The Parish Church

The parish church of San Felipe,

which was still unfinished when it was

dedicated in 1814, is one of the oldest buildings in the town still in use. It replaced a smaller church of the same

name, the ruins of which still remain.

The most interesting thing about San

Felipe chmch is that it houses the image

of the Nazarene of Portobelo, a hand- some effigy of Jesus bearing the cross.

One of the old Spanish cannons of Fort San Fernando, its carriage rotted away years ago,

points out toward the entrance to the bay of Portobelo. Two modem yachts can be seen

at anchor in the distance.

The Panama Canal Review
m

The ruins of the original church of San Felipe in Portobelo. This

church, also known as the Hospital Chapel, will be rebuilt under

the plans for the restoration of the town of Portobelo.

The new church of San Felipe, which houses the famous image of the Black Christ, stands stark against the brilliant blue sky of Portobelo. Services were first held here in 1814.

The Black Christ, one of the most revered images throughout Panama is surrounded by

candles for the annual "Feast of the Black

Christ" celebration.

liewii from wood of southern Spain more

than 300 years ago. Called the "Black

Christ," it has become one of the most

re\ered images throughout Panama and

the focal point of an annual church festival which draws thousands of visitors each October. Legend has it that the image of Christ came to Portobelo aboard a sailing ship

bound for Cartagena, Colombia. Wheiv

the galleon sailed from Portobelo, a

fierce stonn sank it. The boxed image

floated free and was washed up on a nearby beach. There it was found by

the townspeople and taken back to Portobelo.

"Feast of the Black Christ" The annual celebration of the "Feast

of the Black Christ" began in 1821 when

a cholera epidemic ravaged the Isthmus. The Portobelo residents made a vow to celebrate a feast day of the Black Christ each October 21 if the town were spared.

The epidemjc bypassed the town. The present day towii of Portobelo

has only slightly more than 500 citizens and they have developed a personality

of their own. They are descendants of the Spanish and Indians and the Spanish

and African slaves, with a third group

made up of people of distinct African

nncestry. Dr. Dulio Arroyo, retired dean

of the Faculty of Law at the University

of Panama, and a native of Portobelo,

savs members of this group "carr\' in their blood centuries of tradition." Among these traditions are primitive

dances with a definite African flavor, called "congos," which they perform

wearing costumes fashioned from the bark of the palm tree and decorated with

multicolored feathers.

Congo Dances

The Congo dances have become a part

of Panama's folklore and they are pre- sented at most typical Panama dance

exhibitions. Congo dancers can be seen

main!)' at camaval time when "congos"

from neighboring villages come to Portobelo to roam the streets and perform

their lively dances. Although there has been a slight tourist boom since the completion of the highway connecting the town with

Colon and Panama, the carnival celebration and feast of the Black Christ are about the only times when present day

Portobelo comes to life. But it is only a matter of time, the Panama Tourist Bureau says. As soon

as the town is rebuilt and the hotels completed, Portobelo will become a

tourist mecca. Once again, Portobelo, the old market center, the scene of so much adventure and strife, will take its place on the map and help in the economic revival of the Gold Coast of the Isthmus.-E.R.

6 Fall 1971
Unlikely Pets

Photographs by Arthur L. Pollack

Some like them big, some like them small. Some like

them feathered, some like them furry.

But there is no shortage of animal lovers in the Canal

Zone. And although the 1970 census did not include

animals in residence, it is a safe bet that the number and

variety of pets in the Canal Zone is greater than in most

communities of comparable size.

Panama's lush tropical forests are alive with creatures

of many sizes and descriptions, from the deer that come

down from the hills to eat your prize petunias to the little

neques and squirrels often seen scurrying across Canal

Zone lawns.

Although there is the usual compliment of more prosaic

pets—currently there are 4,400 dogs and 1,100 cats

licensed—many householders have opted for the unique or

exotic in their choice of pets.

Some have been successful in domesticating essentially

wild animals and others, alas, have failed. And they have

the scars to prove it. On these pages are a few of the happy pets, feathered

and furry.

The Panama Canal Review 7

SOME ARE SHY like this

kinkajou, which belongs to

Vic Canel, of Ancon.

SOME ARE BOLD like this African

baboon who decided to take the head-on

approach. Sambita was found in the

vicinity of Miraflores Locks and is thought

to have jumped ship. She was bailed out

of quarantine by Sgt. Richard W. Chesson,

of the Canal Zone PoUce, who finds her

an interesting pet
JUNGLE ANIMALS can be frustrating

as well as fascinating

but a number of local

animal lovers

have taken on the task of

domesticating some of them

with a certain amount of success. At left,

Pingo, a soft-furred marmoset, cuddles

contentedly in the arms of its owner,

Roxanna Maria Chesson, whose father

owns the baboon shown on page 7.

Below, Louie, a beautifully coated

margay, waits beside the steps for his

master. Col. J. J. Caulfield, of Quarry

Heights. Below right, Jimmy, a frisky

coatimundi, climbs into the lavatory where

he likes to sit and rub soap on his long tail. He is one of the many pets of S/Sgt.

and Mrs. Stanley Whitaker, of Quarry

Heights, who also own four marmosets

and the Blue Jay shown on

the opposite page.

Fall 1971
TROPICAL BIRDS are popular in the

Canal Zone, as they are everywhere, but

there are many more unusual feathered pets.

The Blue Jay, at right, was brought from

Washington, D.C., by S/Sgt. and

Mrs. Whitaker, who adopted him after

he fell from his nest. Now that he is 5 years

old, he seeks the warmth of the light bulb

inside his favorite lampshade. Joey,

the friendly cockatoo, at right, appears

to be carrying on a lively conversation

with a ceramic peacock, the head of which

he often uses as a perch. He belongs

to Mrs. Marlean Boggs, of Fort Clayton.

Below, Ruthann Kelleher, of Fort Kobbe,

turns on the sprinkler so Ping and B. G.

can have their daily frolic in the water.

Below right, Robert, a quail that was

rescued by Robert L. Boyer, of La Boca,

after he shot but only stimned it while

hunting, nestles in his daughter Meredith's

hair while she talks on the telephone.

It took more than a year

to tame the bird.

The Pan.\m.^ Canal Review
Ell^iiP

BUT THE BEST OF ALL IS THE

SLOTH, according to Mrs. John S. McKean of Balboa who also has a cat,

clog, bird, and monkey. In Spanish, he is

called "Gato Perezoso," lazy cat, a

fitting name, for the sloth moves with

about the same speed as the snail. A mild-mannered affectionate animal,

who likes nothing better than to curl up

in someone's lap and take a nap, the

three-toed sloth makes an excellent pet.

Food is no problem since he dines solely

on Eucalyptus leaves.

Lounging happily in his tub. Speedy gets a bath from the McKean girls, Jeanne,

left, and Christine . . .

and then hangs on the clothesline to dry.

Speedy has the run of the house and sleeps under

ihe organ in the living room, but often goes outside

and hangs from his favorite tree. Above; Very good

friends with the family dog and cat. Speedy watches

while Christine feeds Tippy.

10 Fall 1971
Hci^ J

torn \nc Sca

As THE U.S. BUREAU OF COMmercial Fisheries research vessel Undaunted periodically steams across the Atlantic Ocean from Miami, Florida,

to Africa, her crew goes through a

strange routine. They throw batches of empty beer bottles overboard. These are not ordinary bottles—they

are "drift message" bottles. Each of the 10,000 bottles cast overboard thus far contains sand for ballast and a fluores- cent orange card imprinted with a message in four languages—Spanish, French,

Portuguese, and English. The card asks the finder to fill in details about his dis- covery on an attached, franked postcard

addressed to TABL (Tropical Atlantic

Biological Laboratory) and mail it. TABL in Miami thanks the finder upon

receipt of his card and then also sends him a small chart showing the track his botde might have followed and includes

a cookbook of seafood recipes printed in Spanish and English.

Enchanting Gentlemen

About 600 of the bottles have been

recovered and the messages returned so

far. Many finders also send along personal messages. One arrived from Colombia with a note from a lady who sent greetings from a small fueling port. She

explained she had many North American friends, all of them "enchanting

gentlemen." Another letter, from the American Embassy in Caracas, Venezuela, told of a bottle that had been

found in western Venezuela (200 miles away) by a 13-year-old boy who could

neither read nor write; a family friend had traveled to Caracas to deliver the

drift card. This is the latest chapter being added

to the ancient and noble history of service to mankind performed by drift message bottles. The purpose of this particular program is to study patterns of surface cunents in an effort to discover

and develop marine food resources,

especially tunafish. The hope is to collect information that will help in both

the harvest and conservation of this increasingly important food fish.

By Muriel Lederer

One of the most enduring romances of the sea is the message sealed in a bottle and cast adrift, its destination unknown.

Bottle messengers have been going to sea for over 2,200 years. Some have

contained farewells from shipwrecked

sailors. Others hold sermons or letters to be mailed. Many go on scientific voy- ages—and one even carried a secret message in code. This particular bottle was picked up

over 350 years ago, when Elizabeth I was Queen of England. It was found by

a fisherman on the beach at Dover. When he opened the bottle, he was amazed to see a strange message. Puzzled, he went to the authorities with the

bottle and its peculiar message. They

took a hasty look at it and sped to the Que€n. It was a good thing they did,

too! For the bottle message contained

top-secret information sent by a British spy from a passing ship. The Queen was

alarmed. She realized it would never do

to have just anyone open bottles and

leam state secrets. So she passed a law

forbidding this and appointed an official Uncorker of Ocean Bottles. A British law, which has since been ref>ealed, then

made it a penal offense for anyone but

an authorized person to read bottle messages.

