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CarnatlonJ In Panama

(Eocai del Uoro

T)ke J^oodevelt

Vol. 15, No. 6

AUGUST 1965
RoBEHT J. Fleming, Jr., Governor-President

H vHOLD R. Pahfitt, Lieutenant Governor

Fr.\nk a. Balx)\vin Panama Canal Information Officer

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

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

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

RoBEKT D. Kebh, Press Officer Publications Editors Richard D. Peacock and Julio E. Briceno

Editorial .Assistants Eunice Richard, Tobi Bittel, and

ToMAs A. CupAs

c4bout Out Covet

THE COVER of this Review carries the symbols of three special stories to be

found on the following pages. The

first is a story on Bocas del Toro, a

lovely part of Panama that is more and more being "discovered" bv the tourist who wants beauty, solitude and near

perfect climate. One day, it mav be- come another Acapulco, but todav it is probably one of the few havens left for those who would rather collect their wits than souvenirs. The flower is, of course, the carnation, which grows to beautiful proportions and size in the new Citricos de- velopment near David. The companv

is still experimenting with various varieties, but the product is being .sold in Panama City and elsewhere and is find- ing excellent acceptance. Growing flowers may sound like an easy proposition, but commercial development is another

thing. The story furnishes details on

the problems and prospects of this in- dustry, which is the first large-scale flower growing in the Republic.

That ship of old is the famous Roosevelt, which came to a sad end in the waters of the old . French Canal. Its story is one of the great ones in the annals of men and the sea. Admiral

Robert Peary, heroic by any standards, saw in the rugged ship an opportunity

to broaden man's horizon. And his adventure is one that will be told for ages. Here, the story also includes the elements of the story that are related

to the Panama Canal. There are some

very special pictures, some never before published, included in this story. The Review is indebted to Mrs. Marie

Peary Stafford of Brunswick, Maine, for the use of three pictures from her

personal album.

The last symbol is for a far more

modern ship— the Oceanic. These da\s

they arc building absolutely everything

into a ship. The Oceanic is representative of the unbelievable comfort and

A mosaic of the Virgin, in the classic Italian style, made by Dolores

G. Stewart, Panama Canal Executive Planning Staff statistical drafts- man. Mrs. Stewart made the original drawing on paper and transferred

it to plywood. Italian tesserae tile was cut by hand and glued to the plywood with contact cement as the work progressed. When all the

pieces were in place, the mosaic was grouted and, finally, cleaned and then waxed. The mosaic, truly a work of art, took Mrs. Stewart

1 year to make.

pleasure than can be built into ships

that can be described as nothing else than floating palaces. But even that might be a misnomer—the palaces of old would no doubt come out a damp

and musty second compared to the Oceanic.

There are other features, too, and

all are designed with the special readership of the Review in mind. There's

the one about the Rockhounds, for instance, and one that introduces you

to the new Lieutenant Go\eriior of the Canal Zone. These stories are . . . well,

just start turning the pages and find out

for yourself.

Sndex

Bocas del Toro 3

He Sails With Students By Air 6

The New Lieutenant Governor 7

Rockhounds 8

Carnations in Panama 10

Shipping Charts, Notes 12

Peary and the Roosevelt 14

Anniversaries 17

Elegance at Sea 18

Shipping -_ ._ ._ 20

The Dijvi Atlantic 20

Canal History 21

Where Solidarity Began 23

2 August 1965
Vidit Jjocad del Uoro^

c4n Uncut Uropic Qem

Visitors arrive by launch on the historical island of Bastimentos, where Columbus is said to have landed on his fourth voyage in 1502.

THE FIRST "tourist" to visit Bocas del Toro was dis- appointed.

But of course he wasn't looking for an ideal vacation

spot with miles of unspoiled beaches, sheltered coves, and crystal-clear water. Columbus was interested only in a new route to the Orient. When he sailed through the

passage known as La Boca del Dragon into a spacious

island-studded bay on the Atlantic coast of Panama he was convinced he had succeeded in his long quest for a

strait that would lead him to Cathav. That was in 1502,

when the Great Navigator made his fourth voyage to the

New World.

Today, 463 years later, modern-dav travelers with a

taste for sunning, surfing, or skindiving are rediscovering

this tropical paradise off the beaten tourist track. The

capital of the Province of Bocas del Toro, a picturesque

community of some 2,500 inhabitants, lies on the southern

end of one of the islands of the great bay, now called .\lmirante in honor of Columbus.

Linked to Panama City and David by daily air service,

the island capital is beginning to attract small numbers of

tourists, and travel e.xperts are predicting that the area mav some dav become a plush resort comparable to Mexico's Acapulco. (See p. 4)

The P.\nama Canal Review
An excellent crescent-shaped beach stretches for miles on the island of Bocas del Toro.

(Eocad del Uioro.

c4n Uncut Qem

(Continued from p. 3)

A group of local civic leaders has

formed a tourist cooperative and with

the aid of two young Peace Corps vol- unteers stationed in Bocas, have pro- moted se\eral package tours to the city. The all-expense excursions include

roundtrip airfare from Panama City or Da\id, hotel accommodations, all meals,

beach parties, sightseeing trips, and

dances. The National Tourist Institute of Pan- ama has declared the area a tourist zone and is now making efforts to interest in\estors in building modern hotels. Accommodations at Bocas are still rudimentary, but very modestly priced.

A single room at the Copa Hotel or one

of two pensiones—the Plaza and the B()mba\'—costs onlv about $1.50 and

doubles are priced at S2.50. Water sports are the main attraction.

Skin and scuba diving are popular in Bocas. Compressed air is available through a local diving club.

August 1965
There are boats available for hire at about $8 for a full day of excellent fish- ing or skindi\ing at one of the many

reefs. Arrangements also may be made

for water skiing in the calm lagoon

waters. Among sightseeing goals is a stalactite cave in which an American priest is said

to have seen an apparition many years

ago. To sanctify the spot, he built several

religious images at the entrance of the cavern and held mass there each Sunday

until his departure from Bocas.

Seafood is of course abundant and

good. Turtle steak, fish, and the famed

Bocas del Toro lobsters are served at the airport restaurant, only a 5-minute

walk from the hotel. Good buys in Bocas are tortoise shell

articles, stuffed turtles, and decorative

fish heads mounted on varnished wall

plaques.

Though there are excellent beaches on practically all the islands of the Bocas

Archipelago, including a beautiful cres- cent-shaped beach on the capital island,

perhaps the most spectacular of all is on

historical Bastimentos, about 30 minutes

from the back porch of your hotel by

motor launch.

Stretching for miles along the north

coast of the island of Bastimentos, where

Columbus is said to have come ashore,

is a fine sand, surf-swept beach lined with coconut palms. Lack of docking

facilities, combined with a heavy Caribbean surf, make it dangerous to ap- proach the beach by boat directly from

the ocean. But the 2-mile walk from the

sheltered side of the island is well worth

the trouble. The huge rolling waves make it an ideal spot for surfboard

enthusiasts. Though Spanish is of course the official language in the city of Bocas del Toro,

historv and heritage have combined to make it an English-speaking community

as well. Among the early colonizers of the area were three pioneering families, one British and two American, who

settled in Bocas with their slaves. Fol- lowing a violent disagreement, the families decided to separate. The Browns,

one of the American families, settled on

the island of Carenero, at a spot now

known as Brown's Point. The other American family, called Knop, set up

a community of its own on the island of Cocoqui, later renamed San Cristobal. The British family, the Shepherds, went

to still another island, now called Isla de Pastores (the Spanish word for she- pherd ) . Shepherd freed his slaves who

settled on the island of Bastimentos.

Today, many of the descendants of

Fierce looking barracuda heads are stuffed and mounted on varnished wall plaques at the docks of the Bocas del Toro Skindiving Club. Also available are lacquered stuffed turtles and lobsters.

