JUNE 14, 2015 SUNDAY
Finally
arrived in panama after two days of travelling from Ecuador, as usual there is
nothing much to say about the weather here and it's still uncomfortably hot and
I hope that we transit this area as soon as possible. When we arrived here,
ship are to anchor first as to determine the traffic schedule for the transit.
The following day no thanks to our beloved "captain cobra" we still had work until noon despite the fact
that this ship will be transiting at around 4pm. I waited a couple of hours at
my cabin and when Pump man thanny visited he mentioned that it was changed from
4pm to 6pm.
At 6pm, as
expected I was called on my cabin phone and ordered to be on standby for
heaving of anchor. Due to traffic related issues on panama canal , this ship
didn’t heaved anchor until two hours later.
It was the
very much same drill as what we did going to the pacific side of panama canal,
pretty straight forward. Pick up the pilot , wait for the panama mooring crew
which is total of 19 personnel overall and sit tight and watch them work and
make business and buy stuff from them as a side work , then after three hours
(or so) watch them disembark and wait again for another mooring crew team.
During the
transiting on the lock, I manage to buy a stuff that local's here call
"black stone" and from what I
heard on the locals here , it's some sort of aphrodisiac says that it make a
person's dick enlarger or somewhat last longer in bed. From what I heard also
you don’t exactly swallow this black stone but instead apply it on the surface
skin like some topical cream of sorts and wait for about roughly twenty minutes
and then wash it before having sex.
The purpose
why I bought these stones is not as for personal use but for scientific studies
and put it on my blog here as well. It would be a good opportunity to document
and picture this item to the maritime community in the Philippines, and show it
to the world (or in other terms show it in cyber space). I cannot simply let
pass that kind of opportunity of not making any written records of this item.
Shame that the sample I bought is a small one not the large "black
stone" , The black stone here in panama has two variants , the five dollar
black stone and the 10 dollar (US Dollar) "Diatabs" size black stone.
In other
news related to the transit
Incidentally
the guy who I tried to rip me off on the cell phone load was again with one who boarded the second team of
panama canal mooring crew. I just simply ignored him and pretended he wasn’t
there. The Mira Flores lock by the way is the lock facing the pacific side of
panama canal while the gatun lock is the one facing on the atlantic. A lot of
sailors especially first timer's ask what is like to transit panama ? For a
common sailors perception its nothing more than a usual transit with a big
metal gate and such for almost 12 hours, honestly being in panama canal isn't
exciting at all and as a matter of fact sailors should be in caution in this
area - as there are reports here that burglar break in's here are common on
crew cabins and these panama canal workers steal a lot of stuff on the crew, So
as a friendly remainder that CREWS SHOULD LOCK THEIR CABINS ALL THE TIME
HERE .
In other
news..
After the
transit , it was given an order that this ship would be in anchorage first and
wait further orders from the company as there are no prospect yet on what will
be the next voyage and that the prospect of going to Venezuela to load some jet
fuel has been cancelled off.
It was
roughly about 7am , and about 12 hours has passed since we transited on panama
canal. We prepared the port side anchor for the gravity type drop.(I was the
one dropping the anchor this time), everything went smoothly on the drop and
it's much easier to work with now compared before when "Mr.
Cobra" was still around . After
that the rest of the day , was spent resting - well some of it , I didn’t
exactly went straight ahead on my cabin after the drop anchor . I hanged around
a bit for a couple of hours on the crew mess and drank a few bottles of beer
and check out my cell phone for any updates on the internet on my face book
account and twitter.
Late at
night there was a drinking session and apparently things got ugly after I left
at the crew mess. From what heard from O.S. Joash ( O.S. that replaced O.S.
bantic in ecuador) 2nd engineer Alijosa got a nasty heated conversation with
3rd mate corales, Accusing him of being a lazy son of a bitch and saying stuff
like "ever since he became a third mate and got his license , he's been
acting like a "king". It was a nasty conversation from what I heard.
As a result Third mate corales left the crew mess untimely and was obviously
furious.
Here's some photo i took on the transit as well as videos
WHAT WE KNOW
ABOUT PANAMA
Panama
Canal
Panama
Canal, canal across the Isthmus of Panama, in Central
America, that allows vessels to travel between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
The waterway measures 64 km (40 mi), including dredged approach channels at
each end. The Panama Canal handles a large volume of world shipping and enables
vessels to avoid traveling around South America, reducing their voyages by
thousands of miles and many days.
