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PANAMA (S|) c * m

RevieV FALL 1974
From the Governor of the Canal Zone

On the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Panama Canal

HHBBSBmniJ^I

Governor David S. Parker at Pedro Miguel Locks.

ixty years ago, this month,

the maritime nations of the world

hailed an event that provided a new

link in the lanes of international commerce. The Panama Canal, one

of the outstanding engineering feats of the century, opened on August

15, 1914.

The establishment of an avenue

of access between the Atlantic and

Pacific oceans was the fulfillment

of a centuries-old dream that started

in 1502, when Columbus explored

these coasts.

The determination, talent, and

technical skills of the men who

realized that dream set a standard

of excellence that has served as an

inspiration to all who were to be

associated with the operation of the

Canal in succeeding years.

Fall 1974
Grey thunder clouds gather over the dipper dredge Cascadas

hard at work clearing the Canal of silt and debris as a freighter

makes a southbound transit. Along with the widening of the

Canal, the constant dredging has resulted in more dirt being

removed from the waterway since it opened than during

its construction.

Now, as we reach another mile- stone in the life of the waterway, I think we can all take pride in that

association. During the last sixty years nearly half a million ships of

many nations have transited the

Canal, carrying a wide variety of

commodities to every corner of the

world.

Improvements have been made

and new techniques developed to enable us to handle larger ships with

greater efficiency. Projections indi- cate that with further improvements, we could nearly double the

present capacity of the waterway.

More than 15,000 people with a wide variety of skills and professions are engaged in running the

Canal and its many supporting facilities. To all these men and women, Americans and Panamanians,

must go the credit for maintaining

the high standards of efficiency that

have characterized the Panama Canal from the beginning. And whatever the future needs of world shipping, I am confident that those

standards will be maintained.

David S. Parker

Governor of the Canal Zone

The Panama Canal Review
David S. Parker Governor-President

Richard L. Hunt

Lieutenant Governor

to*

PANAMA IK) CAMAL g

Willie K. Friar Editor, English Edition Jose T. Tunon

Editor, Spanish Edition

Writers Vic Canel, Fannie P. Hernandez,

Franklin Castrellon and Dolores E. Suisman

Frank A. Baldwin Panama Canal Information Officer Official Panama Canal Publication

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

The Panama Canal Review is published twice a year. Yearly subscription: regular mail $1, airmail $2, single copies 50 cents.

For subscription, send check or money order, made payable to the Panama Canal Company, to Panama Canal Review, Box M, Balboa Heights, C.Z.

Editorial Office is located in Room 100, Administration Building, Balboa Heights, C.Z.

Printed at the Panama Canal Printing Plant, La Boca, C.Z.

1914-1974

Sixtieth Anniversary

of the Panama Canal

A Profile in Paintings

"The scale, the immensity of

the whole may be judged by the

size of the engines and figures.

I have never seen such a magnificent arrangement of line,

light, and mass, and yet those were

the last things the engineers

thought of. But great work is great art, and always was, and

will be."

This was the way Joseph Pennell, an artist well known for his lithographs of the construction

of the Panama Canal, expressed

his impressions of the waterway

in 1912. He was writing specifically

of the lock gates under construction at Gatun, but that is the way

an artist might describe the

Canal as it is today.

An engineering triumph of

mammoth proportions, the Canal

continues to stimulate a feeling

of awe and respect and is considered one of the most impressive

and dramatically picturesque

waterways of the world.

Though often photographed,

it has seldom been the subject

of visiting artists because of the

time required to travel its length

and sketch its many aspects.

But this year, Al Sprague, who

probably knows the Canal better

than any artist of today, has pro- duced a series of paintings which

show the busy waterway in operation with a certain subtle

emphasis on the people who make

it work—the men who pilot the

ships, operate the locomotives,

handle the lines, and dredge

the channel.

On the 60th anniversary of

the opening of the Panama Canal,

these paintings are being re- produced in the Review as a

special salute to the employees

of the Canal and to world shipping.

Sprague, who was born in the

old Colon Hospital on the Atlantic

side of the Isthmus, is an art instructor at Balboa High School.

The Canal has been one of his favorite subjects for many years

and his series of paintings snowing

all phases of the locks overhaul is on display in the Board Room of

the Administration Building at Balboa Heights.