Visitors are intrigued by La Gruta, a stalactite cave converted into a shrine by an American

priest who is said to have seen a vision there.

those early settlers earn their living at the banana plantations of the Chiriqui

Land Co., a subsidiary of the United

Fruit Co. with headquarters at Almirante, on the mainland across from the

island of Bocas. The company operates

regular launch service between the two

communities and arrangements may

be made for an interesting visit to the

plantations.

The Panama Canal Review
He Sails With Students By Air

PANAMA CANAL PILOT Capt. Roy

H. Rice has taken hundreds of boys and

girls through the Canal, has talked to them and answered a multitude of questions about Canal operations—and has never seen one of these youngsters.

They're all airwaves friends of his, contacted when he takes off his pilot's hat and puts on his ham radio

operator's hat. His first contact with a school in the United States, via ham radio, was

a Spanish class in Largo Junior High

School, Largo, Fla. He had been talking to an airwaves

friend and was kidding about his daughter's cooking.

"I think teenagers do pretty good," a new voice broke in. "I'm eating some

blueberry muffins right now that they

made, and these are delicious." "Where are you?" asked Captain Rice.

"In school," came the answer. "I'm

the Spanish teacher in Largo Junior High School. The Home Ec class just

sent up some freshly baked blueberry

muffins, and I'm eating one right now

during change of classes." They talked some more, one getting more information on the background of the other, and as a result of the chat Captain Rice next found himself tell- ing the Largo Junior High Spanish

class about the Panama Canal and its operations.

The ham radio set is in the classroom

of Spanish teacher Merton D. Short,

who feels strongly about the many

educational opportunities airwaves' contacts offer studens. Mrs. Rice, also a licensed ham radio

operator, did research on Canal history

to add unusual bits of information to the Panama Canal talks. Soon the\- were

"Rov" and "Marcy" or KZ5NN and

KZoM.M, respectively, to the students

in the States. One talk given by Captain and Mrs.

Rice was based on the "Gateway for U'orld Trade" issued by the Panama

Canal Information Office. That was when Captain Rice invited his airwaves

friends to join him on the bridge of

a vessel that he, as pilot, was taking

through the Canal. But he'd onlv get just so far in the Canal transit description when the class- room bell would sound, and the boys

and girls reluctantly had to leave while

another class filed in. Later he was in- formed that each class wanted to know

what happened, and one class filled

in another on the parts that had been

missed.

"It took four class periods to go

through the Canal, and some boys and

girls remained after school to complete

CQ . . . CQ . . . Calling Florida. Another airwaves class is about to come to order. Subject? The Panama Canal. Teachers are Capt. Roy Rice, Panama Canal pilot, and

Mrs. Rice. The pupils are thousands of miles away.

the transit," he chuckles proudlv.

Alter that talk, the letters started coming from the children. Thev were

written, for the most part, on lined paper from school pads and one junior

high school girl apologeticallv added to her thanks a P.S. "Sorry this is on

school paper, but around here it's the

official kind." The children wrote: "... Thank vou very much for the

talk vou gave us on the Panama Canal.

I wish that I could be able to hear the

parts the other classes heard because it was very interesting."

"... We enjoved hearing about the Canal Zone. I think I would enjoy going

there some time.

"

"... From this experience I learned manv things that couldn't be found in books. I enjoyed listening to vou very much and out of all the people we'\'e talked to this vear I think vour talk was

the most interesting."

One girl added the wish of good

luck "with your ships going through

th? Canal." Captain and Mrs. Rice have talked to U.S. schoolchildren on the history of the Panama Canal, on the trials and

tribulations of the building of the trans- continental railroad, on the part the Isthmus of Panama played in the Gold

Ru.sh days, and on the construction of the Canal itself. Then another school picked up the

Rices' Panama Canal classroom of the

air, and another, and another. Captain

and Mrs. Rice have made contacts with

schools in California, and North Carolina, in Texas, and in Alabama. In California, it was a science class that had a ham radio set in the classroom. They

clamored to hear the Panama Canal

talk, bits of which had come over

the air. Sometimes Captain and Mrs. Rice

lia\e 20 to 30 people on the air, listen- ing at the same time and then coming

in with questions. Distance is no barrier. Vi'hile they were talking to Largo,

Fla.. once, a California school was at- tending the same class on the Panama

Canal. Someone motoring west through the United States wrote Captain Rice to

reqviest Panama Canal information material, and said his daughter was attending classes over the airwa\es while

traveling.

Three students, writing essavs on the (See p. 19)

6 August 1965
fiT HIS HOUSS: DOLLS, SKfiT€S, HIK6S

Meet The New Lieutenant Governor

THE CANAL ZONE'S new Lieutenant

Governor, Col. Harold R. Parfitt, and

his wife share a special responsibility

with all U.S. parents of children born

in the Canal Zone—they, too, have to obtain a certificate of U.S. citizenship

for their daughter, Karen, bom 8

years ago in Paris, France. Her sister, Beverly, 6, came complete with U.S.

citizenship. She was bom in St. Louis. With the arrival of Colonel Parfitt's family, the official residence of the Lieutenant Governor is alive with skates and

dolls and the primary school set, replacing teenagers who had gathered there with the sons and daughter of former

Lieutenant Governor Parker. Now there's the sound of piano practice, as tiny fingers master the scales and melodies. Instead of Girl Scouts working on advanced badges and learn- ing small boat navigation, there may be

little Brownies starting up the Girl Scout

ladder and little girls working on swim

badges. Karen can't remember living in France, of course, for she was under 2 when the family left. But now, at the age of 8, she had looked forward to her father's new assignment in Panama

and can even speak a little Spanish,

taught her before coming to the Isth- mus while attending a private school

in Jacksonville, Fla., where Colonel

Parfitt was stationed as Jacksonville

District Engineer for the U.S. Army

Corps of Engineers. His responsibilities

included civilian and military construction in Florida, Puerto Rico, the Virgin

Islands and the Canal Zone. The new Lieutenant Governor and

his family enjoN' hiking, and have been

taking get-acquainted walks in the Canal

Zone. Colonel Parfitt usually walks to work in the morning, home and back

again at noon, and home at the close

of the day. Nor does he think anything

of walking down the 119-plus steps

from the Administration Building to Balboa and back. Both Colonel and

Mrs. Parfitt are sports enthusiasts. He is a man of wide interests. When

he looks at the Isthmian landscape with

artist's eye, it's because he is an artist. When he was stationed in Japan from

1948 to 1950 as captain with the 8th Army Engineering group, he took painting lessons in his off-duty hours. Mrs. Parfitt, the former Patricia

Although busy moving into their new home, the Parfitts managed to find time for a family

photograph at their new residence. From left to right are daughters Karen and Beverly, Colonel Parfitt, and Mrs. Parfitt.

Scully, was born in Lexington, Kv., but

is one daughter of the Blue Grass country who doesn't ride. Karen, however,

is infatuated with horses, as befits the daughter of even a non-riding Kentucky

mother.

Colonel Parfitt is a combat veteran

of World War II and Korea. He was wounded on D-Day during an amphibious landing on Omaha Beach. In Korea

he was promoted three times and was

engineer of the Second Engineer Construction Group, designing bridges to be rebuilt during the advance of Allied

forces up the peninsula. In 1955-58,

Colonel Parfitt was Executive Officer to the Engineer at Supreme Headquarters, Allied Forces in Europe, and he revisited landing areas on the beaches

and locales last seen under enemy fire. Colonel Parfitt recalls as one of his most interesting assignments that of U.S. Army representative in 1961-62 to the Canadian Defense College at Kingston, Canada. While at Kingston, he

took an extensive trip that included the Middle East. The Canadian Ambassador to each country briefed the group

on various foreign relations aspects and

economics of that country.