The canal consists of artificially
created lakes, channels, and a series of locks, or water-filled chambers, that
raise and lower ships through the mountainous terrain of central Panama. Built
by the United States from 1904 to 1914, the Panama Canal posed major
engineering challenges, such as damming a major river and digging a channel
through a mountain ridge. It was the largest and most complex project of this
kind ever undertaken at that time, employing tens of thousands of workers and
costing $350 million.
The canal cuts through the central
and most populated region of Panama, and it has been a point of dispute between
the governments of Panama and the United States through most of its existence.
Under a 1903 treaty, the United States controlled both the waterway and a large
section of the surrounding land, known as the Panama Canal Zone, as if they
were U.S. territory. Panamanians resented this arrangement and argued that
their country was unfairly denied benefits from the canal. Eventually, riots
and international pressure led the United States to negotiate two new treaties,
which were signed in 1977 and took effect in 1979. The treaties recognized
Panama’s ultimate ownership of the canal and all the surrounding lands. More
than half of the former Canal Zone came under Panamanian control shortly after
the treaties were ratified. Control of the canal was turned over to Panama on
December 31, 1999.
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II
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TRAVELING THROUGH THE CANAL
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The canal consists of dredged
approaches and three sets of locks at each end; Gatún Lake, one of the largest
artificially created bodies of water in the world; and the excavated portion of
the crossing, called Gaillard Cut. At Gatún, on the Atlantic side, the locks
form continuous steps; on the Pacific side, a small lake (Miraflores) separates
the middle and upper locks.
Because the Isthmus of Panama
extends east-west, a ship sailing from the Atlantic to the Pacific through the
canal actually travels from northwest to southeast. To travel from the Atlantic
to the Pacific, a ship enters Limón Bay from the north and anchors behind a
breakwater to await scheduling of its passage. When ready, the canal
authorities send out a canal pilot to take the vessel through the locks. The
canal employs about 240 highly trained and experienced pilots to handle the
complex job of steering ships through the waterway. As soon as the pilot takes
over, the ship is under canal jurisdiction. Very large or hard-to-maneuver
ships may require two or more pilots and assistance from tugboats.
The ship travels south-southeast
about 11 km (7 mi) and enters the first lock at Gatún. Line handlers at the
lock attach steel mooring cables that are controlled by powerful electric
locomotives, called mules. The mules guide the ship through the locks and
steady it while the chambers are filled with water. In three steps the ship is
raised to the level of Gatún Lake, 26 m (85 ft) above the sea.
The canal’s 12 locks (3 sets
of double locks at each end) have the same dimensions: 33.5 m (110 ft) wide by
305 m (1,000 ft) long. The gates at each end are 2.1 m (7 ft) thick. Water
enters and leaves each lock through a system of main culverts or pipes, which
connect to 100 holes in the floor of each chamber. For each ship traveling
through the canal, 197 million liters (52 million gallons) of fresh water are
used, fed by gravity flow from Gatún Lake. To conserve water, smaller ships
often go through the locks together.
At the top of the Gatún
locks, the ship drops the mooring lines and proceeds under its own power for 37
km (23 mi) through the lake, following the former channel of the Chagres River.
Gatún Dam, built adjoining the locks, flooded the river basin and formed the
lake, which covers 430 sq km (166 sq mi). The flooding created a number of
islands, as the water covered all but the tops of hills. One of these islands,
Barro Colorado, is a wildlife refuge operated by the Smithsonian Tropical
Research Institute.
The waterway gradually narrows until the
river turns to the east at Gamboa, flowing under a bridge of the Panama
Railroad. The canal’s marine division, with cranes, dredges, tugs, and barges,
is located at Gamboa.
South from Gamboa, the canal
follows a channel dug through the mountains, which was the most difficult part
of the construction project. Called Gaillard Cut, this section measures 14 km
(9 mi) and traverses the Continental Divide, a ridge made of rock and shale.
Numerous landslides occurred both during and after construction, requiring
frequent dredging to keep the canal open. The channel through the cut is 150 m
(500 ft) wide, the narrowest part of the canal. Originally only 91.5 m (300 ft),
the cut was widened in phases beginning in the 1930s to allow two-way traffic.
In the 1990s it was enlarged even more to accommodate larger ships.