Long Missing Ships

Sailors and explorers, cut off from

communication with the rest of the world, have in their last extremity put

written notes into bottles and thrown

them into the sea. This was done in the hope they would be picked up and so bring help. And botde messages have

solved the mystery of long-missing ships. In 1902 two naval vessels searched

the Adantic for 3 months for some trace

of the missing steamer Huronian. The

search was in vain, but some 5 months

later a securely corked bottle was picked

up on the Nova Scotia coast. It contained a message which read: "Huronian

turned turtle in Atlantic, Sunday night. Fourteen of us in a boat." The note bore no signature. It was at

first thought to be a hoax, but 5 years

later its xaliditv was confirmed when a second message was found in a bottle on a beach in Northern Ireland. The

paper read: "Huronian sinking fast. Top

heavy, one side awash. Goodby mothers

and sisters—Charlie McFell, greaser."

Study Currents Today the most important bottle messengers are those sent to help scientists chart the currents and drifts of the seven

seas. The first of these was recorded

many years before Christ by Theophrastus, a Greek philosopher. He floated

bottles in the Mediterranean Sea to study currents. Centuries later Benjamin Franklin

threw bottles into the Gulf Stream. They

contained his name and address and

asked the finders to tell him where and

when they were found. By gathering this information, Franklin was able to chart the speed and direction of the Gulf

Stream. His chart is little changed today.

About 1860 the British Navy began

issuing printed forms for ships' officers to drop overboard in bottles. The forms

gave the name of the ship, the location,

and the date of dropping. Finders were

asked to fill in the place and date of recovery and return the forms. Some 30 years later the U.S. Navy

adopted the same system and still uses

Crewmembers of a Government survey ship

cast drift bottles into the Gulf Stream off Frying Pan Light Tower on the lower North

Carolina coast.

The Panama Canal Review 11
Letters from the Sea

it. The Hydrographic Office of the U.S. Navv sends out several thousand bottles every year. These are given to captains

of American ships to set afloat in differ- ent parts of the world. Each bottle contains a card on which the captain records

the name of his ship, the date, longitude,

and latitude. It also holds another card

with instructions to the finder. These are printed in seven different languages, in- cluding Esperanto. About 350 forms come back each year. From these re- turns excellent current charts have been

diavvn. Tens of thousands of such bottles are released into the seas of the world each

year, because, despite our more sophisti- cated instruments, drift bottles still play

a vital role in unraveling the mysteries

of the seas. Drift bottles are regularly released today by government agencies

across the world. They may be tossed

into the sea from yachts, merchant ships, or research vessels sent out by private

scientific institutions.

Drifting Mines

Finished sea charts are especially val- uable after a war to locate explosive

mines which have drifted into the main

shipping lanes. In the Pacific following

World War II, there were thousands of

live and deadly mines drifting at random

in the shipping lanes. Many serious

casualties to ships resulted from colli- sions with these diabolical killers. It be- came imperative to know where and

when these mines were likely to be en- countered if ships were to be safely routed across the Pacific. A study of bottle drifts provided the answer. Even

in normal times the paths of floating

hazards to navigation can be forecast, or predicted with a high degree of accuracy, as a result of information gleaned

from bottle drifts. More than 156,000 corked soda-pop

bottles were thrown into the Atlantic Ocean from Newfoundland to Florida from 1948 to 1962 by U.S. and Canadian

research scientists. The data accumulated from the re- turned cards has supplied valuable in- formation on surface currents of the Atlantic Ocean. This comprehensive study

will be used to help solve such problems

as where to dispose of atomic waste materials and offshore pollution waste, as well as to l(;am more about the migration

of fish.

For fishermen, exact knowledge of currents can be almost literally pure gold

because of the increase in fishing hauls. American scientists, for example, use

bottles to tip off fishermen as to where

and when they can find cod and haddock. The eggs of these fish float on the

surface, and bottles are cast among them

as telltale floating markers. If the bottles move far out to sea, then presumably

the eggs do too. Sea charts have enabled navigators to make use of the speed of currents and

drifts so their ships can avoid an opposing current and take advantage of a favorable one, thereby increasing their speed. Industry uses bottles to trace the

disposal of wastes. Dumped into the water with waste material, they show

whether or not certain areas or beaches

are in danger of pollution.

For Her Duenna

The nautical experts who study the returned messages are in a splendid position to get first-hand information on what the people of the world think of America. The common belief is still that the streets of America are paved with

gold and that certainly there must be a handsome reward for finding a bottle paper—despite the notice to the contrary

printed on the form. A Canary Islands damsel requested

reimbursement for bavel expenses to the

seat of an American consul (where she

carried the bottle paper) not only for herself but for her duenna as well—the young lady could not travel alone. One

Irish colleen even asked for a husband

and specified he be fat "because fat men

are more jolly, generous, and romantic."

Though bottle papers do not usually

offer much of a rewai-d to the finder, a native farm boy in the Azores Islands found a bottle on the beach that did. Inside, he discovered a note promising

to pay the finder $1,000 if the note was

duly presented to a New York address.

It was not a hoax. In fact, the reward was actually paid. More folding money

than the boy could have earned in 10

years! As a publicity stunt the bottle was

cast into the sea near the entrance to New York Harbor by the sponsor of a radio program. It worked. The bottle drifted about 2,500 miles in the North

Atlantic, finally resting on the Azores

Island beach. Why are bottles particularly used?

Fragile as it may seem, a well-corked

bottle is one of the world's most sea- worthy objects. Botdes are strong and

durable. When well sealed, they make

perfect containers. During storms they

ride safely on giant waves, often 100 feet high. They resist breakage when they

are hurled to the shore by pounding surf or dragged back into the sea across stones and sand.

Bottle messengers do not hurry. Twisting and turning, they meander on their way, sailing about 10 miles a day. However, bottles carried by strong currents and blown by gales have been known to travel some 80 miles in 24 hours. Some bottles travel only a few miles,

returning to shore on the rising tide. Others travel thousands of miles. One

bottle messenger has been sailing the oceans for 25 years. Nicknamed the "Flying Dutchman," it was first dropped

into the North Sea by a trawler. This

venerable traveler has been picked up

and thrown back more times than you

can count. It has been around the world

several times, and most likely right at

this very moment it is bobbing merrily over the waves.

In 1784 a Japanese fisherman and some companions sent a message out in a bottle while on their way to seek buried

treasure. The bottle was cast up in 1935

at the very sea coast town from which

they had departed. A 151-year trip! Whiskey botdes, beer bottles, catsup

bottles—all kinds of bottles are drifting on the oceans. Imagination pictures

them pushed relentlessly along by winds

and currents, buffeted by winds and waves but usuaUy coming to rest on some shore to be discovered by a beachcomber with an inquiring mind. It is recorded one bottle drifted from a point southeast of Cape Horn to the west coast

of North Island, New Zealand, a distance

of 10,250 miles. Contrary Behavior

Drifts of 4,000 to 6,000 miles and more are not uncommon. Not so long

ago, a bottle set adrift about 800 miles

east of Newfoundland was discovered

31 months later on the coast of Yucatan

after drifting over 6,000 miles. It was

first carried along in the eastward-moving cuiTcnt and wind, then southward

and westward until it finally washed

ashore on the remote beach in the

tropics.

The speed of a drifting bottle varies, of course, according to wind and current. A bottle adrift in a quiet comer may not move a mile in a month.

Another, caught up by the Gulf Stream

at its raciest, may bowl along at a brisk 5 knots and do 100 miles a day.

However, nobody can predict with

certainty in what direction a bottle will go. Consider the contrary behavior of

identical bottles dropped at the same

12 Fall 1971
time just ofF the Brazilian coast. The first floated east 130 days and was found on

an African beach. The second went

northwest 196 days, ending up in Nicaragua. Yet two other bottles thrown

overboard in the mid-Atlantic landed on

the same bit of French coast—mere yards

apart after 350 days at sea. There must be literally thousands of

bottles bearing messages drifting on the oceans of the world at this veiy moment.

Who can tell what outstanding news

they may be carrying? During and after World War I many bottle messages set adrift by shipwrecked seamen were

delivered by the sea to all parts of the world. It is reasonable to think many

more such messages were entrusted to the sea in wars since then, not only by

seamen, but also bv airmen shot down.

Probablv as time goes on, some of these

"letters" will be dul\' delixered by the

seas; perhaps bringing news of the fate of sons, husbands, and fathers who went

to war and did not return. Or perhaps, there are bottles drifting

about like the one tossed overboard one

June a few years ago b)' Dr. T. R. Van

Dellen and L. E. Richard of Chicago,

who were on a ship ofi^ the northern

coast of Maine. Thev stopped a steward

as he was about to throw an empty

whiskey bottle over the side and decided

to test the odds of nature.

In pencil they wrote a note giving

their names and addresses and instruct- ing the finder to send the bottle, and

they would refill it. After putting the note into the bottle they tossed it into the stormy North Atlantic. More than 2 months later they received

a letter from a man in Newfoundland.

He said he had found the broken bottle on a beach over 1,000 miles from where

it had been tossed overboard.