While the Parfitts were stationed in Europe they enjoyed traveling on the continent and in England. They fell in love with the picturesque Bavarian re- gion, motored through the Alps, stop-

(See p. 19)

The Panama Canal Review
A REALLY ROCKIN' HOBBY

IF YOU see someone pick up a stone and lick it, you are seeing a rockhound.

Licking the stone will give the rock- hound or "rockologist" an idea what

the stone will look like when it's polished. The Canal Zone boasts a number

of these hobb)ists who see in a stone something more than just nature's castaway.

Members of the Canal Zone Gem &

Mineral Society, numbering about 50,

may make ocean "field " trips to the

Perlas Islands in search of the lovely,

milky white quartz amygdule found

there in profusion. But most rock- hounds, collectors of quality stones, find the beach areas and streams on the Isthmus good places for a rock hunt. They have about half a million col- leagues in the United States who follow

the hobby of the pick and sack. A large number of rockhounds engage

only in collecting stones. Many of these

collectors, besides enjoying the thrills of a treasure hunt and the outdoor exercise, have turned the hobby into a

profitable one by becoming expert lapi- daries. They cut and polish stones and

set them as jewelry. Not all gems are mounted in jewelry, though. Some rock- hounds display gemstones in special

gem cabinets. Numerous Canal Zone

lapidarists have built up a valuable col- lection of cut and polished gems and

specimens. Other rockhounds have

turned their hobby into specialized

Bits of crushed rock, highly polished agate and tumbled stones, glued on a wood background, were used by Loretta Merrill to create "rock painting."

craftsmanship and made rough stone

into a thing of beauty—lovely enough

to adorn their homes. Slabs of stone are used in making table tops, bookends,

lamps, ink stands, and many other objects. Crushed gemstones of various

colors and slices of highly polished agate

may be glued to a flat surface making a

sort of oil painting in stone—a beautiful work of art. The agate is perhaps the rockhound's

favorite. It is made of quartz, one of the hardest of the many minerals that make up the earth's pebbles and stones. The finest of quartz stones is called chalcedony, and agate is one of these smooth and waxy chalcedony stones.

Junior rockliouiid enthusiast Marcel Houssc

in operation during au looking at Clarence Dimmick's slab saw

rockhounds' exhibit.

There are many varieties of agate and

most of it takes on a fine polish. Some

agates are glassy clear; others are tinted with smudges of white, grey, blue, or brown. There are banded agates and

variegated ones with stripes that look

like ripples of colored water. Moss agate

contains green, yellow, brown, and

other colored minerals. Another gemstone found on the Isth- mus is jasper which comes in a range

of colors from purplish to all shades of brown. Jasper is opaque quartz that is hard, compact, fine grained. It takes

a good polish and does not flake or

fracture easily. The fields of Chame,

not far from Panama City, are good

hunting grounds for jasper. These, and

other specimens, may be cut into all shapes and sizes. They may be hand

processed or tumbled. First cut into

slices on a slab saw, gemstones are cut and shaped on a grinding wheel after the desired shapes are marked from

lapidarv templates on the rock slabs with an aluminum pencil.

The hand process of cutting and

polishing consumes hours—a painstaking job that requires a steady hand and

an exacting eye. After the slab has been

marked with the template, cut and

ground to the approximate desired shape, it is mounted on a dop stick (a

handling stick) with dopping wax (a

mixture of sealing wax and lacquer).

Then the stone is ground and sanded

on a rough wheel in four steps using

different sizes of grit. Now it's time to polish the stones and this is done on leather or felt with

polishing powders such as chrome oxide,

tin oxide, or cerium oxide. Some stones

8 August 1965
must be polished with a specific oxide

to obtain a good finish. The next step

is to remove the stone from the dop

stick. This can be done by putting it

in the freezer for a few minutes where

the cold causes the stone to drop ofiF. The stone is then ready to mount. The mechanical process of shaping

and polishing stones is called tumbling.

Stones to be tumbled are placed in a round, hexagonal, or octagonal shaped

electric powered barrel with quantities

of silicone carbide grit. They are tumbled for hours and hours of continuous

rotation after the stone has been hand

ground to a rounded shape. The stones are tumbled for about 2 weeks in very rough grit. They are removed from the tumbler, washed, and tumbled for a week to 10 days in a less rough grit. The

process is repeated with finer grit for another week or two. Now the stones are read)' for polishing. After a good thorough washing

they are placed in the cleaned tumbler

with chips of wood, com cobs, or

bits of leather. Again, the stones are washed and put in the tumbler with

detergent for 2 or 3 days.

Final!)', the last step has arrived! After cleaning, the stones, glistening

like jewels, are sorted and admired—

a

real joy to the rockhound who may

still recognize some of the rough

stones he picked up at the beach. But not all stones come out of the tumbler beautiful. The color may be

onl)' on the surface or the stone may

turn out to to be too course in texture. Broken and rough stones are ground or crushed into different sizes. These are used for picture composition. An ex- ample of picture "painting" with gemstone and crushed rock are pictures

made by Mrs. Robert Merrill, of Balboa. Local rockhounds Russel Weaver,

Earl Orr. Amos Bierwagan, and others make beautiful table tops using bits of crushed rock and polished slabs. The

tables may sell for as much as $300

in the United States. A relatively small number of rock- hounds do faceting probablv because

it involves specialized machinery and

mathematics. The standard faceting

machine is a rather complex, precision

dex'ice that is quite expensive. But it

is possible to facet with a device that

costs only a few dollars and a lot of hard work. Col. A. W. Stratton, Gorgas

Hospital surgeon, does faceting with a device that he made for a few dollars. The Canal Zone Gem & Mineral

Society celebrated its 10th anniversan,'

in March. The society has a lapidar\'

workshop in Balboa for the use of its

Dr. Albert Stratton, Gorgas Hospital surgeon, at work faceting a synthetic sapphire on

his homemade faceting machine.

members. Several of the rockhounds

have set up home workshops for the convenience of lapidarv equipment.

Each vear more and more people

join the rock collecting hobby. Experienced rockhounds recommend that you

do not go hunting alone. Wear sturdy

shoes, and take along the right equip- ment. This includes a rock sack, a hammer (a pick may come in handy), carry

a shovel, and a burlap bag. Be sure

to wear goggles and gloves while digging or picking at a rock. There are always new areas and new materials to be discovered. Remember that Panama

requires a license that costs $7.50 for rock hunting in the Republic. Have fun

and happy hunting!

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A display of jewelry made by Mr. and Mrs. Amos Bierwagen. The collection includes black

agate, moss agate, banded agate, Perlas Island amygdules, petrified wood, and jasper

mounted on gold plated findings.

The Panama Canal Review
An Industry Flowers

In Ghiriqui Province

PART OF THE beauty of Panama

is in the lovely flo\\ers that grow in splashes of color across the countr\'-

side. Flowers of many varieties flourish especially well in the Boquete

area, because of the ideal climate

and good soil in that area of Ghiriqui

Province.

It was natural then, that commercial flower growing started there manv years ago. Until recently,

though, the business was not on a

large scale. Then came Citricos de

Ghiriqui, S.A., a company that saw

an opportunity to de\'eIop flowers

into a large industry' in Panama.

Gitricos is largely interested in citrus and has devoted most of its efforts to the huge citrus development at Potrerillos. But its interest

in flowers was sharpened by a potential market, a crop that could be

developed more cjuickly than citrus

fruit and the desire to experiment

C^arnutioiis are grown in seini-opcn areas in beds that are elevated about 2 feet from the ground. This allows conditions to be controlled. Water, into which fertilizer has been

dissolved, is fed through a trough. The opaque plastic above the beds is designed to filter in the right amount of sunlight. Air circulation is also controlled.

10 August 1965
CARNATIONS:

AN EXPANDING

INDUSTRY

in a new field. The experimental ele- ment lies in the fact that no large-scale

commercial growing of carnations and

other flowers had been attempted in Panama. Roses, lilies, gladioli, and pompoms all grow in the area, but the car- nation was chosen to launch the project.