At the southern end of
Gaillard Cut, the ship slows and enters Pedro Miguel locks. Again, cables and
mules guide and steady the ship before it is lowered 9.4 m (31 ft) to
Miraflores Lake. The cables are released and the ship crosses the lake, which
is 2.1 km (1.3 mi) long and lies 16 m (54 ft) above sea level. The ship then
enters the last two locks, also named Miraflores, and is lowered to the level
of the Pacific Ocean. The final stretch of the canal carries the ship to the
harbor of Balboa, where the canal pilot leaves the vessel. The ship sails under
the Bridge of the Americas (formerly known as the Thatcher Ferry Bridge) and
into the Bay of Panama, an arm of the Pacific Ocean. Northbound ships anchor in
the Bay of Panama while waiting for their turn to travel through the canal to
the Atlantic.
The entire trip through the canal
takes between 8 and 10 hours plus waiting time. The canal operates 24 hours a
day year-round. Each ship that travels through the canal pays a toll based on
its capacity.
A large volume of the world’s
ships, cargo, and passengers travel through the canal every year. In 1996 more
than 15,000 ships, about 42 per day, made the crossing. From 1985 to 1995 the
number of ships, their tonnage, and the amount of tolls collected all
increased. Tolls rose to $460 million in 1995, a 50 percent increase over 1985
figures. About 14,000 ships, 400,000 crew members, and 300,000 passengers
traveled through the canal in 1995.
A wide variety of general
cargo vessels and specialized ships pass through the canal. The most common are
bulk carriers for ore, grain, and liquids; automobile carriers; container
ships; refrigerated ships; tankers; liquid-gas carriers; and passenger liners.
Many naval vessels, fishing boats, barges, dredges, floating drydocks, and
ocean-going tugs also use the canal.
The principal commodities shipped
through the canal in 1993 were canned and refrigerated foods, chemicals, coal
and coke, grains, lumber and wood products, machinery and equipment (including
automobiles), iron and steel products, minerals, ores and metals, agricultural
commodities, and petroleum and by-products. The single largest commodity was
grain, mostly being shipped from the U.S. Gulf Coast region to Asia. Another
important group was automobiles: About half of the cars shipped from Asia to
the United States went through the canal in the mid-1990s.
The size of ships using the
Panama Canal has steadily increased. About 27 percent of the vessels that use
the canal are built to the maximum dimensions that can pass through it (a
category called “Panamax”). This has prompted further widening of Gaillard Cut,
so that the larger Panamax vessels may transit safely. However, some of the
world’s commercial and military ships are too large for the canal. Since the
1940s, new U.S. battleships and aircraft carriers have been built exceeding the
canal’s dimensions; so have some petroleum supertankers, huge container ships,
and ore carriers. Despite this trend, planners anticipate steadily increasing
demand for use of the canal for the next 20 years.
The Panama Canal was built in
part for military reasons, to give the U.S. Navy rapid access to both the
Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Many U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force bases were
built in the canal zone to defend the vital channel. However, since World War
II (1939-1945) the canal has been considered vulnerable to attack. A single
bomb or a scuttled ship could disrupt canal traffic for a long period, and the
jungles along the canal could be used by guerrilla forces. Therefore, the canal
was considered less valuable as a military asset. The nearby bases, while
continuing to guard the canal, became a center for U.S. military operations
throughout Central America and the Caribbean. The headquarters for the U.S.
military’s Southern Command was relocated from bases in Panama to Florida in
1997. All U.S. military bases in Panama were closed before the end of 1999.
The canal is operated by the Panama
Canal Authority, a public Panamanian corporation. Before Panama took control of
the canal in 1999, the canal was managed by the Panama Canal Commission, a U.S.
government agency under the Department of Defense. The commission was
established in 1979 to operate the canal during the 20-year transition from
U.S. to Panamanian control, and it gave Panamanians a role in governing the
canal for the first time. The commission was supervised by a nine-member board
composed of five U.S. citizens and four Panamanians. After 1990 the canal’s
administrator was a Panamanian. The commission provided Panamanian employees
with specialized training, and Panamanians formed more than 90 percent of the
canal’s workforce by 1996. Until 1979 the canal and adjoining lands had been
run solely by the U.S. government as if they were U.S. territory.
The Panama Canal Authority manages
and maintains the canal and all its related functions and equipment. Tolls and
other canal fees generally pay all the costs of running and maintaining the
waterway.
Treaties between the United States
and Panama guarantee the permanent neutrality of the Panama Canal, allowing
ships of all nations to use it even in time of war. Panama and the United
States share responsibility for the defense of the canal.