"I hope you can refill another bottle

in place the broken bottle," he wrote,

"Wouldn't be no good (sic) to sent you

but I was lucky enough to get the note and drye it. Will I am in hopes to get

good succeed with it. Thank you."

Van Dellen and Richard each chipped

in five dollars and sent a check to the man explaining that liquor could not be

sent through the mail. The envelope was returned unopened.

Under the bottle-finder's name was

printed, "Deceased."

Perhaps, too, there may be romantic

bottle messages afloat like the one from

a sailor who off^ered to marry the first pretty girl who read his seaborne message. A Sicilian girl answered. Corre- spondence turned rapidly to love, and

thev were married in 1956!
••''he culebra slide posJ- sessed a certain remorselessness which was not manifested by any of the

other sHdes in quite so picturesque a way. For this shde, with apparently

human malice, attacked not only the work done on the Canal proper, but

like a well directed army moved on the headquarters of its foe.

"'Its first manifestation appeared in the form of a wide crack in the earth at the

crest of the hill on which the town of Culebra was located and directly in front of the building used by Colonel

Caillard as division headquarters for the

engineers."

This was in 1913 and a construction day writer, describing the problems

faced by the Canal builders, said tliat at

this time many of the buildings, includ- ing the Culebra YMCA Clubhouse, had

to be moved from the side of the Cut.

In May 1968, 55 years and several thousand ships later, Panama Canal

engineers discovered that a similai- problem still existed. A deep crack had

suddenly opened on Hodges Hill, the present day name for Culebra. It was on

a hill overlooking Culebra Reach on the

west, bank of the Canal.

Reactivation of the old slide that dates back to construction da)'S came to the

attention of the Canal engineers by the enlargement of enormous tension cracks high on the hill. The unexpected threat almost spelled disaster. A slide of this size could have blocked the Canal or at best slowed traffic. Swinging into emergency action, the engineers launched a maximum eflFort program aimed at stabilizing the hill by

any means that could be implemented

quickly. At the same time, they started an intensive effort to determine the cause and nature of the problem.

The methods being used today to detect potential slides and handle them are

naturally far different than those used

55 years ago since the science of soil mechanics is only 30 years old. In the case of Hodges Hill, engineers

Canal Building Early

Warning System for^

J;

By Eunice Richard Ve

first took action in an effort to stabilize the slope quickly. This consisted of drill- ing into the slope to drain the cracks and

rocks; application of large quantities of lime to help the soils and rocks release water; and construction on the surface of an effective drainage diversion system

which collected the rainfall and diverted

it from the cracks.

what they call the most mixed up geology in the world, have a name for the geology in Caillard Cut—"reverse topography."

They explain the theory this way:

"First of all—in the distant geological

past, Panama had sedimentary formations and they were beneath the sea. Then the Isthmus rose up from the sea

^'And when the clay was exposed in the sides of the Cut

and the teeming rain fell on it, it dissolved into heavy

sticky mud that moved and crept inexorably down and

filled the excavations, covered the rail tracks,

overturned and sometimes buried the trains

and machines at the bottom."

Howarth in "The Golden Isthmus"

The movement on the slope decreased,

probably as a result of the remedial action and it was decided that no grading

operation would be done unless the sit- uation worsened. Since an ounce of pre- vention is worth a pound of cure, the bank stability surveillance program was

then started. An intensive effort to determine the cause and nature of the slide problem

progressed quickly at the same time that monitoring systems were installed and

geologic exploration was undertaken in the most active area. Assisting in this program was a board of consultants headed by Wendell Johnson, former

chief of the U.S. Army Engineering Division, and Dr. Arthur Casagrande, an

authority in the field of soils mechanics

and engineering geology.

The geology at Hodges Hill could not have changed much in the years since the Canal diggers were dodging landslides and removing dirt almost as fast as it could slide into the Canal prism. It consists of hard, heavy rocks overlying

weak rocks, a basic structure of many

hills in Caillard Cut and an important

factor behind many slides. The Panama Canal geologists, who

have been wringing their hands over

and the rocks were subjected to weathering and erosion so that hills and valleys were formed. Later, some intensive vol- canic activity developed, and the hills and valleys of sedimentary rock were

covered with igneous rocks. Some were

basalts that flowed over the land as lava, and some were agglomerates which

rained down on the land and then

solidified. Since the land was still above water,

erosion began and on top of the hills where the igneous rocks were thinnest, the weathering progressed most rapidly.

These areas started to become the new

valleys. As a result, the valleys are now

located where the hills used to be and

the hills are located where the valleys

used to be. The hills are made of hard

volcanic rock with the old sedimentary

rocks beneath. It is the opinion of geologists that there could hardly be a worse

situation so far as slope stability is concerned.

In formulating the Bank Stability Surveillance Program, Canal engineers did

not rely entirely on past experience but

built flexibility into their plans for devel- oping better methods and equipment as they went along.

They came up with an 8-year develop14 Fall 1971
-y*

^^T'.^'^V

^ las;-. " s»i:-%- I A sample of what happened to the early Canal diggers from time to time. A break in tlie east bank at Culebra in 1913 poured material into the bottom of the Cut tearing up railroad

tracks and bur\ing a steam shovel. Some buildings had to be moved from the side of the Cut.

mental plan which when completed

would pro\ide an effecti\e sui-veillancc .system for all bank areas in Gaillaid Cut

high tMiough and steep enough to cause

a serious possible slide. The de\elopmental program was di- \ided into two phases. Phase I covers

areas of knowm instability where there

is presently acti\ity or where there has been activity in the past. Phase II covers

areas where the banks are high enough

for potential sliding and where the geology is not known well enough to say they are safe. This phase will be

completed in 1977. From that time on, a permanent pro- gram of suneillance will continue. This

will include continued maintenance of the surveillance S)'Stems as well as reading them. There may be instalments to replace and there may be new and

better instruments to install. On occasion, new areas may ha\^e to be studied

and added to the system.

The engineers say that \\'hen thev are through with this de\elopmental pro- gram, about half of the steep or dangerous banks along Gaillard Cut will have

been studied, instrumented and under

obserxation. In other w^ords, the Canal

will h'c ef|uipped with a "slide early

warning s\stem" which will give early detection of possible slides. The system

will include the engineering plans held

ill readiness and kept in an up-dated

condition in case remedial action of ans' kind should become necessarv.

Gary Guazzo, soils mechanics engineer with

the Panama Canal Engineering Division,

probes a crack on the side of Hodges Hill.

Concrete and sandbag lined walls and drainage ditches divert the storm runoff away from

the slide area of Hodges Hill. A ship moves through the Gaillard Cut in an area where

there might have been hazards to Canal traffic if preventive measures had not been taken.

The Panama Ca.nal Review 15
blcIiCj

The picks and dredges and the army of rough and tumble diggers

have long been silenced. But their ghostly presence somehow can be felt as one looks over remnants of the old French canal.

By Robert L. Austin

N THE WEST BANK OF THE

Panama Canal, a mile north of Gatun Locks, a small wooden

bridge crosses a narrow waterway. If \'ou stand in the middle of the bridge

and face east toward the moniing sun, yon can sec where the still water joins the Canal a short distance away. Now

and then a ship goes by, lea\ing a pattern of waves that break against the mangroves on the shore. As you stand there the creaking

planks gi\'e rise to a ghostlv rhythm: the

(lull thud of absent picks, the clatter of long gone dredges, the ribald laughter

of men now silent. For this narrow channel was dug bv men determined to build

a "Straits of Panama." It is the last remnant of an abandoned dream—the French sea level canal. Today little note is taken of the French canal. The old equipment has

rotted away and time and the jungle

lia\e erased most of it from sight and

memory. Children growing up here have only a vague idea of the French

canal although part of it is still in use. Bones and Sweat

The French originally planned to dig

a channel from Colon southwest along

Mindi Hills to the Chagres River at Gatun. From Gatun the channel would

boldly follow the Chagres as far as Gamboa then tirni abiiiptly south through the Continental Divide. This is

the general route that the Canal follows today over the "bones and sweat" of

that first effort. The French work near Balboa and ui Gaillard Cut forms part of the present

Canal but is not discemable. On the

Atlantic side, however, the French

excavations were not used as pai"t of the American canal and it is here that the I'rench work can be seen. Every visitor to Fort San Lorenzo

crosses the old canal and everyone going

to Gatun or Fort Davis from Margarita,

Coco Solo, or Rainbow City goes along

East Diversion, a small drainage channel dug bv the French in the early

1880's. The oil cargo dock on Pier 16, the

16 Fall 1971
Top left: The French left their indelible mark at Mount Hope when in 1886 they built the drvdock now used by the Industrial Division. Originally for small sailing ships, it was enlarged in 1933 to accommodate larger steel hulled ships. Top right: The narrow French cana]

enters the channel at Buoy 16 along the sea level approach to Gatun Locks. Below: An old French excavator lies partially submerged near Tabemilla after it was abandoned following the French failure. The photo was taken in 1913.

rtcu

\

i^

\

The Panama Canal Review 17
Cristobal Yacht Club, the Maintenance

Division, and the Industrial Division shops at Mount Hope are all on the old French canal. The French removed more than 4.5

million cubic yards of spoil from the

Atlantic area including excavations in the ship canal, diversions, and harbor,

and completed this sector almost as far

as Bohio, 8 miles south of Gatun. ( Later

the French would select Bohio as a site for a dam and lock when the sea level canal plan was abandoned.)