A Citricos spokesman put it this wav: "The possibilities of other flowers and

crops were weighed. But the climate

and other conditions in the Boquete area

are apparently well suited to carnations,

ind there is a market for them." So,

in July 1963 the experimental beds were planted.

Rooted cuttings were purchased from

the Akron, Ohio, area, one of the great carnation centers, and flown to nearbv

Da\id. With care, these prospered.

Huge, beautiful carnations grew. This

past June the project planted for the

third time. The first cuttings were of several varieties. The idea was to see which would

produce enough flowers to support a commercial operation. Each planting, some varieties are dropped and others added in an effort to sift out those that don't do so well, or don't produce in sufficient numbers. Those that flourish are pushed to full development.

Why some varieties yield many

flowers per square foot and others only

a few is sometimes hard to determine.

The sure wav to know is to plant, nourish, watch, keep careful records, and

wait for results. Now, says Citricos, seven varieties are proven producers

and others show a lot of promise.

The program has sielded much infor- mation but manv problems have crop- ped up. The central objective can be

summed up this way: To develop a vol- ume of qualitv, steady production of carnations for shipment to markets in Latin America and the United States. There is a tremendous need for qualitv

flowers in Central America and the northern part of South America, an

official said. Panama is ideal in terms of location. San Jose, Costa Rica, can be reached

b\' air in an hour. Bogota, Colombia,

is nearbv bv air, as are Mexico Cit\', Ja- maica. Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Miami,

and Caracas, Venezuela. The limited production so far has been shipped to

1^

\ .1

A complete soil analysis laboratory is maintained by Citricos. Information gathered on the

carnation and citrus programs is evaluated after tests are made. Much information is gathered

over a long period of time after comparisons are made of the various combinations of growing conditions. The experiments bring results when the best combination of factors are selected, producing a superior product under the best conditions.

Panama City, Miami, and Philadelphia; other markets will be developed as production is expanded.

The market is variable, but mostly

steady. The sun, rain, clouds, and peaks

of demand at certain times all are factors affecting the market. Working out shipping schedules is a major problem,

too, because speed is essential in trans- porting a perishable product.

There were also problems in production. In 2 years, experimental growing

has shown much about the preferred

way of building flower beds, solving

drainage problems, conquering disease and insects, and controlling air circulation. The right chemical nourishment,

the angle and intensitv of sunlight and

the temperature are elements that had

to be explored and information is still being gathered to create an ideal combination of growing factors. But these problems are being solved and Boquete is proving to be a good

area for the carnation. The night temperature is rarely below 52 or so. Daytime temperature is a little high when

it reaches a maximum of 80 at the growing altitude of 3,000 feet. Still, it is within acceptable limits. A square foot

of Citricos flower bed will produce 45

to 55 flowers a year, 10 more than in top grade U.S. production centers. A

measured amount of fertilizer is fed to the plants. Machinery is used to inject the fertilizer into a controlled amount

of water. All growth factors are record- ed and a work force of about 15 men

is employed in the covered carnation

bed area. Eventually, the project ma\' grow

to 10 acres. In flower growing, that's

strictlv big league, with production run- ning to millions of flowers annuall)'. There are other possibilities. There

is a potential for success in the growing

of the bird of paradise and the eucaK'ptus, and perhaps other flowers, Citricos

officials sav. "This project, and its potential growth, means income to Pan- amanians and to the Republic. And it also means that another quality product

can be e.xported with a "Produced in Panama" tag.

Thz Panama Canal Review 11
CANAL COMMERCIAL TRAFFIC BY NATIONALITY OF VESSELS
Advanced Ship

THE 555-FOOT Ciudad dc Bogota,

the second of six automated ships order- ed at a total cost of $36 million by Grancolombiana Line, made her maiden ap- pearance in New York recently. Built

at the shipyard of H. S. Stucken, Sohn

of Hamburg, Germany, this most ad- vanced type merchant ship is propelled

bv a 14,400-horsepower diesel which

will permit her to cruise at 21 knots. She is capable of accommodating 88

of the 22-foot containers, or 176 of the

10-foot containers. The container handling arrangement is the first of its kind,

a highly efficient built-in system.

Four similar ships will be deliyered

to Grancolombiana during the next few

months, bringing the total fleet to 48

ships, 32 of which are company owned.

Europe-South America ser\'ice has been

extended to include Chile, so the ship

will be using the Panama Canal. Wilford & McKay are the local agents.

A Jointed Venture

THE STOLT LADY, which recently

began operations as a long-term charter

in worldwide service, is perhaps the most unusual 19,000-ton ship afloat. The 580-foot vessel, a Norwegian

tanker, was readied by a Swedish shipyard for Parcel Tankers, Inc., the lead- ing operator of highly specialized tank

vessels. This type of ship moves val- uable liquid cargoes in relatively small

quantities. General agents for Parcel Tankers is Stolt-Nielsen Chartering. Inc. The ship is really two ships—the bow

of one and the stern of another. The

Stolt Dagali was cut in two on Thanksgiving Day, 1964, in a collision with

the Israeli liner Shalom ofi the coast of New Jersey. The C. T. Gogstad broke

in two after it was stranded on the Baltic

coast. The Gogstad's 140-foot stem section was salvaged and the 440-foot foward

section of the Slolf Dagali was also saved. The Gogstad half had the engines and the Dagali half had cargo

tanks. The Gogstad owners purchased

the Dagali half and experts at the Eriks- berg Shipyard at Goteborg, Sweden,

were able to join the two halves. The

fact that the vital statistics were close made the job possible.

Cargo tanks, cargo pipelines and

heating coils, as well as other gear, were

replaced. The new vessel will work

on one of Parcel Tanker's main trade

routes: Europe-United States-Far East and return. This requires transiting the Panama Canal twice. Local agent for the ship is Fernie & Co.

PRINCIPAL COMMODITIES SHIPPED THROUGH THE CANAL

(All cargo figures in long tons)

Pacific to Atlantic

Commodity

Ores, various Lumber

Petroleum and products (excludes asphalt)

Wheat

Sugar

Canned food products

Nitrate of soda Fishmeal

Banana.s

Metals, various Food products in refrigeration (except fresh

fruit) Coffee Pulpwood

Iron and steel manufactures

Fresh and Dried Fruits

All others

Total

Fourth quarter, fiscal year 1965

1965

1,875,715

1,310,946

226,027

271,034

520,633

178,569

208,739

418,016

337,329

316,429

248,233

105,582

143,112

758,710

117,459

1,667,878

8,704,411

1964

1,822,186

1,277,473

636,853

223.193

577,223

222,151

157,881 392.476

334,442

32S,321

264,444

120,846

158,.380 329,553

126,858

1,583,738

8,556,018

Average

1951-55

999,938

1,014,773

229,177

437,251

351,696

269,073

319,896

200.634

191,913

142,423

61,185

56,464

59,091

95,284

694,792

5,123,640

Atlantic to Pacific

Commodity

Petroleum and products (excludes asphalt) Coal and coke Phosphates

Com

Soybeans

Metal, scrap

Iron and steel manufactures

Bauxite ._. Chemicals, unclassified Suear

Sulfur Wheat . . Paper and paper products

Rice Machinery

All others

Total

Fourth quarter, fiscal year 1965

1965

3,414,744

1,928,300

899,486

569,868

433,453

427,023

421,324

207,051

189,439

179,970

164,006

151,245

150,963

132,248

] 26,776

1,995,319

11,391,220

1964

3,071,090

1,483.182

510,236

273,647

221,031

585,215

356,555

159,092

208,919

121,761

139,071

153,858

152,792

42,430

1 10,385

1,835,897

9,425,161

Average

1951-55

1,075,363

703,397

180,384

25,146

119,263

12,985

461,804

38,838

51,553

190,966

106,086

35,034

107,964

40,909

66,780

1, 176,113

4,392,585

CANAL TRANSITS - COMMERCIAL AND U.S. GOVERNMENT
PEARY AND THE ROOSEVELT

li/nen M.an c4nd Snip it/ere Oni

ALONG THE mudflats of the old French Canal, on a day when the tide is out and the waters are calm, you can still see scattered pieces of one of the most gallant and resolute ships ever to challenge the elements.