As early as the 16th century,
Europeans dreamed of building a ship canal across the Isthmus of Panama.
Spanish kings considered building a canal to carry treasure from their South
American colonies back to Spain, but no attempt was made. Such a project became
possible only in the 19th century, with the machinery and knowledge produced
during the Industrial Revolution, the transition from an agricultural to a
mechanized economy.
In the 1830s and 1840s, while
Panama was a province of Colombia, a number of European and U.S. studies were
conducted to determine where and how such a crossing could be built. In 1850
the United States and Britain signed the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, in which they
pledged to cooperate if either one undertook such a project. That same year, a
New York company began construction of the Panama Railroad, along the same
general route as the present-day canal. It opened to traffic five years later,
carrying many gold seekers to California during the gold rush. During the rest
of the 1800s, the U.S. government frequently sent in troops to protect the
railroad from bandits and military threats, under the authority of a treaty
signed with Colombia in 1846.
In the late 1870s a private
French company won a concession from Colombia to build a sea-level canal in
Panama and soon raised enough money to begin construction. The company was
directed by Ferdinand de Lesseps, a French engineer and diplomat who had
overseen construction of the Suez Canal in Egypt. Excavation in Panama began in
1882, but the company quickly ran into problems caused by the difficult
terrain, climate, tropical diseases, labor shortages, and a flawed design. In 1888
it ceased work and went into bankruptcy. Reorganized a few years later as the
New Panama Canal Company, it barely managed to keep the concession and prevent
the equipment from deteriorating. At that stage, the French company sought
another sponsor for the project.
The United States had long been
interested in a Central American canal, to link its east and west coasts and
expand trade. However, it did not have the money or the will to build one
before 1900. During the 1890s Congress appropriated money to begin work on a
canal in Nicaragua, but the project was soon cancelled.
The Spanish-American War in 1898
heightened military interest in a canal. After defeating Spain, the United
States acquired the Philippines and Puerto Rico and wanted better access for
its navy to both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. American officials negotiated
the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty with Britain in 1901, in which the two countries
agreed that the United States alone could build and regulate a canal.
The canal issue reached a critical
point in 1902 and 1903. In a complex series of events, Congress and President
Theodore Roosevelt decided on Panama over Nicaragua and negotiated a treaty
with Colombia. Under the agreement, the United States would obtain a strip of
land across the isthmus and build a canal. But Colombia’s senate rejected the
treaty. Panamanians feared the United States would build a canal in Nicaragua
instead, so they took matters into their own hands. A group of Panamanians
conspired with agents of the French company and the Panama Railroad to rebel
against Colombian rule and declared Panama independent on November 3, 1903. The
United States supported the revolt and used its navy to prevent Colombia from
defeating the rebels.
Two weeks later Panama signed a
treaty with the United States giving permission for the canal project. The
Panamanians had authorized Philippe Bunau-Varilla, a French citizen and
longtime official of the French canal company, to negotiate the terms and sign
the agreement. Bunau-Varilla gave the United States even more than it had asked
for: a perpetual lease on a section of central Panama 16 km (10 mi) wide, where
the canal would be built; the right to take over more Panamanian land if needed;
and the right to use troops to intervene in Panama. The United States agreed to
guarantee Panama’s independence and pay $10 million, plus an annual fee of
$250,000. In exchange for their independence, then, Panamanians were forced to
accept the treaty, which no Panamanian ever signed, that virtually gave away
the canal zone to the United States (see Panama:
History).
Canal construction began in 1904,
directed by an Inter-Oceanic Canal Commission. Most of the excavation and
construction was done by private contractors. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
supplied the technical guidance, and Colonel George W. Goethals served as chief
engineer from 1907 to 1916. After initial plans for a sea-level canal, the
commission decided on a canal with locks. The canal commission recruited more
than 50,000 laborers, mostly from nearby Caribbean islands, to work on the canal.
In all, another 100,000 people migrated to Panama during the construction era,
adding to the diversity of Panama’s population.
An important breakthrough during
construction was the successful effort to control mosquito-borne diseases.
Malaria and yellow fever had killed thousands of workers during the French
canal attempt. But a U.S. campaign, directed by Army medical officer William
Gorgas, drained or sprayed mosquito breeding grounds and built sewage and water
systems. Within two years the diseases were brought under control.
The overall cost of the canal
was about $350 million, the largest and costliest work ever undertaken by the
U.S. government. It became one of the world’s premier feats of engineering. The
concrete lock chambers and mechanical lock gates were the largest ever built.