Chagres River

French work was divided into three main excavations: the ship canal; West

Diversion, a small channel draining water west of the Chagres River; and

E^st Diversion, draining off water east

of the Chagres into Manzanillo Bav. The West Diversion was kept open

as a temporary channel for the Chagres

River until the spillway sill was completed at Gatun and the river finally closed in 1910.

After 1914 the East Diversion was

not used. Now, partially hidden by

second growth foliage, it has degenerated into a sluggish course that follows the road from Rainbow City, past

Margarita, along Mindi to Fort Davis.

East Diversion

Man)' people mistake the East Diversion for the French ship canal and often

taxi drivers pass on this misinformation

to their tourist passengers. Others

erroneously believe it is a jungle river. Although the Americans dug a differ- ent channel, they did make temporary

use of the existing French excavations. The French canal's location adjacent to the proposed lock site at Gatun made

it ideal for use as a boat slip. Barges

loaded with crushed rock from Porto- belo and sand from Nombre de Dios were brought by sea to Cristobal and

then towed up the old channel to the cement storage docks at the huge mixing

plant at Gatun. \Mien the locks were finished the mixing plant was no longer needed and

use of this portion of the French canal was discontinued. The hustling, sprawling shops are gone and the clanking

machinery is silent. The only evidence

of this old bustle are the iron rails left in the jungle. At its northern end the French canal

is still alive and busw Here the myriad

facilities of the Industrial Division occupy the east shore of the old channel. This northern end of the French canal

is the only part that has felt the hulls of oceangoing ships. The drydock built bv

the French in 1886 is used today to hold modern ships.

The Roosevelt

But here also is a trace of the old. Along the mud flats on the west bank

are the rusting hulks and equipment of the French and Americans. These rot- ting relics recall past heroic days. The

sad remains of the Roosevelt rest among

the old dredges and barges.

(The Roosevelt was specially con- structed to take Arctic explorer Robert

E. Peary to the north polar region. The

rugged little ship did her job well and on

April 6, 1909, Peary planted the Stars and Stripes atop the North Pole. She was sold and resold manv times and

finally, in January 19.37 while being

operated as a tug. the Roosevelt was

taken to the Mount Hope Shipyard to repair a leak and storm damage. But

she was too far gone. The work was

never started. The historic vessel was

ordered beached on a mud bank of the

old French canal to keep it from sinking

at dockside.)

It may be too romantic to believe

there's an awareness here. Somehow it

The Panama Canal Yacht Club

at Cristobal is host to Atlantic side

boat fans and to yachtsmen

from all over the world.

The club is located on the

east bank of the French canal

where the channel turns left

into Limon Bay.

seems the old canal feels this drama

with a consciousness that pulses through

the channel keeping it alive and proud

of the part it played.

Farther down where the French

canal joins Limon Bay and the Cris- tobal basin are Pier 16 and the Cristobal Yacht Club. The yacht club is host to many Atlantic side boat fans as well as yachts- men from all over the world. Few of the transient visitors are aware of the

historic significance of the busy channel and the water drifting past the mooring piers.

The Marine Bunkering Section's oil cargo dock on Pier 16 is an offspring

of the older coaling station. As coal gave wav to oil on more and more ships, the coaling station gradually shifted to marine oils exclusively. Coaling operations were finished in 1952 and many of the

buildings destroyed. Currentlv the dock

handles thousands of tons of marine oils and bunkers hundreds of foreign and

American ships.

Still Alive The spirit of the French canal is still with us even though the locks type

canal ended the dream of a "Straits of Panama." Back on the west bank near Gatun Locks just a few miles from the busy industrial shops, the French canal

lies quietly in the jungle. Ships of all nations pass it where the channel ""juts into the present dav American canal at Buo\ 16. Perhaps this is the way the Chagres

River once looked with Gatun nestled on its banks. The area abounds with

ghosts—from the pirates and conquistadores to the French who worked

.iiid dreamed.

Robert L. Austin is an emplo\ee

of the Xa\igation Di\ision at Balboa.

18 Fall 1971
Gi RdsIi

By WilUe K. Friar

v %

Thousands took the shortcut

through the jungles of Panama.

GIRLS IN RED VELVET SWINGS

in the gas-lighted taverns of old San Francisco, covered wagons lurching

across the vast deserts and snow covered

mountains of the United States with

fierce Indian braves in hot pursuit. These

are the scenes that come to mind at the mention of the California Gold Rush;

not malaria stricken men on recalcitrant burros jolting their way over the jungle

trails of Panama or others poling their dugout canoes through the shallow

reaches of the Chagres River. Yet Panama, Las Cruces Trail, and the Chagres were very much a part of the scene during Gold Rush days, with

thousands of gold seekers electing to take the "shortcut" across the Isthmus. The great throngs that joined the Rush

in 1849 were to become known as the

Forty-niners, a term that eventually came to mean anyone who goes in search

of gold or treasure. Before the discovery of gold in California, Panama was seldom visited ex- cept by an occasional whaler and travelers across the Isthmus were "few and far between." But when the cry of "gold"

reverberated around the world, with the discovery of the lode at Sutter's Mill near Sacramento in 1848, it signaled for Pan- ama, the beginning of another colorful chapter in its history as a route of passage.

Gold Fever During the next two decades the Isth- mian route was to become one of the

world's most traveled thoroughfares. It was obvious that the shortest way to California was by way of Panama, avoiding the 10,000-mile sea voyage around

the Horn or the dangerous 3,000-mile

trek across the United States. And, in the

frenzy of "gold fever" few gave any

thought to the hazards they would face

transiting the small neck of land that stood in their way.

Ships from the north first touched

land at the forlorn village of Chagres

neai- the mouth of the Chagres River and

at the height of the Gold Rush

hordes of California-bound emigrants

daily swarmed ashore, determined to make their way to the otlier side of the Isthmus without delay and there re- embark for the final dash to California. The Isthmian crossing was made in stages, partly by river, and pardy by

land. First, the Forty-niners had to seek out and hire native boatmen with dugout

canoes, called "bungoes," to transport

them to some point in the vicinity of Cnices or Gorgona. From there, they

took mules to Panama or, if they could

afford it, the more expensive "silleros,"

so called because of the silla, a kind of chair which the natives lashed to their backs for carrying passengers. The trail from Cruces was longer and

rougher than that from Gorgona but had

the advantage of being open in all weather. It followed the ancient Las

Cruces Trail of the Spanish Conquistadores. It had once been paved with stone over its entire length and, despite centuries of neglect, enough of the stone- work remained to give the mules a footing, precarious though it was during

the drenching tropical rains. The Gor- gona route, while shorter, became an Drawings by Frank Brown

While reading about the Gold Kush, Trish Finn, student assistant in the Canal organization, pauses to study an oil painting which shows a party of Forty-niners, traveling by mules and

"silleros," as they stop for refreshments at the Half Way House on their trip across the Isth- mus. Fainted in 1857 by Albertis D. O. Browehe, it now hangs in the Canal Zone Library.

The Panama Canal Review 19
impassable quagmire during tropical

downpours.

The bungo boatmen were in an excellent bargaining position with hundreds

of men rushing ashore and bidding

against one another for passage up the

river. It became a matter of survival of the fittest. The ablest at bargaining, at paying, or at forcing the natives to stick

to a bargain in the face of higher bids,

loaded their supplies into the boats and

set off. At the beginning of the Gold

Rush the fee for the first lap of the trip was about $10 per passenger, but prices soared and bargaining became heated

as the demand increased.

All travelers were anxious, with good

reason, to get out of the village of Chagres. It was notorious as a breeding

spot for yellow fever, cholera, and malaria, where the death rate was so high

that most insurance companies included

a clause in their policies stating that all benefits would be canceled automatically

if the policy holder remained overnight

in the village.

Yankee Doodle

It was a treacherous bU miles from

Chagres to Panama City by river and

trail with the sole avenue of travel for the first 40 miles on the meandering Chagres River, which was, by

turns, broad and sluggish, narrow, and

turbulent. After about an hour at the oars the boatmen routinely tied up their crafts and plunged into the water to cool off or they disappeared into the jungle and re- turned carrying bottles of native brandy

from well hidden caches along the route. Many of the passengers, convinced that a supply of wine or stronger beverage was a necessary safeguard against the

tropical diseases, joined the boatmen in passing around the bottle and it was not uncommon to encounter whole boat- loads of Fortv-niners following an

erratic course upstream with passengers and oarsmen laughing uproariously as they sang "Oh Susanna" or "Yankee

Doodle." The Spanish speaking natives

often had little idea of the meaning of the words they were mispronouncing.

The clothing of the travelers and their arsenal of guns and knives were subjects

of wonder and merriment to the friendlv,

scantily clad natives. Ill-informed con- cerning what to expect in Panama as

On Las Cruces Trail, still a popular

hiking route, Pat Weed, Canal Zone

College student, examines some of the well-wom paving stones over which

thousands of gold seekers traveled in their headlong dash for California.

well as in California, the men frequently

brought heavy woolen clothing best

suited for Arctic conditions. As the trip

progressed, these clothes were discarded

and it was not long before the streets of Panama City were littered with a col- lection of fur hats, red flannel shirts, and

woolen trousers.

Dined on Iguana

The passage up the river usually took

at least 3 days with overnight stops at native villages along the way. Food was

difficult to find and eating at the huts

often proved an unnerving experience.