His work is popular in the

United States, where it is found

in many private collections and is on permanent display at the Eric

Schindler Gallery in Richmond, Va.

He lives in Balboa with his

wife, Barbara, also an artist, and

their three children. —The Covers

The front: Two ships pass in

Gaillard Cut where the Canal

passes through the Continental

Divide between banks which

exceed 300 feet in height in some

areas. The back: The metal

sheathing on the massive gates

at Gatun Locks stands out in stark

detail as a Norwegian ship is locked through.

Photographs by Arthur L. Pollack

4 Fall 1974
At Miraflores Locks, ships are raised or lowered 54 feet

in a two step operation. This freighter, which has just been

locked into the upper chamber, towers over the control

house, from which the massive gates are operated.

ARTIST AT WORK—Standing on the crosswalk atop the lock

gates, Al Sprague makes pre- liminary sketches for a painting

of Miraflores.

The Panama Canal Review
The Panama Canal

Sixty and Still Serving

With multi-colored containers shining brightly through a heavy tropical rainstorm, a super ship moves into the Cristobal

anchorage to prepare for an Atlantic to Pacific transit. Container ships, the biggest innovation in shipping in recent

years, are an important part of Canal traffic.

Fall 1974
As they have since the opening of the Canal in 1914, men in small boats row out to throw the lines up to the ship for

attaching the cables to the towing locomotives. Even in an age

of automation and giant ships, this continues to be the most

practical method of doing the job.

"ACD 2 this is South 3 . . .

is North 6 a super? . . . over . . .

"Affirmative South 3, he

passed Gamboa at 0950."

Conversations like this come

crackling over the radios at the

Marine Traffic Control Center of

the Panama Canal 24 hours a day.

Communications are vital to the

efficient operation of the Canal

and traffic controllers are in

constant touch with pilots of

transiting vessels, locks operators,

and their counterparts on the

opposite end of the waterway.

In this particular exchange, the

pilot of the ship making the third

southbound transit of the day

wanted to know whether the sixth

vessel to transit in the opposite

direction was one of the large

superships.

The transit controller gives a

point of reference that will allow

the pilot on the southbound vessel

to calculate just where in the

The Panama Canal Review
A Panama Canal pilot talks on his radio as he leans out to check the bow clearance of the wide beamed ship being locked

through the 110-foot chamber of Gatun. As many as four

pilots may be assigned to such super ships, with a senior

control pilot in charge.

Canal he might encounter the

larger vessel. He can then adjust

his speed so that this happens

at a convenient location for

both vessels.

Ships have been transiting the

Canal in very much the same manner since the SS Ancon made

the inaugural transit on August 1 5,

1914. But things were a little

different in the early days. There

were no super ships to worry

about. And traffic was a mere

trickle compared to today's.

During the first fiscal year of

operation, there were only 1,108

transits, an average of three ships

a day. Today, controllers, pilots,

locks operators and other Canal

workers are kept busy handling

about 40 ships a day. In fiscal

Fall 1974
Oblivious to the warm tropical rain, a line handler watches a

ship as it waits to enter Gatun locks with the help of a tug.

Raincoats are seldom worn during the hot and humid rainy season. (See center fold)

year 1973 there were 15,109

transits. Ships are requested to radio

the US Navy communications

station at Farfan, on the West Bank

of the Canal at least 48 hours

before arriving in Canal Zone

waters for transit. If they are

transiting for the first time, they

are asked to provide such information as length and beam,

destination, type of cargo they

are carrying and any special

characteristics of the vessel. The information is then relayed

by teletype to the Marine Traffic

Control Center and the ship is scheduled for transit. Preliminary

schedules are prepared 36 hours

in advance.

In the case of regular Canal

customers, all pertinent information is already stored in the Ship

Data Bank, a new computerized

system which was put into effect

in 1973.

The Ship Data Bank stores two

broad categories of information—

ship characteristics and ship

activity.

Ship characteristics include

dimensions, tonnage, capacity,

warping and mooring equipment

and special handling characteristics.

Activity data, which is collected

each time a ship transits the

Canal or uses Canal Zone port

facilities, consists of detailed

Ships, water and sky form a scene of tranquil beauty against

the jungle covered hills surrounding Gatun Lake as ships

lie at anchor waiting their turn to complete their transit

of the busy waterway.

