Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1911-03-18

Showing Steamship and barge lines
great dock
at the terminal of the canal from
trunk lines of steamships, the capture
of the great markets of the south
might with confidence be left to the
country's shipping interests.
For the Smaller Boats.
In planning the government docks
the idea has been that steamship
lines would hardly find it profitable to
run through boats from Atlantic or
gulf ports to the different ports In
Central and South America, and that
the real advantage of the canal to this
country must lie in the establishment
of facilities at Panama to transship
small units of freight from the steam
ers running between the Pacific and
Atlantic coasts and the canal to small
er lines running down the South
American coast and to ports in Cen
trail America. In Mr.. Bakers opinion
the transshipment of freight intended
for ports within a radius of 700 miles
of the Panama docks could be best
accomplished by a fleet of oi[burn-
ing twin screw steel barges of about
2, 1000 tons burden, leaving it to larger
steamers to run regularly from the
docks down to the more distant ports
on the west coast of South America
Having in view some such plan as
this the governments plans provide
for such transfer point at Balboa,
the Pacific end of the canal. Here are
to be erected the most extensive docks
of the whole improvement, docks that
will make of this little Central Amer
lean city a shipping point of world
wide Importance.
Right at the actual end of the canal,
where it opens into Panama bay,
there will be constructed basin
capable of holding the largest ships
and covering a total area of 271 acres
From two sides of this basin there
will project sixteen concrete piers,
1 900 feet in length, capable of &C
commodating not only such ships as
| the Mauretania but also ships of the
size of the Olympic and Titanic of the
| White Star line, now about finished
and which have a total length OF $50
feet Ships of this length may not
pass through the canal for many years,
| but in the meantime each of the piers
can be used by two ordinary steamers,
SO great will be their length
Two Miles of Docks
The extreme length of the land re
served for these docks is two miles.
but only about two-thirds of this is to
be improved Immediately That ships
Will have no trouble in turning be-
| tween the two lines of piers is indi-
Gated by the fact that from pierhead
to pierhead, across the intervening
basin, the distance will be 5000 feet,
or more than the fairway on the Hud-
| son. Taking in the length of the
| piers it will be nearly a mile across
Here are some other figures, Area
of slips, 4,231 ESQ square feet; wharf
frontage, AZ, 1000 square feet; length
of turning basin, 1900 feet.
One of the most Interesting features
| in connection with the piers is their
slanting direction. They will slant
| toward the canal This was decided
upon by experts in the matter, for the
| reason that it will enable ships to
run into them more easily from either
direction, allowing them to dispense
with the use of tugs and to go in
| under their own steam 1t will also
obviate difficulties that would other
20-foot tide there.
| there is now swamp. To construct
the basin 1T will be necessary to
dredge this to a depth of IS feet at
mean tide. The excavated material
will be used to I'LL in other parts of
the swamp to make ground for the
transfer yards of the Panama railroad
| which Is to extend around the basin
with a spur of track running on to
each pier
As projected now these docks on
the Pacific side will be probably the
largest and most completely appointed
system of docks in the world The
new Tilbury docks at London have
a water area of only 20 acres to com
pare with the area of 271 acres of the
Panama turning basin alone What
is more, these docks are to be
equipped with the most modern cleo.
trio cargo handling machinery, in
1 GLIDING huge overhead electrical
cranes and a system of escalators fol-
handling tween deck cargoes, the en-
tire system to be operated probably