Onl\' a memory today, the Roosevelt was once the toast of the world, a tough

ship that rammed and tore through

great mountains of ice, a ship that put

Adm. Robert E. Peary within 174

miles of the great and unconquered

dream of generations of explorers—the North Pole. From there an aging Peary made his famous plunge into the bitter cold and,

in a triumph built upon si.\ previous

expeditions, he planted the Stars and

Stripes atop the North Pole in brilliant sunlight on the polar night of April 6, 1909. Without the Roosevelt, the first man

to stand on the North Pole would not have been Peary. In his day, modern

equipment had not been developed to overcome the hazards of arctic travel. As Peary later described it "the poles were «on ultimately by those primeval

machines, man and dog, unaided by

science, struggling along in the savage

half-world between God's countries and

interstellar space, fighting for exist- ence ..." The building of the ship,

then, was an essential element in the

exploration of the North Pole. And its construction came about as a result of two factors—Peary's deter- mination and the vision of a small group of men who formed the Peary

Arctic Club. The ship was the strongest wooden

vessel ever built. She was conceived

as a ship that would combine the best

qualities of previous polar ships, plus

innovations that would give her qualities never before built into a ship de- signed for arctic work. The purpose of the ship was to fight through great, floating ice packs and the biggest part

of its work would be squeezing through

and between fields of ice. Therefore, it was built with these major features: A sharply raking stem,

to furnish ramming and cutting power:

a wedge-shaped bow to help in squeezing through heavy ice; a steam engine

as primary power with sails as auxiliary

power; a hull design that allowed the

Xaliottil Gfographic Socifty

Background photo on this page shows the Roosevelt locked in polar ice at Cape Sheridan.

ship to be pushed up, rising out of the water as the ice pack pressed upon

her below the waterline; construction

of wood to furnish both strength and

the "give" required when negotiating

through treacherous ice flows; a nar- row beam and short length at the water

line to increase maneuverability when

twisting through the ice packs; a rud- der for maximum steering capacity

combined with minimum exposure to damage; a specially designed propellor

that furnished very powerful thrust; and only the most necessary auxiliary structures to keep weight low so that a maximum load of fuel and supplies

could be carried.

The hardy little ship registered at onl\ 614 gross tons. Her sides were

30 inches thick in places and the planking was put together in laminations that gave more strength than would a single

piece of wood. Her engine developed

1,000 horsepower and through a special

system it could furnish 1,.500 horse- power for short periods when needed

to fight ma.ssive concentrations of ice. Now Peary had some financing and

he had a ship. Its launching on March 24. 190,5, thrilled the 48-year-old

explorer. He had been through enough

to discourage a hundred average men,

but he refused to give up. He had in- vaded the frozen wastes nearly every

14 August 1965
year since 1891. He spent his own

money and his wife gave hers. The

U.S. Navy put him on leave for e.xplo- rations but the problems were his to

solve. He gave much of his health before he began his last trip; his life had

been one long fight against misfortune

in the far north. In 1891 he broke his leg on the first expedition. In 1893, on a second

trip, the Peary baby (now Marie Peary

Stafford of Brunswick, Maine) was born

in a hut on the west Greenland shore. Weather turned back the exploration

the following spring. In 189.5 Peary struck out again across

the icecap. Lack of food cut the jour- ney short and starvation nearly over- took the expedition. The men were

saved by eating their dogs. Of 40 taken on the trip, 1 dog was brought back.

In 1896 Peary's attempt to bring

back the great meteorite at Cape York was beaten back by storm and heavy

ice. The next year he succeeded and

brought the meteorite to New York

by ship. In 1898 he made another assault on

the Pole. A blizzard caught the men

on the torturous march and Peary nearly froze. Seven of his toes had to be

amputated in an operation under primitive conditions. He lay helpless for 6 weeks in a deserted station at Fort Conger, then was dragged south on a sledge for 2.50 miles in a temperature

of 50° below zero. In 1900 he was finally well enough

to start again and he headed for the

Pole. Open ice fields proved too dangerous and forced him back. He tried again the next year and the same hazard turned him back. In 1902 he planned a 60-day expedition to the Pole and

started out with 60 dogs, tons of walrus

meat and 8 or 10 Eskimoes. Again, the elements defeated the thrust. But Peary gained a hard-won fund

of knowledge. His experience and failIn ice-filled waters is the Roosevelt, just after she was launched at Bucksport, Maine.

Adm. Robert E. Peary

The Panama Canal Re\ievv 15

ures were not wasted; he would apply

it all to preparation for the final assault. And, of course, he now had the support of a group of men whose belief

in him led them to form the Peary Arctic Club and put up money for the ship.

The admiral was gratified, and he never

claimed for himself all of the accolades

that came afterwards; he insisted, for example, "This ship is not the Peary

ship, but the ship of the Peary Arctic Club, and she is afloat due to the broad

faith and courage of the president of

that club, Morris K. Jesup ..."

The mission of the rugged ship was seen by the club as "the sign of man's final physical conquest of the

earth . . . enduring fame for this country. It means that we pluck and hold

forever the last of the great world prizes

for which adventurous nations have

struggled." At the time, the Roosevelt was the wonder of the shipbuilding world. Built

in Bucksport, Maine, it was christened

by Peary's wife Josephine with a bottle

of champagne encased in a block of ice.

It was the first ship built in the Western Hemisphere for arctic exploration. It was not a big ship, generally

speaking, but was the second largest ever to winter in the Arctic. Its rounded hull let it literally pop out of the ice

if squeezed. Even if stood on end and

gripped by ice, the strain would hardly

be felt because the construction was so

stout. Its light draft of 16 feet allowed

operation close to shore. The thick sides were armor-plated to take the worst rub of passing ice. The

bow had 1-inch steel plating from the

keel up to to .3 feet above the waterline

and extending for 10 feet. The stern protection, of like strength, reached

from the keel above the \\aterline and

extended forward for 14 feet. Waterline armor, extending between the bow

and stern protection, was of %-inch

steel plating 6 feet wide.

The principle of power was reversed

in the Roosevelt, when compared to other arctic ships. Sail power was primary in previous ships^ with steam as an auxiliary power. But the Roosevelt depended upon its steam engine, with

a sailing rig as auxiliary, to give an

extra push when good winds were

about. Its engine gave it as much power

as the most powerful oceangoing tug in New York Harbor. The propeller shaft was 12 inches thick. The propeller was 11 feet in diameter and furnished

tremendous push.

How the vessel came to be named

is told by Peary: "For the ship by whose

aid I hoped to fight my way toward

the most inaccesible spot on earth, the name of Roosevelt seemed to be the one and inevitable. It held as an ideal before the expedition those very qualities of strength, insistence, persistence,

and unvarying victory over all obstacles which made the 26th President of the United States so great." Peary and the Roosevelt returned triumphant from the North Pole in September 1909. She steamed into port

flving the North Pole flag, "... a flag

which never before had entered anv

port in history."

In 1909, after the Roosevelt's participation in the Hudson-Fulton Anniversary Celebration naval parade up the Hudson Ri\er, Peary and the Roosevelt

parted company. Ahead of the ship lay

28 more years of work and adventure.

