nivrip
Yorkshire Cruncher
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2007
- Messages
- 11,174
- Reaction score
- 2,177
So, I’ve been through the Panama Canal a couple of weeks ago. It’s something I’ve always fancied doing so Kathy said “Come on we’ll do it”. Briefly, if anyone's remotely interested, here's the story.
We flew to San Diego in California and then picked up the Holland America Line ship Veendam. Stop offs in a couple of places in Mexico, one in Guatemala, one in Nicaragua, one in Costa Rica and then into the Canal.
Work began on the canal in 1881 by the French, but had to stop in 1894 because of engineering problems and high mortality due to disease, particularly Yellow Fever and Malaria. There were 22,000 deaths. Panama at this time was part of Colombia and it was only after Panama became independent in 1903 that the USA negotiated a treaty to restart the work. The US was very keen because it was a way to get their warships from one side of the country to the other without having to go round South America.
The Canal was completed on 15 August, 1914 and by September, 2010 the one millionth ship had gone through. There are three sets of locks in two channels taking vessels up to the artificially created Gatun Lake, at 85 feet above sea level, and three to take them back down.
It’s 80 Km (50 miles) from Pacific to Atlantic and took about 12 hours. The ship we were on had only a couple of feet to spare on either side.
Passenger ships pay $115 per occupied berth so the Veendam will have paid about $150,000 to get through. Cargo ship fees are very complex but the most ever paid was $375,000.
Exit from the first set of locks into Miraflores Lake (man made).
Exit from Miraflores Lake towards the Culebra Cut.
This is part of The Cut. You can see where the rock has been blasted away in steps. This is the canal’s narrowest part. It is 12.7km long and this was the segment that had to be excavated through the rock and limestone of the Continental Divide. This bit was like a river cruise.
The Cut leads into Gatun Lake, also mainly man made, which is about 24km across. This is where ships wait to carry on.
In the final set of locks with a cargo ship in the adjacent lock.
The final stretch. The ship beyond the locks is now back down at sea level.
A whole new set of locks is being constructed parallel to the existing locks but using the existing man made lakes. These new locks will be wider and will allow larger ships to go through,
A new canal is now on the cards to go through Nicaragua.
It was very, very interesting.
We flew to San Diego in California and then picked up the Holland America Line ship Veendam. Stop offs in a couple of places in Mexico, one in Guatemala, one in Nicaragua, one in Costa Rica and then into the Canal.
Work began on the canal in 1881 by the French, but had to stop in 1894 because of engineering problems and high mortality due to disease, particularly Yellow Fever and Malaria. There were 22,000 deaths. Panama at this time was part of Colombia and it was only after Panama became independent in 1903 that the USA negotiated a treaty to restart the work. The US was very keen because it was a way to get their warships from one side of the country to the other without having to go round South America.
The Canal was completed on 15 August, 1914 and by September, 2010 the one millionth ship had gone through. There are three sets of locks in two channels taking vessels up to the artificially created Gatun Lake, at 85 feet above sea level, and three to take them back down.
It’s 80 Km (50 miles) from Pacific to Atlantic and took about 12 hours. The ship we were on had only a couple of feet to spare on either side.
Passenger ships pay $115 per occupied berth so the Veendam will have paid about $150,000 to get through. Cargo ship fees are very complex but the most ever paid was $375,000.
Exit from the first set of locks into Miraflores Lake (man made).
Exit from Miraflores Lake towards the Culebra Cut.
This is part of The Cut. You can see where the rock has been blasted away in steps. This is the canal’s narrowest part. It is 12.7km long and this was the segment that had to be excavated through the rock and limestone of the Continental Divide. This bit was like a river cruise.
The Cut leads into Gatun Lake, also mainly man made, which is about 24km across. This is where ships wait to carry on.
In the final set of locks with a cargo ship in the adjacent lock.
The final stretch. The ship beyond the locks is now back down at sea level.
A whole new set of locks is being constructed parallel to the existing locks but using the existing man made lakes. These new locks will be wider and will allow larger ships to go through,
A new canal is now on the cards to go through Nicaragua.
It was very, very interesting.