The Panama Canal Review

• .:•_
transit times, the pilot's evaluation

of the ship's maneuvering

equipment and ability, tolls paid,

customs and quarantine data

and cargo statistics.

Each ship is assigned a per- manent identification number,

which remains constant regardless

of changes in name, ownership

or flag.

When the Marine Traffic

Center receives word of the impending arrival of a ship, the

card is pulled and the scheduler can determine at a glance how

many locomotives will be required

to assist it through the locks,

whether tugs will be needed and

whether one, two, or four pilots

should be assigned to take her

through.

Pertinent information about the

ship is written with a grease

pencil on a "paddle", a strip of

heavy plastic, which is then

placed on the "due" board.

Once the schedule is made up, Marine Traffic controllers assign

pilots and work crews and arrange

for tugs if needed.

On the day the ship transits,

the information goes onto the

transit board and her transit times

through each of the locks are recorded.

Ships making the southbound

transit, from Atlantic to Pacific,

usually lay at anchor inside the

breakwater in the Bay of Limon,

within sight of the twin terminal

cities of Cristobal and Colon, to wait their scheduled turn. At Gatun Locks, largest of the

three sets, they are lifted in three

A Panama Canal deckhand comes down a Jacob's ladder as

others await their turn to descend into a launch from the

deck of a Japanese ship.

4te**

12 Fall 1974
His green helmet glinting in the sun, a line handler keeps an eye on the cables while a crew member watches the

transit operation from the deck of his ship as it moves into

the lower chamber at Miraflores.

steps to the level of Gatun Lake,

85 feet above sea level. Following the old Chagres River

bed, vessels wend their way

through the island-dotted lake

for 23 1/2 miles, to the northern

end of Gaillard Cut, which lies at the townsite of Gamboa, headquarters of the Canal's Dredging

Division.

This is home base for the heavy

equipment used in the never ending job of maintaining the

channels and harbors clear for

shipping—giant floating cranes, suction and dipper dredges and a

drill boat for underwater blasting

operations.

Gaillard Cut, formerly called

Culebra Cut, was renamed as a posthumous tribute to the man

responsible for digging it,

Col. David DuBose Gaillard.

Sailing through this portion of

the Canal, one is impressed with

the magnitude of the project.

The Cut is eight miles long and

most of it was built by blasting

and digging through solid rock.

Before the ship reaches the next

set of locks, Pedro Miguel, it passes the promontories which

mark the Continental Divide.

On the left, is Gold Hill, which

at 662 feet above sea level, is the

highest along the channel. On the

right is Contractor's Hill, which

originally rose to a height of

410 feet, but was shaved down

to 370 feet in 1 954 as a precaution

against the slides that have plagued

the Canal since the beginning.

Gaillard Cut was originally

excavated to a width of 300 feet.

The Panama Canal Review i a
Filling the chamber almost wall to wall, this large cargo vessel appears to be a part of the locks. Up forward on the deck,

a Canal pilot watches the stabilizing cables attached to the

towing locomotive. Bow pilots are used when the bridge of

the ship is located aft.

During the 1930's and 1940's the

straight section immediately north

of Gold Hill was widened to 500

feet to provide a passing section

for large ships. Between 1957

and 1971 the entire Cut was

widened to 500 feet to permit more efficient and safer passage.

Though some of the super ships

still require a "clear cut", which means that no other ship can meet them in this portion of the

Canal, widening of the Cut has

made the scheduler and pilot's

job a little easier.

At the south end of Gaillard

Cut, ships enter Pedro Miguel

Locks to be lowered 3 1 feet in a one step operation into Miraflores

Lake, a small artificial body of

water separating the two sets of

Pacific Locks.

Sailing a mile further south,

the ship reaches Miraflores Locks,

to be lowered the remaining 54

14 Fait 197^
feet down to sea level on the

Pacific side. At Miraflores

there are two chambers in each

lane, so that lifting or lowering

of vessels is done in two steps.

Miraflores is one of the top

tourist attractions on the Isthmus.

Here, an average of more than

3,000 visitors a week come to watch the parade of ships from

a specially constructed observation

platform. Canal Zone Guides

provide a running commentary

of the operation over a loud

speaker system and offer slide briefings and film showings to special groups at a theater within

the lock area. As ships sail out into the Pacific

they pass under the imposing steel arch bridge that spans the entrance

to the Panama Canal and is an

important link in the Panamerican

Highway.