Shortly after that Peary proposed

that the Pearv Arctic Club and the National Geographic Society undertake a great Antarctic expedition, with the club donating the Roosevelt as its share

Material for this stor>' was gathered by

Julius Grigore, Jr., Assistant Chief of the Industrial Division, and it includes

pictures from the personal album of Mrs. Marie Peary Stafford, Admiral

Peary's daughter.
President Theodore Roosevelt meets members of the crew during a visit aboard the ship bearing his name.

of the cost. The project never was

launched, possibly because of the great

cost of repairing the ship, which had

suffered damage by the ice. Peary was

never to visit the Arctic again. But, because of his Arctic fame, he continued to hvc in high acclaim until his death

in 1920. He was buried in Arlington

National Cemetery with full military honors.

In November 1910, the Roosevelt was sold to John Arbuckle of Brooklyn,

N.Y., for $37,500. Arbuckle had extensive ship salvage and towing interests and the Roosevelt may have been con- ducting massive salvage operations, or

towing canal barges between New York

and Albany.

Arbuckle died in 1912, and the Roosevelt was sold to H. E. J. McDermott. Lists for 1912, 1913, and 1914

give the Roosevelt's function as "fish- ing." On March 3, 1915, the New York

Times reported the Roosevelt was sold

to John W. Sullivan & Co. The Sulli- van Company refitted the Roosevelt with oil burning machinery, made other improvements, then sold her to the

U.S. Bureau of Fisheries for $40,000.

She was to proceed through the Pan- ama Canal upon completion of refitting. From this time to the end of her

davs, the Roosevelt became dogged

(See p. 22)

The Roosevelt in Balboa drydock in 1917.

16 August 1965
ANNIVERSARIES

(On the basis of total Federal Service)

ledo ^^rm

on K^^lnii

SUPPLY AND COMMUNITY

SERVICE BUREAU

Reginald A. Richards Supply Clerk Edward Green Meat Cutter (Sales) Victor A. Hunter

Motion Picture Projectionist (35 mm.)

MARINE BUREAU

Juan B. Olmedo \IPreservation Ki^njnic

Jose E. Tuiioi^ Babbittnian Engineering and

COSlSTRUCTION BU!

Theodore J. Wilber

Administratix'ie SeiNices Assisfaiit ADMINISTRATE E SERVICES

DIVISION

Will R. Price

Printing Plant Foreman TRANSPORTATION AND

TERMINALS BUREAU

Claudius A. Breary

Clerk

Carl H. Thomas

Cargo Clerk

COMPTROLLERS OFFICE

Harry E. Musselman

Time, Leave, and Payroll Supervisor

SUPPLY AND COMMUNITY

SERVICE BUREAU

Peter T. Corrigan

Maintenance Represenjatj^

(Buildings and Utipties)

Harold O. Blackman

Restaurant Manager

Olganon Clarke Laborer (Heavy)

S. Santamaria

Grounds Maintenanci Operator (Small) Dudley H. Trotman

Service Station Attendant Robert H. Miller Housing Project Manager

Leonard A. Pennvcook

Clerk Lawrence C. Waithe

Warehouseman

MARINE BUREAU

George R. Chevannes Motor Launch Captain

Robert G. Peterson

Administrative Services Assistant Ricardo Valencia Linehandler

William E. Weigle, Jr. Supervisory Marine Traffic Controller ibrowsky «eman (Locks Operation)

eph L. Hickey

jaintenance Engineer Lawrence

All 46,000 tons of the world's fifth largest ship glided smoothly into New York's harbor last May on its maiden transatlantic crossing. The Michelangelo, largest and fastest ship in New York-Mediterranean service, is 902 feet long and can carry up to 1,775 passengers

at a maximum speed of 29 knots. Built in Sesfri, Genoa, the Michelangelo carries a crew

of 720, is fireproof, air-conditioned, and has 6 swimming pools. Italy's largest liner since the middle I930's, the sister ship to the Raflaelo was launched in September 1962.

ENGINEERING AND

CONSTRUCTION BUREAU

Leo Chester Water System Controlman

Walter R. Malone

Operator, Floating Crane

Harold F. Mandeville

Telephone Instrument Repairman

George Rahn

Instrument Mechanic (General)

Clifford E. Grayman

Helper Electrician John R. Smith

Super\isory Electrical Engineer

(General) Walter J. St. Louis Wharfbuilder

Henry Ehrman

Surveying Technician George V. Kirkland

Supervisory Construction

Reperesentative (Buildings and

Utilities) Luther B. Sartain, Jr. Super\isory General Engineer

Herbert H. Tabert

Master, Floating Crane TRANSPORTATION AND

TERMINALS BUREAU

Leonardo Scott Stevedore Daniel A. Napier

Chauffeur (Sedans and Station Wagons

only)

Samuel Roe, Jr. Guard

CIVIL AFFAIRS BUREAU

James H. Pennington

Police Private Henry Perry

Police Private Robert J. Helmerichs

Detective Lieutenant Ray W. Wheeler

Fire Captain

HEALTH BUREAU

Florence E. Blackman

Nursing Assistant (Psychiatry)

Ramel H. Masters

Supers'isory Sanitation Inspector ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES

DIVISION

Cyril B. Doyle

Clerk

The Panama Caxal Review 17
The ultramodern Oceanic will transit the Canal early next year.

DUE HERE NEXT YEAR

ThcOceanic: Elelegance AtSea

THE FLAG OF Panama flies from the bow of the $35 mihion

cruise hner Oceanic, the ultra-modern flagship of the Home

Lines which started service between New York and Nassau

in April and is to call at Cristobal February 15, 1966, on a Caribbean cruise out of New York. Not only does the new 11-deck, 774-foot Oceanic carrv the Panamanian flag, but Alex Keusseoglou, an official of the Line and responsible for the design of the ship, was presented

with the Panamanian Order of Vasco Nuiiez de Balboa when

the ship was delivered to her owners earlier this vear. According to C. B. Fenton & Co., agents for the Home

Lines here, the ship \\ill make her first visit to the Isthmus

February 15 when she will arrive at Cristobal after a call

at the San Bias Islands. She will sail the following dav for New York via Kingston.

Called the "ship of tomorrow," the Oceanic was built at Monfalcone, Italy, by the Cantieri Riuniti dell' Adriatico, world's foremost builder of passenger tonnage. She was des- igned to meet the needs of present-day transatlantic and cruise

travel and has a range of 10,900 miles at a speed of 25 knots. Expected to be able to meet any challange from the

so-called hotel-type vessels predicted for the future bv some

shipping leaders, the Oceanic can be considered even more

luxurious than most hotels. In addition to being fullv air conditioned and equipped with stabilizers for smooth

sailing, the ship has 580 cabins with accommodations for 1.200 cruise passengers. Out of the 580 cabins, there are 8 penthouse apartments

with private deck space and 65 deluxe cabins each with a sit- ting room. A large number of the cabins have communicating

doors and can be converted into rooms with a sitting room.

The main dining room can seat comfortablv 700 passengers and her main public room is larger than the largest on the SS France. She has a series of lounges, bars, cardrooms,

libraries, teenagers' area and children's playrooms as well

as a 400-seat double deck cinema theater, a 770-square foot chapel, and a 1,200-square foot gymnasium.

One of the most attractive and unusual parts of the ship

is the Lido Deck, an exceptionalK' large area distinguished

bv two swimming pools, a solarium, bar, and restaurants. The pool area is designed to give palatial effect and can be

utilized both in fair and bad weather thanks to a sliding glass roof that can open or close within 3 minutes and in cold weather is heated bv infrared ravs. The water in the swimming pools can be heated if necessary and there are colored

jets of water to add color on gala nights.