Wild stories circulated and the travelers, unacquainted with the ways of the

tropics, became suspicious of any food

they could not immediately identify. But hunger often overcame their reservations and some later reported they were sure they had dined on iguana, snake,

monkey, and other exotic animals. One traveler wrote that he had drunk

his first cup of coffee at a hut and found

it so good that he ordered another. When he indicated that he would like more sugar in it, he was dismayed to see the girl serving it chew a piece of sugarcane and calmly spit the juice into the cup before she handed it to him. He

decided to stick to brandy for the rest of the trip. When the boats reached Cruces or Gorgona on finishing the first part of the journey across the Isthmus, the haggling began anew as the men paid off the boat owners before starting a new series of negotiations for mule

transportation to Panama City.

Cold-finding Devices

Like the Chagres boatmen, the over- land packers shrewdly fixed prices de- pending on the current demand for services. The distance was only 20 miles but

the route was through rugged country

with trails so narrow that riders were

forced, in some places, to put their feet up on the mule's back to be able to pass through. The mud on the slippery trail was often knee deep.

Scores of Panama mules moved constantly over the route bearing burdens

out of all proportion to their size as many

of the Forty-niners had supplied themselves with all manner of outrageous

Rube Goldberg-type gold-finding devices and enough provisions to last a whole year. One guidebook of the day recom- mended the following as the minimum

amount of supplies needed for a year in the gold fields: 1 barrel of salt pork; 10 barrels salt beef; 100 pounds of ham;

J^^S'^-^^ 20 Fall 1971
10 pounds of hard bread; 40 crocks of butter and cheese; and a goodly supply

of tea, salt, sugar, and spices. How a man was to transport himself and such

a store of supplies across the Isthmus and

onto the ship bound for California was

not explained.

Food Was Scarce The travelers who survived the rigors

of crossing the Isthmus thought first of food and lodging when they finally ar- rived in Panama City. More often than

not, they found no room available in the overcrowded town and set up camp in the tree-covered fields outside the ancient walls of Panama City, improvising

shelter from whatever material was on hand and preparing their meals over

campfires.

And there the men stayed, often for months. Ship after ship continued to come in on the Atlantic side but far fewer were leaving on the Pacific side

for California. And when the ships did

arri\e and began taking on passengers,

those with through-tickets often found

the ships already filled with men who

had no reservations but refused to get

off. During the first 6 years of the Gold

Rush, demand for space on California- bound ships was so great that tickets sometimes changed hands for as much

as S 1,000. Brothels, saloons, and gambling dens soon sprang up and many men lost their tickets or ticket money

before they could secure passage. Aghast at Morals

The Bishop of California, the Right

Rev. William Ingraham Kip, passed

through during this period and was

aghast at morals and living conditions. He wrote of his accommodations in Pan- ama City, where he was put up in a room

with 200 others, "There were not only

the most awful blasphemies that human

ingenuity could devise, but the most

foul-mouthed ribaldry that could be con- ceived by a perverted imagination.

A party would rise from their beds, and

under the dim lanterns which hung from

the beams, produce their brandy-botdes,

and with oaths, drink until they reeled again to their bunks. To make matters

worse, next to us was a pen ( I can caU it nothing else) of boards about 10 feet high, intended to afford a private room

for females. This happened to be occu- pied by some women of the baser sort whose loud ribaldry infinitelv amused

the kindred spirits on our side of the partition, who accordingly replied to them

in the same terms. It was enough to convince one of the doctrine of total depravity."

CK-ercrowding and unsanitary conditions began to take their toll with dis- eases often reaching epidemic proportions. Thousands fell victim to d)sentery,

malaria, and sellow fever. An almost complete lack of medical care made mortalit)' high. Once a disease was contracted it had to run its course. Those

who died were placed in the ever-growing "American" cemeteries at one or another of the ports and the survivors

either returned home or continued on to the gold fields. New crosses were erected

daily which the tropical rains washed

away while new shiploads of gold seekers continued to straggle past on the way to the great adventure. Guides for Forty-niners planning to cross the Isthmus often advised against

drinking alcoholic beverages and then

eating tropical fruits which they said would cause "a fermentation in the bowels which no medical care seems to help."

Many survived the sta\- on the Isth- mus only to find themselves faced with

the hazards of epidemics aboard the

ships. Most were overloaded, increasing

chances of contracting contagious dis- eases. Many passengers were exposed to cholera and yellow fever before boarding the ships and there were often numerous deaths before they reached San

Francisco.

In August 18.52, the Pacific Mail's steamship. Golden Gate, having taken on a full load of passengers, including

several companies of the Fourth Infantry

bound for the Presidio at San Francisco, was found to have several passengers with cholera. The disease spread rapidly.

Before the ship cleared Panama Bay 84

soldiers had died, and there were almost

daily fatalities all the way to California.

Ulysses S. Grant One detachment of soldiers had be- come infected while stranded for 5 days

in Cmces. Among the group was a future Commander in Chief and President of the United States, Capt. Ulysses S. Grant. A mule owner had contracted to provide baggage transportation for the Army at 11 cents a pound, but when

civilian travelers offered him 16 to 20

cents, he conveniently forgot the contract. Captain Grant succeeded in securTravel on the Chagres River has changed

little from the time of the Gold Rush. Employees of the Meteorological and

Hydrographic Branch look very much like the Forty-niners in the painting

"Passing a Rapid" as they use poles and

rope during a routine trip. J. Cameron

painted this Chagres scene at the height

of the Gold Rush.

The Panama Canal Review 21
California Gold Rush Turns the

Panama Railroad into a Bonanza

All was chaos at Culebra where the railroad ended in 1854. This painting by Otis M. D. Surgeon shows work proceeding on the railroad, at left, while in the foreground California- bound travelers round up burros and mules to continue their overland trek. Crowds of stranded Forty-niners fill the balconies of the American Hotel at the far right.

ing more mules but not before 12 soldiers had died. In the meantime, work on the trans- Isthmian railroad was going forward. The project was not, as might be

assumed, inspired by the discovery of

gold. It had been under consideration

for more than a decade before the Rush

began.

The route was surveyed as early as 1841 and in 1847 the Panama Railroad

Company was organized by a small group of New York financiers. While

the company's organizers were men of

vision, they never dreamed in 1847, that the discovery of gold in California would

assure the successful completion of the railway and a fortune for the company.

The affairs of the railroad looked very dark and its stock had taken a tumble

when a climactic event changed the outlook for the enterprise.

Rough Weather

On the first day of October 1851, a

train of working cars had passed over the road as far as Gatun. The next month

two ships, the Georgia and Philadelphia,

arrived off Chagres in rough weather

with passengers en route to California. After several lives were lost in attempting to bring the ships into the customary

anchorage at the mouth of the Chagres,

they anchored in what is now Limon

Bay, where the railroad had its Atlantic

terminal. Discovering that the work train had

made a nm as far as Gatim, the anxious

emigrants converged on the railroad and

offered to pav any price to be trans- ported on the train for the 7 miles. There was not a single passenger car but the

railroad finally gave into their pleas and

transported them to Gatim on the work

train where they could take the bungoes

as usual. A Bonanza

From then on, the railroad carried passengers as far as the tracks extended. The resulting revenue was estimated at over $1 million before the railroad was

completed. For the next 1.5 years the

railroad was a bonanza. Annual divi- dends were never below 12 percent and

in 1868 reached 44 percent. EHiring the

first 12 years of its operations, it carried over $7.50 million in gold dust, nuggets,

and gold and silver coin, collecting S of 1 percent on each shipment.

Hordes of Forty-niners crossed and

recrossed the Isthmus on the railroad paying $25 for a one-way fare. The com- pany charged $6 just to walk across the Isthmus on the roadbed.

On April 21, 1855, the New York

Times, telling of the merits of the Panama route, published this story:

"The fine steamer Illinois sailed for Aspinwall yesterday with 715 passengers

for California, another vindication of the opinion expressed a fortnight ago; that the stream of emigration is flowing Cali- fomiaward this spring with a stronger

tide than ever before. Seven hundred

and fifteen passengers! What a young

village is here! But the vessel is large

and commodious and will accommodate

them all with ease; so friends who are mourning the departing ones, don't dream of them as sharers in the horrors

of a "middle passage.'

"The ease and comfort with which a

trip can be made to California now by

way of Aspinwall and the Panama Rail- road is greatly promoting the emigration

thitherward of the famihes of those ad- \enturers who desire to settle on the Pacific slope. The Illinois carried out no

less than 120 ladies and 78 children—

the larger portion of them unaccompanied by gentlemen. Indeed, ladies may now make the trip to San Francisco

with no more difficulty and much less fatigue than the journey to Washington

would involve. The steamer upon reaching Aspinwall meets a train of railroad

cars upon the wharf with steam all up

ready for a start. A 3 or 4 hour's ride brings them to the Pacific coast and an hour more places them on the vessel which is to land them at San Francisco. The changes of conveyance are two

only: and there are no exposures to fevers or rain or any other serious inconvenience on the way."

The New York Times added, "The

ladies are beginning to understand this and California is reaping the advantage

of the addition to its population of nu- merous families whose influence cannot

fail to be most beneficial to the State."

The Opposite Sex

This was welcome news to the Fortyniners already in California where there were so few of the opposite sex that a man would often walk many miles just

to look at a woman. The Isthmian crossing continued to be a popular route to the West until 1869 when the first transcontinental

railroad in the United States was

completed.