At the time, Gatún Dam was the largest earthen dam ever built, forming the
world’s largest artificial lake. More than 190 million cubic meters (250
million cubic yards) of earth and rock were excavated from the canal route.
Frequent landslides caused problems and delays as workers dug through the ridge
of the Continental Divide to form Gaillard Cut.
Despite the challenges and difficulties,
the Panama Canal was completed sooner than expected. The first ship traveled
through it from the Atlantic to the Pacific on August 15, 1914. However,
further landslides caused closures in 1915, and the canal’s formal opening was
postponed until 1920 because of World War I (1914-1918).
Since it opened, the canal has
served as a U.S. shipping facility for vessels of all countries. Most ships and
cargo traveling through the canal belong to U.S. companies, although a majority
of the ships are registered in Panama or Liberia, countries that have low fees
and less restrictive regulations.
Starting in the 1930s Gaillard Cut
was widened to improve navigation, and in the 1990s it was expanded again.
Madden Dam was built in the 1930s to control the flow of water into Gatún Lake
and generate electricity. In 1962 a high-level bridge was built over the
Pacific entrance to the canal. Known as the Bridge of the Americas or Thatcher
Ferry Bridge, this structure carries the Pan-American Highway into Panama City.
For much of its history, the
canal and the surrounding Panama Canal Zone were run as a colony of the United
States. The U.S. Department of the Army administered the canal, the Panama
Railroad, and many businesses run by the railroad company. It also built 14
military bases in the area. The governor of the canal region was appointed by
the secretary of the Army and was usually a retired general from the Corps of
Engineers who had served in Panama. U.S. civilian employees supervised canal
operations, while Panamanians and West Indians formed the labor force.
In 1950 the U.S. government
reorganized management of the area into two agencies: the Panama Canal Company,
which ran the canal’s commercial operations and the railroad, and the Canal
Zone government, which handled courts, police, and other functions. The
governor headed both agencies. A separate military structure controlled the
military bases in the Canal Zone and operated independently of the civilian
authorities.
The U.S. control of the area
caused decades of conflict with Panamanians, who felt excluded from the
economic benefits of the canal and from territory they regarded as rightfully
belonging to Panama. Before negotiating the 1977 treaties, the United States
and Panama modified the 1903 treaty twice. In 1936 they signed an agreement by
which the United States raised Panama’s annual payment from the canal and
prevented shipments of untaxed goods from the canal zone into Panama, which Panamanian
merchants regarded as unfair competition. The United States also gave up the
rights to intervene militarily in Panama and to take over more land for canal
operations. In 1955 another treaty raised the annuity again, made Panamanians
who worked in the canal zone subject to Panamanian taxes, and promised to end a
wage system that paid American employees at a higher rate than Panamanians.
But these concessions did not end
tensions between the United States and Panamanians, who staged demonstrations
and protests in the late 1950s and 1960s. Anti-American riots in 1964 caused
the two countries to suspend diplomatic relations briefly. After they were
restored, the United States and Panama began negotiating new treaties, a
process that lasted more than 12 years. In 1977 U.S. president Jimmy Carter and
the Panamanian leader, General Omar Torrijos Herrera, signed treaties that gave
control of the canal and all its operations to Panama in 1999. The agreements
were ratified by Panama immediately and by the United States the following
year.
The treaties went into effect in
1979. More than 60 percent of the U.S.-held Panama Canal Zone was returned to
Panama. The Panama Canal Commission was established to run the canal during the
transition to Panamanian control, and Panama took over operation of ship
repairs, piers, and railroad operations. In 1994 the government of Panama
created an agency, the Interoceanic Regional Authority, to administer the
non-canal facilities of the former zone. The Panama Canal Authority, a public
corporation, took possession of the canal from the Panama Canal Commission on
December 14, 1999. That day the United States transferred the canal to Panama
at a ceremony attended by Panamanian president Mireya Moscoso de Gruber and
former U.S. president Jimmy Carter.
In 2006 Panamanian voters approved
a referendum calling for a major expansion of the canal. The planned
$5.2-billion expansion will involve the creation of a new channel and new
locks. The current canal cannot accommodate many of the modern container ships,
and traffic has become so heavy that many ships experience costly delays
waiting to enter the locks. The expansion project was set to begin in 2008 and
expected to be completed in 2014.
Contributed
By:
Michael L. Conniff
Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008
Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