Another luxury touch is the soft music transmitted throughout the ship on a two-channel system in the cabins, public rooms, and corridors. All apartments and deluxe cabins are provided with large-screen television sets which can receive on either European or American wavelengths through a monitoring system retransmitted by a closed circuit. All passenger

cabins have telephones and anyone can be connected from

his cabin with anv point in the world through the ship's

powerful radio station. For those passengers who might still feel out of touch with

civilization, the ship has been equipped with teleprinters for immediate transmission of news and communications as well

as with a telephoto installation which can receive pictures of news events. A special Multilith printing machine permits

circulation on board of a full-scale newspaper.

(See p. 19)

18 August 1965
For the first time, a container ship transited the Canal with containers stacked three high on the deck. The San Francisco, transporting Sea Land Service containers, was able to carry on the third stack 42 additional containers on a recent southbound transit adding 882 Panama Canal tons to the ship's capacity without additional toll charges. This was possible because such charges are made only for cargo

carrying capacity below decks.

THEY SAIL

ON AIRWAVES

(Continued from p. 6)

Panama Canal, heard the Rices' talk on

the Panama Canal and found the help

the\' needed bv writing for information

material. Sending out information material

alone runs up a goodly postal sum, but

Captain and Mrs. Rice say it's all worth

while, especially after an entire class- room, in the manner of a school cheer, shouts "Thank vou!" at the close of a

talk on the Canal. Captain and Mrs. Rice have been

iiam radio operators about 2 years, since

the time he was seriously injured in an automobile accident.

"I couldn't do anything else, " he says.

"I had to gi\e up mv motor scooter, so

I took up talking on the radio."

MEET THE NEW

Lieutenant Governor

(Continued

ped in storybook towns, and proceeded with the caution indicated along

the treacherous Spanish Riyiera roads,

where guard rails are nonexistent. To Mrs. Parfitt, cooking is a pleasure

rather than a chore. When time permits she likes to experiment with new dishes. A specialty of the Parfitt household on

occasion is a fondue prepared with

cheese and white wine.

Colonel Parfitt holds himself erect as

from p. 7) the West Pointer he is. He was graduated from the Military Academy in 1943 and recei\ed his master's degree in

civil engineering from Massachusetts

Institute of Technology in 1948. Previous visits to the Canal Zone, all on business as Jacksonville District Engineer, afforded little time to get ac- quainted with the area. Colonel Parfitt believes in getting out to meet people,

and he plans to do just that in his walks.

Luxury Liner Is Passenger Paradise

(Continued

Should the life of ease become too much for the passengers, they have

available gymnasiums, saunas, massage

rooms with specialized personnel at their disposal, and two doctors with

fully trained nurses to look after their well-being in a highly specialized hospital provided with modern equipment.

To keep the passengers happy and

the ship on a safe and steady course, there is a staff of .577 employees consist- ing of 42 officers, 97 petty officers and

438 unlicensed personnel.

The Oceanic lives up to her designation of "ship of tomorrow" by having

the most modern technical and navigational erjuipment afloat including

60,0()0-horsepower turbines that give her a top speed of about 27 knots. In

from p. 18)

addition to stabilizers to minimize rolling, she has a special bow and stem

design to reduce pitching and such devices as two radars, a Sperry gyrocompass with eight repeater units, a Sperry

cours? recorder, an echo sounder, a Sperry-Decca navigator, and Sperry

loran and automatic pilot. The last passenger vessel on the

Atlantic to bear the name Oceanic was

built for the White Star Line in 1899. Her 17,2.50 gross tons, 68.5-foot length,

and 19.5-knot speed won her acclaim

and top ranking honors among the liners of her day. Her two funnels, unusually high even among the tall stacks

of that era, contributed to her easy

identification. The ship was lost during

World War I.

The Panama Canal Review 19
SEAGOING

SH

WHEELS

WHAT HAS AT least 3,000 wheels and

1,500 windshield wipers and regularly

transits the Panama Canal?

The answer is the MV Dyvi Atlantic—

and the wheels and the windshield

wipers are attached to 750 standard

or 1,350 compact cars en route from

Emope to the United States. Owned by the Auto Shipping Co. of

Oslo, Norway, the vessel was designed

by Jan Eric D>^'i, who thinks that large- scale transatlantic automobile shipments

will continue to expand. Her agents.

Fenton & Co., say that at present she

is being used to carry Volkswagens

from Europe to the U.S. west coast and

probably will carrv palletized cargo from the United States back to Europe.

Presenting an unusual silhouette, the 485-foot vessel measures 65 feet from

waterline to superstructure deck, afford- ing seven spacious car stowage decks,

each connected to the deck above by

internal ramps. Cars are driven aboard

via a ramp linking the pier with one of the ship's eight side ports, four to a

side. Cars are assigned positions on a

specific deck, where each is securely lashed to the deck for the long over- sea vo\age. Loading time of a full con- signment of compacts or standard cars

is 6 hours and 4 hours, respectively. Palletized cargo can be driven aboard

or taken off bv fork lift trucks.

I P ? I N G

A sea of cars awaits loading on the Dyvi Atlantic.

The Dyvi Atlantic's 7 storage decks accommodate 750 standard or 1,350 compact cars.

TRANSITS BY OCE.WGOING VESSELS

IN FOURTH QUARTER

FISC.\L YEAR 1965

1965 1964 Commercial 3,006 3,022

U.S. Government 84 70

Free 21 24

Total 3,111 3,116

TOLLS"

Commercial 817,015,445 .$15,793,176

U.S. Government 519,677 379,905

Total __ -817,5.35,122 516,173,081

CARGO""

Commercial 20,099,970 17,985,901

U.S. Government 642,622 361,229 Free 73,598 139,658

Total 20,816,190 18,486,788

• Includes tolls on all vessels, oceangoing and

small. ••Cargo Sgures are in long tons.

1965
CAMAl HISTORY

50 l/earJ cAg^o

THE MAIN WALLS of Diydock No. 1 at Balboa, which, hke the locks of the Canal, are capable of handling the largest vessels afloat, were completed with

the exception of minor work around the entrance and at the tops, where machinery was installed and the erection

of the steel gate was completed.

An official flag was ordered for the Governor of the Canal Zone for use in his official capacity. The order, includ- ing instructions as to when the flag

should be used, came from the White

House desk of Woodrow Wilson.

An earthquake shock was felt over

the Isthmus June 28. Seismographs in Balboa Heights recorded the tremor

as lasting 1 minute and 33 seconds

and having a radius of 100 miles. No

damage was reported.

The Canal was blocked bv a slide at Culebra. The slide, which was expected (officials thought it would occur much later than it did), closed traffic on

the water\\'av for 4 days.

Official first-year figures on Canal

traffic appeared in The Panama Canal

Record. Transits for the first year numbered 1,317; net tonnage was 4, .596, 644

tons; gross tonnage was 6,494,673 tons;

tolls totaled $,5,216,149.26.

25 }J_eari ^g,o

A FIRE IN Panama City-in a 3-story tenement building—left one dead, several injured, and damages running into the thousands of dollars. Movie star Errol Flynn arrived in the

Zone en route to Texas from South

America, where he made a study of the

life of Simon Bolivar, whom he was to portray in an MGM movie. Flynn left his role as a film hero momentarily to urge more "home" participation and aid

in the current war. He then sent $1,000

to the Red Cross for War Relief. Fifteen "enemy" bombers launched a surprise attack on the Canal from the Caribbean in a practice alert to test the speed and efficiency of defense units

here. Some of the planes were from

Guantanamo, Cuba, and others came

from Coco Solo. Col. Glen E. Edgerton was named

Governor of the Canal Zone by Pres- ident Franklin D. Roosevelt to succeed

Brig. Gen. Clarence S. Ridley, who re- signed. Colonel Edgerton took the oath

of office Julv 11. Canal Zone and Panama residents were temporarily alarmed by the rumor

that an explosion had destroyed much

of Pedro Miguel Locks and had taken

a great number of lives. The false ru- mor was in\estigated, but the origin of the tale was not discovered.

iO ij^eard c4go

ALL THE COMMUNITIES of the Canal Zone, both civilian and military,

and the cities of Panama and Colon

joined in the first Isthmian-wide Civil Defense test since World War II, June 15. The veteran 250-ton floating crane

U.S. A/ax, which had been in Canal

service for 40 years, was offered for

sale by the Panama Canal. Among

the jobs handled by the Aiax were

raising sunken vessels and loading and

unloading equipment.