Although the Gold Rush, in which the Chagres, Las Cruces Trail, and the Pan- ama Railroad played such a significant

role, passed into history, the Isthmus

continued to play an important role in the development of the "Golden West"

with the Panama Canal taking on the job

of providing the historically vital route

of passage.

22 Fall 1971
TO ASSURE GOOD LUCK

Break ABottle Over Her Bow

WHENANNE PARKER, DAUGHter of Canal Zone Gov. and Mrs. David S. Parker, at a recent ceremony, smashed a bottle of champagne, against the bow of the oil recovery barge, Ltigarto, completed bv the Dredging Di\ision

in September of this vear, she \\as

performing a ritual that dates back to ancient times. A launching ceremony is simple.

There is a short speech, then the crowd

quiets, and the guest of honor, alwavs a lady, swings the gaily WTapped ceremonial wine with a sidearm motion. Months

and often years of hard work bv scores

of highly skilled men is climaxed by the smashing of a bottle of champagne.

mi.*.

Gov. David S. Parker stands beside his daughter Anne as she christens the "Lagarto." At left is Charles Hummer, the Canal's oil pollution control officer.

usually on the vessel's bow. Meanwhile,

if the vessel is a large ship, workmen

have been busy laboring under her hull pounding away supports so that when

the bottle sprays its liquid the vessel will

start its short journey to the water. In the launching of smaller craft, a crane is often used to place them in the water. The 19th Century

Although women now perform the ceremony of launching and naming a

ship, it was a masculine prerogative until the 19th century when the Prince of Wales broke the precedent and began

having women of the court act as sponsors. Because of the taboo placed on having women aboard a ship in ancient

times, many sailors refused to sail on a vessel that was named bv a woman.

The launching of a ship has not alwa\s meant good cheer and champagne. The ceremony goes back thou- sands of years to solemn and often in- human pagan rituals meant to appease

the gods and insiue safe voyages—even

at the expense of human sacrifices. Later in history a launching was pre- ceded by a great religious ceremony and was attended by kings, queens and high

priests. Thus, what was bom in the pagan mind to appease the gods, and

then evolved into complex religious

ritual has become both a vestige of the past and a show of pride in our vessels

of today,

Noah's Ark

Actual records of an offering to the gods upon completion of a ship date back more than 2,000 years before

Christ. An ancient Assyrian tablet gives an account of the great flood and construction of Noah's Ark. According to

A spirited swing by Mrs. Julian S. Heame

wife of the former chief of the Dredging

Division, sends the champagne bottle smashing against the derrick barge U.S. "Goliath."

the tablet, oxen were sacrificed as part

of the religious ceremony connected with

the Ark's completion.

Religious zeal reached a peak in the Middle Ages when ships were named

after saints and no craft was sent to sea without its shrine and idols. During the Crusades each ship of Lx)uis IX had an

altar and a priestly entourage aboard

when she sailed for the Holy Land in the 13th century.

And what better way to insure the

success of a vessel and bring blessings

from the gods than to make a human

sacrifice? The Fijians and Samoans used

to sacrifice humans to their shark deities. In Tahiti it was customary to shed hum;ui blood when canoes were launched

or built. According to Mariner, in his book "Tonga," there was the grisly cus- tom of using human beings as rollers on which to launch a ship. This was similar

to the ancient Norse habit of tying

human \ictims to the launching rollers. This was known as "blun-rod" or roller- reddening.

A custom in 18th and early 19th century France was to choose a godfather

and godmother, usually children. The

godfather would present a bouquet to the godmother, and then both would

pronounce the name chosen for the ship.

Queen Victoria

In Britain Queen Victoria originated

the custom of having a religious service

at the launching of the Alexandria in 1875. The ritual developed into a full choral service with the reading of a special prayer made up of extracts from the 107th Psalm. This was followed by a ceremony in which a botde of wine was

smashed across the ship's bow after a sponsor had named her. The custom of benedictions over British ships dates back to the 14th century when ships were blessed by priests.

Christening a ship with water is considered unlucky. The historic ship Ccm-

( Please see p. 29)

Since it is considered bad luck for the bottle not to break on the first try, it is usually

grooved so that it will smash immediately on impact with the vessel.

The Panama Canal Review 23
Culinary

Capers

By Fannie P. Hernandez

THE SKILLS AND STAMINA OF

some of the best roadbuilders of

this hemisphere will soon be put to the

test in the dense jungles of the Darien

Province of Panama and northwestern

Colombia where construction of a 250-

mile highway will supply the link now

missing from the Alaska to Argentina

intercontinental road system.

Culinary Capers invites Review readers to go along on an armchair jouniey

with these forgers of progress and makers

of cement ribbons to savor the region's

primitive nature before it is swept away

by the near-magic of 20th centuiy

ingenuity.

Adventurers' tall tales of the Darien

tell of headhunters who blow poison

darts from the treetops, of swarming

blood-sucking insects, of bottomless morasses, of ferocious jaguars, and wild

boars. Let us have a look at the Choco

Indians and the vital sources which have

sustained them on a jungle-river-based

economy.

Roadbuilders

The roadbuilders and their bulldozers

will cross one of the world's largest

swamp areas, jungle rivers, hills and

valleys, and penetrate wilderness un- touched even by Indian paths, to bring

change, at last, to an area where Spanish

explorers established their first mainland

colony. Cutting through the dark green masses of tangled vines, creepers and a myriad of forest growths, we shall see the Chocoes' shelters, taste their food,

and feel the pulse of their silent primeval

world before they retreat deeper into the wilds or opt to join the modem age. Defying change, we find the coppercolored Chocoes living today in the wildest, most primitive existence, very much

as the Spaniards found them early in the 16th century. Scattered along the banks

of the many rivers that crisscross the Darien, far from the comforts and problems of civilization, they seem to be in complete harmony with their surroundings. Proud, peaceful, honest, but sus- picious of outsiders, they live a day-today existence in which there are few

economic pressures. Ignoring govern- ment procedures and regulations, Chocoes usually make their own laws. They are the Indians most often maligned in stories about the Darien. Possibly because of their savage appearance,

they have stirred the imagination of the

mythmakers. They are, however, more

friendly than their Cuna cousins. Both men and women go about practically nude. The male has a muscular frame, an abundance of straight black hair and

wears earrings. The rest of the attire of the Choco man consists of a small

G-string and a generous coating of dark

body paint made from the dye of a native berry from the genip tree. They

also use a red paint made from achiote, the orange-red seed pod which is com- monly used to give color and flavor to Panamanian cooking.

The Kitchen

The Chocoes are semi-migratory and

dwell independently in small one or two

family groups. They build their shelters along the banks of rivers which serve as

their highways and source of livelihood. The dwelling is a platform raised on

posts several feet above the ground.

Overhead is a roof of thatched palms, the

joints tied with vines. There are no protecting walls. To reach the Choco house, one climbs up a ladder made by cutting notches into a pole or a log. At night, the family turns the steps to the underside

of the log to bar dogs and other un- wanted callers. At one end of the floor, which is made of flattened-out split cane,

is the "kitchen." It consists of a cement

or clay platform approximately a yard

square. Three logs placed spoke fashion

rest on the square and the cooking pot

sits over a small fire burning at the hub. A calabash tree provides the kitchen

utensils. Scooped out small calabash are

for drinking and eating or used as spoons, though ordinarily the Chocoes

use their fingers to eat from the com- mon kettle. Another one with a hole

cut into the top and a piece of oily twisted bark stuck in the hole serves as a lamp. And still another good-sized calabash with holes punched into it is a colander. Long seed pods serve as

graters. J

Practically Nude

Choco women wear only a simple

knee-length sarong, their ink black hair

falling on copper shoulders, their breasts, bare. Both men and women have a great fondness for adornments. Thev

wear quantities of glass beads around

their necks or draped over their shoulders, and on special occasions, flowers in their hair. For additional beautification,

they paint the lower part of their faces Down in the Darien

24 Fall 1971
and their bodies, often making intricate designs with different colors of paint. Scattered about the floor and hanging

from the posts of the dwelling and those supporting the roof over the "kitchen"

are baskets, earthen pots, bows and

arrows, spears, knives, and other handmade himting and fishing and household

items. The baskets are made of strips

from the fronds of a palm tree which are

light on one side and darker on the other. The Choco women weave them turning

the strips and making an attractive twill pattern. Earthen pots are slowly being

replaced bv "pailas," the cast aluminum

or iron pots found in Panamanian

kitchens.

Sleep on Floor

The Chocoes sleep on the floor of the

shelters. Their beds are the bark of trees which women have made soft by beating

under \\'ater. There are no bed covers. A \\ooden block serves as a pillow. There

is no protection from the excessive heat, the insects or frequent downpours, and

the Darien is one of the world's rainiest regions. The shelters are easilv replaced

making it possible for the Chocoes to disappear deeper into the wilderness as the construction gangs near them. Navigating their long narrow dugout canoes,

the\' will select another spot on the same

river or another stream which will pro- vide laundry and bathing facilities and

also serve as the fish market and water

supply. Fish are caught v\dth nets, spears or

The Pan-American

Highway System

The circle encompasses

Darien wilderness where the

last 250-mile link in the Pan-American Highway

system, to be constructed

in the near future, will permit motorists of the

1980's to drive from Alaska

to Argentina and open up

what has been called "a treasure box of long

hidden wealth." Fertile valleys will be revealed when the walls of the green

jungle are broken by

the road through this untamed stretch of land.

bows and arrows. If not consumed im- mediateh , thev are smoked and dried. The rivers also provide turtles and cai- man, favorite foods of the Chocoes. They

shoot the turdes with rifles or swim

under water and catch them with their hands, tossing them ashore. A wooden

wedge is driven between the head and

shell to prevent it from getting away

before it reaches the cooking pot. To

save the turtle for a future meal, it is tied near the water. The forests furnish wild game which

provides the Chocoes protein food. Bom

hunters, they use bows and arrows to

hunt the jungle animals. The tapir, peccary, deer, armadillo, iguana, and

monkey are favorite jungle fare. Jungle trees provide balsa for making

rafts and the bark of certain trees is used

to make remedies for snake bite, skin ail- ments, malaria, etc. Other trees furnish

fruit and dyes for painting their bodies. Palm fronds are used for the roofs over

their shelters and the juice of the green coconuts provides "milk" for the Chocoes.