The lights on the bridge over the Panama Canal come on at

twilight as a ship that has completed her transit moves out

into the Pacific and continues her journey.

The Panama Canal Review 15
An architect's drawing of the new Traffic Control Center

located at the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal.

For Better Traffic Control

Schematic drawing of the computerized operations system

to be installed in the new building.

Scheduling and controlling

ship traffic through the Panama

Canal soon will be streamlined

through the magic of modern

technology.

Monitoring the progress of ships

as they transit the waterway will be made easier and more efficient with computers and vastly improved communications when a new Marine Traffic Control

System (MTCS) goes into operation in October, 1975.

Though marine traffic controllers and schedulers will be

doing essentially the same job

they are now doing, they will be

performing faster, more efficiently

and in more comfortable

surroundings.

16 Fall 197
The new MTCS will be housed

in a new facility located in La Boca overlooking the Pacific

entrance to the Canal. All ship

transit and harbor movements

will be coordinated and monitored

from this facility which will also serve as the headquarters for the

Marine Bureau's Transit

Operations Division.

The new system will include a

Direct Data Network (DDN)

consisting of 23 remote communication stations located at key points along the Canal. Using

telephone circuits, the teletypelike stations will provide instant

communications between the new

Marine Traffic Control Center

and every element concerned

with ship movements, bunkering

and stevedoring operations,

admeasurement, customs and

collection of tolls. Information can be directed

selectively to one or more of the

stations or transmitted to all simultaneously, thus sharply

reducing the number of phone

calls and radio transmissions

that now must be made to ac- complish the same objective.

The MTCS will provide timely

information on the status of ships

in the locks and in the waterway.

Ship progress within the locks

will be telemetered automatically.

Vessel progress in the waterway

will be approximated by the computer based on position and speed

reports from pilots.

A 48-foot by six-foot ship

position display board in the

Traffic Control Center will permit

traffic controllers to view at a

glance the traffic situation in the

Canal. Lighted numbers representing ships in transit according to

their order in the schedule will show their approximate position

in the canal—orange lights for

northbound traffic, amber for

southbound vessels. Each of the two transit controllers on duty at all times will sit before a battery of six CRT's

(cathode ray tubes) which will

The Panama Canal passed another milestone this year when the

400,000th oceangoing commercial vessel transited the waterway.

The vessel that made the memorable transit was the Liberian bulk carrier Pennsylvania Getty, a 799-foot ship with a 105-foot beam. She was

en route from Hampton Roads, Virginia, to Japan with 51 ,686 tons of coal.

It took 43 years, from the time the Canal first opened in 1914 to 1957, to reach the 200,000 mark but the second 200,000 oceangoing ship came only 17 years later, pointing up the increased role the Canal has

played in international commerce. (Photo on page 18 and 19)

display all the information now

entered by hand and displayed on a schedule board. This includes

scheduled events and those which

have already taken place.

Schedules and schedule changes

will be disseminated automatically

at fixed-time intervals. Each

remote terminal will receive a message which is especially designed for the user. Remote stations can request and receive additional

data by interrogating the computer

at any time.

Pilots will receive individually

tailored reports with schedule and

transit information at the launch

landings before leaving to board

their assigned ships.

The spacious operations room

in the new traffic control center

will have three floor levels to afford watch supervisors,

schedulers, controllers and clerks an unobstructed view of the ship

position display board.

The new MTCS will employ

standard computer techniques.

It is designed to automate as many of the menial tasks as possible, but decision-making

will still be left to experienced

marine traffic control personnel.

The system will perform

logical switching, data handling,

display driving, query generation,

and generation of reminder messages whenever tasks fail to be

performed on time. Critical

elements of the system are duplexed to insure maximum

reliability.

A contract for procurement of

the entire MTCS was awarded

to The Boeing Company last February. Under the contract,

Boeing will complete the detailed

design, furnish and install all hardware, provide all programming

and coding, integrate and test the new system, and provide

maintenance for a one year period.

Construction continues on the Traffic Control Center

building which is scheduled for completion in November

of this year. The small structure in the foreground will house

the utilities for the main building.

The Panama Canal Review 17
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