Canal Zone residents, in an appeal

issued by President Eisenhower and

echoed by Governor Seybold, did their

bit to help flood victims of hurricane

Diane in the eastern section of the United States. No formal solicitation

for flood relief funds was made, but

several donations were sent by Canal Zone residents. One yiear cAg.o

THE FINAL WAGE increase in the

three-step, $30 million Canal Zone

wage rate changes (Canal Zone Wage

Adjustment Policy) went into effect July 5. The Panama Canal celebrated its 50th anniversary August 1.5—a half-cen- tury of service to ships of the world.

Medallions, a special stamp issue, a book on the history of the Canal, and

various ceremonies here and in the United States helped mark the Golden

Anniversary of this world wonder.

Col. Harry D. Offutt, Jr., arrived on

the Zone to assume his new duties as Director of Gorgas Hospital. Colonel

Offutt succeeded Col. Edward Sigerfoos. Also lea\ing the Zone was Col. Robert J. Kamish, Health Director. Replacing Colonel Kamish was Col. Roosevelt Cafarelli. A class of 18 Panama Canal apprentices graduated to full journeyman status. Fifteen members of the group were

Panamanians, three were Americans.

Although the Canal Zone has undergone appearance changes since the Canal opened, a few sites have kept their original look. Such

a place is the Administration Building at Balboa Heights. Above is an unusual (for the times) photograph taken on a night in June 1915. Note the tiny palm trees, under each row of Hghts, which have grown into the dominating beauties of the Prado today.

The Panama Canal Review 21
WHEN MAN

AND SHIP

WERE ONE

(Continued from p. 16)

by ill-luck, in that she always required

extensixe repaiis. But this did not squelch her perseverance for making

the headlines, as she experienced many

more moments of glory.

The vessel started for the Pacific coast July 19, 1915, but defects in machinery delajed her departure for

Seattle until January 1917. She arrived

in Seattle on April 23, 1917, after a delay at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, be- cause of the international situation, and

at Balboa, C.Z., where she was drydocked 3 weeks for further repairs.

On July 7, 1917, she left for her first trip to the Far North since her days

with Peary. Her destination: the desolate Pribilof Islands—Unalaska. In May 1918 diphtheria broke out among

the crew, requiring her return to Unalaska for quarantine. While there a nmnber of ships were trapped in a sud- den freezing of the Bering Sea. The

Roosevelt crushed her way through to the rescue, clearing an ice-free path for the St. \icholas. Centennial, and Star

of Chile. She rescued 21 persons of the wrecked Tacoma from an iceberg. It was estimated that the St. Nicholas

could not have survived another 12

hoins; she had more than 300 people

aboard. The Centennial, with 161

aboard, might have lasted another week.

The Roosevelt was heralded and lauded

across the nation. From June 1918 to January 1919,

the Roosevelt shuttled freight between

Seattle. Unalaska, and the Pribilofs, St. George, and St. Paul Islands. In Jan- uary 1919, the Roosevelt needed repairs

amounting to a \irtual rebuilding. She

was condemned in June 1919, and her

certificate of seaworthiness lifted. She was sold several times and finally was

rebuilt and then redocumented by the

Steamlx)at Inspection Service. In June 1923 she went to work again. As a re- sult of the conversion to a tug, the

original steering wheel of the Roo.vevclt can be seen in the Seattle Museum of History.

While she was towing 2 barges of lumber between Puget Sound and

Miami in 1926, she lost her rudder in the Pacific. She drifted for days. Final-

!)• she was spotted and towed into Bal- boa by the Panama Canal tug U.S.

The Roosevelt ended its brilliant career on the salt mud flats of Cristobal harbor.

Tavcnnlla. During Christmas, 1931, 7 hours after she was reported lost in one of the v\-orst storms off the Nortli

Pacific Coast in many years, the Roosevelt crept into the shelter of Neah

Bay, Wash. Her radio shack had been

crumpled and flooded by pounding

seas. She had been trying to bring in the schooner Commodore, winner of the

sailing ship race from Hawaii, when

she nearly foundered. Her master at the

time, Capt. Russel Davis, said "She had

to be staunch to ride out a storm like

that. It was the worst I ever saw." On May 22, 1936, she was inspected

by the Steamboat Inspection Service

Her license was not renewed. And she was sold to the California Towing Co. On October 31, 1936, the Roosevelt

left Seattle towing a former Navy collier

to New York. A leaking condenser and

loss of high pressure packing put her

into San Francisco for 3 days for repairs. Perhaps on the evening of De- cember 8, 1936, the Roosevelt was tell- ing her captain that the end was near. The chief engineer notified the bridge

that he had to stop the engine. The

captain told the chief to keep the en- gine going if possible. The Roosevelt

\aliantl\' responded and labored into Balboa, C.Z., on December 12. She was

repaired at the Balboa shops, transited the Canal on the 23d, and left Cristobal on the 24th. At 7 p.m. the chief en- gineer reported to the captain that the

bilges were full of oil from a leaking

tank. Due to the fire risk, the captain

decided to return to Cristobal. After repair work the Roosevelt left Cristobal on January 8, 1937. On Jan- uary 14 thi- Roos'^v(^lt's log entry read: "12:00 noon, ship going astern—could

not handle Jason so decided to return

to Cristobal." But the going was rough

and help was needed.

On January 15, 1937, Captain Rowe

of the tug U.S. Taven^illa received an

order "to proceed to pick up the hulk

Jason, under tow of the Roosevelt." The Tavernilla picked up the Roosevelt and Jason early on the 16th. The Tavernilla was pitching and rolling vi- olently. For the Roosevelt, handicapped

by a tow, matters could not have been

worse. Seas were too rough to allow

the Tavernilla to relieve the Roosevelt

of its tow. The Tavernilla, after obtaining a release, was ordered to return

to Cristobal. She arrived near midnight

on the 16th, and was followed in by

the Roosevelt and Jason on the morning

of the 17th. The Roosevelt was leaking badlv, her forward topmast was felled and the booms had been carried away during

her pitching in hea\'v seas, but she had

returned her charge to port safely. On

the 20th she was taken to Mt. Hope

Shipyard for repairs. However, these were never accomplished, and the vessel was ordered beached on a mud

bank of the old French Canal to keep

it from sinking at dockside. The date ^as January' 21, 1937. Her final heading was exactly due

South; she had passed the zenith of her career and, like Peary, she knew.

A gallant effort was made by Mrs.

Stafford, through the American Consul

in Colon, Republic of Panama, to have

(he Roosevelt saKaged and refitted for a museum. But the Roo.sevclt was too

far gone. What connection may be between

the ship Roosevelt, the man Theodore

Roosevelt, her namesake, and their mutual afinitv for the Panama Canal is conjectural, but it is safe to conclude

that the\', along with Pearv, were Americans of a type who persisted in their duty to the end.

22 August 1965
Where Solidarity Besan

In an era of many strong international ties between nations, we seldom look back on the attempts at unification which failed. An effort was made here in 1826 by the Venezuela

patriot Simon Bolivar and Latin American diplomats to form a Pan American Union. Though

unsuccessful at the time, the Congress of Panama, held in a small conference hall next

to San Francisco Church in Panama's Simon Bolivar Plaza, laid the groundwork for the

strong hemispheric alliance in the Americas today. The statue at the left was dedicated

in 1926 in commemoration of the centennial of the month-long conference. Topped by

a giant condor, it proclaims Bolivar the "Liberator of America."

The Panama Canal Review 23
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