Chocoes cultivate mainly com, rice, yucca, potatoes, yams, beans, and otoe and grow plantains, bananas, pineapples,

A Choco boy and his river.

Long, narrow dugout canoes

transport food on the waterway

which also provides drinking

water, fish, and laundry

and bathing facilities.

The Panama Canal Review 25
DJIRIENVIGmiS

3-'*».-

papayas, guavas, aguacates, and other

tniits aiid nuts. Theii- diet is rich in vitamins and high in roughage.

Iguana Stew

A favorite dish is Iguana Stew and for

this a gravid female is preferred and

prepared in this manner:

Skin the iguana, removing the insides and saving the eggs, including the yellow ones and tlie heart and liver. Dis- member the iguana by cutting it down

the spine, dividing the halves into three pieces and the legs in two. Place the meat in a pot of heated coconut oil and

brown it lightly. Drop in hot pepper and

garlic to taste, and brown a little longer.

In another pot, boil the eggs in their

sliells for half an hour with chili pepper.

( Iguana eggs, boiled for 10 minutes and

then sun dried have a cheese-like flavor and are relished by all Darienites.) Drain

and add to the meat along with the diced

liver, heart, and yellow eggs. Cook until the broth has all but disappeared. Serve with rice and beans.

Turtle Stew

Turtle is an excellent food source of the Chocoes and a typical meal may be

portions of tmtle fried in its own grease. However, a more savoiy dish is Tiiiilc Steio prepared like this: Clean and cut up the neck and legs of the turtle and steep in lemon juice,

garlic, onion, green pepper, salt, and

pepper for a few hours. Remove from

the marinade and fry lightly. Then add

the marinade and one cup coconut milk

and cook until the meat is tender.

Turtle Egg Omelet

Turtle eggs are considered a delicacy

in Panama and some say they are more

nutritious than hen's eggs. They are eaten raw, cooked, mixed into pancakes

and made into a butter-like spread.

Turtle Egg Omelet is made much the same as the common hen egg variety,

using oil for cooking.

The flesh of jungle animals and birds such as tapir, monkey, ibis, peccary,

venison, and agouti are common fare in the Darien. The flesh of these is often smoked before cooking. Fresh meat,

however, can be boiled, roasted, or barbecued. It also is salted and dried

in the sun for several days. Monkev

meat is usuallv smoked for 24 hours

before cooking, but a Darien housewife

in a hurrv to feed her hungiv familv

niav simph boil the meat in salted water until it is tender.

Monkey Stew

Monkey Stew is made by frying salted, smoked monkey lightly in hot oil, adding

diced onions, then water and achiote. The stew is cooked until the meat is tender and sauce has thickened.

These meat dishes are often served with rice which has been cooked in coconut juice with the addition of onion and

salt, or com rolls (bollos) made by

grinding and boiling gi-een com which

is then formed into balls and wrapped in com husks and boiled. Chocao de Cuineo

A banana-coconut dessert may round

out the meal. Chocao de Cuineo is made

by cubing six bananas and boiling them

in one cup of water, adding a piece of

fresh ginger root and gradually adding one cup coconut milk and a little flour

for thickening. It is stirred constantly

until the desired thickness is achieved.

More coconut milk is added when

it is sei-ved. Plantains may be used

instead of bananas. (Coconut milk is made by squeezing grated coconut to which boiling water has been added.)

Most of these recipes were collected

Inj Fanamanian anthropologist, Dra. Rei- na Torres de Arauz, and are included in the Darienita's Dietary compiled by

]ames A. Duke of the Battelle Memorial

Institute.

Queen in her kitchen, this Choco lass stirs the contents in the cooking pot which

sits at the hub of three logs placed spoke-fashion at one corner of the dwelling. Note how she has embellished her beauty by painting the lower part of her face.

Chocoes are fond of adornments. In addition to painting an elaborate design on his face, this youth wears

a chain around his neck and a flower in his hair.

26 Fall 1971
At right: The collection of baskets was made by the boy's mother

who used strips of palm fronds which are light on one side and

darker on the other. By turning the strips as she weaves them

she achieves an attractive hvill pattern. Below: A primitive drill made by the Chocoes proves to be an interesting toy for Patrick, left, and Richard, sons of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas W. Crimison

of La Boca. They are making holes in a calabash just as the Chocoes do to make a colander.

Al right: High off the ground, the Choco

shelter has a split cane floor, a thatched roof and no walls. A notched tree trunk serves

as steps to the dwelling. At night the trunk

is turned to the underside to keep out unwanted callers, dogs, cats, and

wild animals. Below: This chic Choco

belle enhances her beauty by painting

flowers on her cheeks, butterfly wings above

her lips and an intricate design on the lower part of her face.

«^vi

The tepee-like structure on the

right is the chicken

coop. Chocoes'

protein food is mainly from the jungle where they

use bows and

arrows to hunt game. They also keep chickens and pigs to supplement food from the jungle

and the rivers.

The Panama Canal Review 27
l\ Flie

, ABOARD-ALL ASHORElight No. 248 Now Boarding."

Odd announcements such as this will be heard by lucky people taking winter

vacations this year combining cruises with air travel. While cruise ships are still the first choice of those wanting to take winter

vacations, travel agencies and shipping

companies are trying all kinds of variations to tempt the more sophisticated. Tourists can travel from Europe by air and return by ship or go from the U.S.

east coast by train to California and catch

a ship that wiU take them back to the

east coast via coastal ports and the Car- ibbean Islands. Many of these ships come through the Canal.

"Princess Italia"

One of these is the SS Princess Italia that came through the Canal early in October and is making several more

cruises during the year. On the October

trip, the vessel can-ied members of the Pennsylvania State Grange, who had

started their trip in Pennsylvania, trav- eled to Chicago, and caught the Santa Fe Railroad to Los Angeles. There they

joined the Princess Italia for the voyage

back to the east coast. The Princess Italia, operated by the

Princess Tours from the U.S. west

coast, is due here on another cruise from

the east coast en route to Los Angeles

December 7. A second intercoastal

ciTjise will bring her into Balboa April 29

for a northbound transit. She vviU re- turn May 17 from the Caribbean and

go through the Canal on her way to California. C. Fernie & Co., who represent the Princess Italia, have announced that a new cruise ship, named the Fairsea,

will arrive at Cristobal from Fort Lauderdale December 1 with approximately 450 cruise passengers bound for California. The ship is the former

Cunard liner Carinthia, which was re- built in Italy for Pacific cruising, and is operated by the Sitmar Line Cruises Ltd. Two other cruise ships on their first

visit to the Canal will be among the dozens making transits during the coming 1971-72 cruise season. They are the new Shaw Saville liner Ocean Monarch, due in Cristobal on a South Sea

cruise November 17, and the Lindblad

Explorer, to make her first trip through

the Panama Canal in March 1972.

"Ocean Monarch"

The Ocean Monarch is the former

Empress of England, converted by Cammell Ltd., of Birkenhead, England, into a one-class tourist ship capable of carry- ing 1,400 passengers. She will sail from

Balboa November 18 and return from

the South Pacific March 20 for transit. The Lindblad Explorer will arrive at the Canal late in March after a visit to the Calapagos Islands and will call at the Caicos and Great Turk Islands on her way to Nassau. This unusual ship was

built in Finland for the Norwegian com- pany and chartered to Lindblad Travel,

Inc., of New York. It was designed to cruise to remote places such as the Antarctic from Punta Arenas and up the Amazon River. There are accommodations for 104 passengers in outside cabins, a swimming pool, cinema, and a lido deck.

Regular Cruise Vessels

Regular cruise vessels making Caribbean voyages during the winter months

this year include many old customers who have been familiar sights in the past

at the docks in Cristobal and Balboa.

C. B. Fenton & Co. have armounced

the Oceanic will arrive in Cristobal from

New York December 28; the Gripsholm

January 20 on a round-South America

cruise; and the Kungsholm January 23

from New York to the Far East and re- turn April 15. The Sagafjord is due Jan- uary 10 from New York en route to the South Pacific and will return March 30. Nine Caribbean voyages are scheduled

for the popular Federico C, which wiU

be making Caribbean cruises from Port Everglades. She is due in Cristobal December 30, January 25, February 8

and 22, March 7 and 21, and April 4 and 18.

Pacific Ford, agent for the Ocean

Monarch, announced that the cruise ship

Stella Oceania wUl call at Cristobal De- cember 28, February 8, and February 29. Also scheduled is the German

Atlantic liner Hamburg due in Cristobal January 27 to transit the next day and

return to Balboa February 16. She will come back to the Canal February 28

for a southbound transit and return March 18 to transit north. The Hamburg makes another round trip through

the Canal later with the southbound

transit set for March 30 and the retum

trip north June 18. The well-known Rotterdam of the Holland-America Line is due in Balboa

April 8 and will transit the following

day for Cristobal.

French Line

The French Line is agent this yeai' for only one cruise ship. She is the Paquet Line's flagship Renaissance

which is making a cruise around South

America from Port Everglades and is scheduled to transit the Canal south January 19. The Italian Line's Raffaello

is expected to call at Cristobal in March.

Ships of the P & O Line travel through the Canal during the year but

the Oriana is to call in the winter on two

special cruises. According to Norton

Lilly, the ship will leave Vancouver on

a Christmas cruise December 21 and

will call on her way to Balboa at Los

Angeles and Puerto Vallarta. After leav- ing Cristobal, she will stop at La Guaira,

Barbados, Martinique, St. Thomas, and

Curacao before returning to the Canal

to transit for a retum trip up the west

coast to Vancouver. The Oriana wiU have a similar itin- erary when she makes a so-called Carnival cruise through the Canal to the Caribbean in January and February.

Other P & O ships, due between

October and March, are the Chusan,

Iberia, Oransay, Arcadia, Himalaya, and

Canberra.

28 Fall 1971
PANAMA CANAL TRAFFIC

STATISTICS FOR 12 MONTHS OF

FISCAL YEAR 1971 TRANSITS (Oceangoing Vessels) J97i 1970 Commercial 14,020 13,658

U.S. Government 503 1,068 Free 94 103

Total 14,617 14,829 TOLLS"

Commercial $97,418,550 $94,688,543

U.S. Coveniinent_ 3,147,987 6,221,313

Total $100,566,537 $100,909,856

CARGO"

Commercial 118,634,184 114,264,010

U.S. Government 2,236,627 4,410,451 Free 139,843 234,760

Total 121,010,654 118,909,221

" Includes toUs on all vessels, oceangoing and

small. ""Cargo figures are in long tons.

( Continued from p. 23)

sHtution was christened with a bottle of water in 1797—twice. In each case, the

ship got stuck and was prevented from

sUding into the water. The third try was

successful but this time a bottle of Old

Madeira donated by Thomas Russell, a leading Boston merchant, was used. During christening ceremonies at the Panama Canal Industrial Division it is fairly common to crack a bottle of Chagres River water over the new vessel but champagne has been used also from

time to time. Chagres water was used when Mrs. Hugh M. Arnold, wife of the Acting

Goveinor of the Canal Zone, was

sponsor for the Mandinga, which was

launched in October 1957. Painted a

brilliant red and white, the 40-foot dredge was fully dressed with signal

flags for the ceremony, held in the pres- ence of Acting Governor Arnold, and

Alton White, then chief of the Dredging

Division. Before World War II, when a new

tugboat was needed the Panama Canal

rlesigned, built and launched it and put

it to work with an unhurried thoroughness that saw the job finished from the drawing of plans to the completion of

test trials. Launching of the tugs which the Canal built was carried out in an origi- nal manner. No launching ways were

refjuired and the operation was simple.

The large drydock in Balboa was flooded and two 250-ton floating cranes, the Hercules and Ajax, were brought into position within the dock. Slings were

adjusted under the keel of the launch

and when all was ready, the two cranes simply lifted the completed hull from

the building slip on the drydock wall.

PRINCIPAL COMMODITIES SHIPPED THROUGH THE CANAL

(All cargo figures in long tons) Pacific to Atlantic

Fiscal Year

Commodity 1971 Ores, various 5,909,419 Boards and planks 3,918,208

Iron and steel plates, sheets and coils 3,644,433 Sugar 3,316,900 Petroleum and products 2,037,958

Metals, various 1,560,293 Food in refrigeration (excluding bananas) 1,407,252 Fishmeal l,382!l21 Pulpwood 1,296,941 Petroleum coke 1,100,9.50 Bananas 1,079,486 Plywood and veneers 1,027,132 Barley '909,627

Iron and steel manufactures, misceUaneous 796,843

Iron and steel wire, bars, and rods 665,061

All others 14,230,228

Total 44,282,852

Atlantic to Pacific
I

CANAL COMMERCIAL TRAFFIC BY NATIONALITY OF VESSELS

t iscal Year
50 Years Ago

THERE ARE ONLY A FEW OLDtimers still living on the Isthmus

w'ho remember the whale that in%aded

Cristobal harbor 50 years ago. But in No\-ember 1921 it was the talk of the Isthmus. The 120-foot mammal, weighing approximately 125 tons, sailed through the Cristobal breakwater and

grounded in the shallow waters east of the Canal prism about a quarter of a mile south of the Cristobal coaling plant.

The whale remained there, with the top

of its head and most of its back above

water, until it was killed 2 days later by

a group of Canal employees who planned

to render its blubber at the Mount Hope

abattoir.

Cristobal Harbor - 1921

"Thar She

CANAL HISTORY

Blows"

The whale carcass was towed to Pier 6

in Cristobal but, alas, the 7.5-ton locomotive crane was unable to lift it from the water to the railroad flat cars assembled

for transportation to Mount Hope. Sal- vage efforts were abandoned shortly

after and the whale was towed about

12 miles out to sea where it was later bombed by U.S. Navy planes from

Coco Solo.

o o o The sailing vessel Carnegie, on a magnetic survey of the earth for the Carnegie Institution in Washington, D.C.,

arrived at Balboa October 7, 1921, on

a 74-dav vovage from Apia, Samoa. The

vessel went into drv'dock in Balboa for renewal of her njddei"post, cleaning, and

painting. This was the vessel's third trip

thiough the Canal and the Panama

Ca.nal Record noted that since her pre- vious trip she had been equipped with

electric lights.

25 Years Ago

THE WAR WAS OVER 25 YEARS

ago and the Canal Zone along with the

rest of the world u'as trying to put its house in order. The Panama Canal Per- sonnel Bureau, Employment and Train- ing Section said that it w-as following its policv of reduction in force and that 1,000 employees had left the Canal service in the past year. A 14-percent pay

increase for classified Federal employees

carried a requirement that the costs of the increase must be absorbed by

reduction in the number of employees.

o e The late Dwight D. Eisenhower, then Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, was among the prominent visitors to the Canal Zone in 1946. He and Mrs. Eisen- hower traveled from Brazil in a four- engined C-54 military plane and were met 200 miles out by two squadrons of U.S. Army planes from the Canal Zone. Eisenhower was greeted by Gov. Joseph D. Mehaffev and other Canal Zone officials. He later toured the Canal Zone

and Panama and was received in Pan- ama by the late President Enrique Jimenez. Along Central .\venue, school chil- dren dressed in white waved Panama

and United States flags. Another visitor was the late Adm.

William F. "Bull" Halsey, one of the

best known U.S. Navy heroes of World

War II. He came here for a 4-day visit, shortly after the departure of Eisen- hower, and toured both sides of the Isthmus.

• • e The Panama liner Panama was the

first of the three Panama Line ships to be placed back in service after the war. Her scheduled departure from New

York early in September was delayed

2 weeks by a shipping strike but she

finally sailed for Cristobal September 22.

10 Years Ago

AN INCREASE IN MEDICAL Assistance for disabilitv relief annuitants

of the Panama Canal was approved by

the Canal Board of Directors 10 years

ago. The plan called for expanding visit- ing nurse service, furnishing drugs free

of cost when ordered by physicians,

and the emplovment of two part-time

doctors.

o o e

Preliminary work was started on a $927,000 contract providing for the

construction of 100 quarters in the townsite of Pedro Miguel. The housing units were part of the replacement housing to be built in the Canal Zone as part of the Nine-Point Program of Benefits to Pan- ama. The contract had been awarded in September 1961 to the W. B. Uhlhom

Construction Co. of Te.xas.

Plans were being made in November

1961 for recei\ing the first three of the Panama Canal's new streamlined towing

locomotives which were nearing completion in Japan. Two veteran lock operators visited Japan, watched the mules

in operation, and familiarized themselves with the controls and functioning

of the machines. They returned to the Canal Zone to serve as instructors when

the new locomotives arrived.

Bids were opened in December for the construction of a central chilled water air-conditioning system in the Pacific Terminal area. This was the first major step in a long range plan to pro- vide air-conditioning to the Canal's public buildings by means of a singlepipe loop system through which water

is pumped from a central plant.

One Year Ago

GOV. W. P. LEBER CUT THE RIB- bon last November to mark the formal opening of Gorgas Hospital's recendy

renovated Section O, the final step of a multimillion dollar hospital rehabilitation program started in the early 1960's. The governor said that this was a major

step in bringing Canal Zone hospital

facilities up to modern standards. Section O houses the pediatric ward, the new pulmonary disease section, and the medical library. It was remodeled by

the E. O. Hauke Co., of Colon.

e « o

All non-U. S. -citizen employees of Federal agencies in the Canal Zone became eligible last year for enrollment

in the Federal Employees' Group Life Insurance and Federal Employees'

Health Benefits Insurance plans. These new benefits were the result of legislation approved by President Nixon on September 25, 1970, which provided

for an increase to a ma.ximum of 40 per- cent in U.S. Government contributing

health insurance premium payments

effective January 1, 1971.

The Panama Canal Review 31




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