There’s a lot more to the Panama Canal

We left off with the creation of the Panama Canal across central Panama and its huge expense in U.S. money and workers’ lives, especially Chinese.

When it opened in 1904, there were but two lanes for large ships to use in crossing from one ocean to another. Despite us knowing of this feat from grade school on, most of us know little about the workings and economics of this super ditch.

I was always led to believe that one of the real reasons for the canal having the locks was because the Pacific Ocean was higher than the Atlantic. False. Each is the same distance from the moon which controls its surfaces. If there were different heights, it would make sense that the higher ocean would have poured around the tips of South America and Africa to level the two. Water always seeks to go from the higher to the lower. Otherwise, there would be no flow.

The reason for the locks? It is the difference of the tides of the two oceans. The Atlantic has a minimal rise in its tides, while the tidal movement in the Pacific is often a dozen feet or more higher than the Atlantic. Then, at times it’s lower. Blame the moon again.

If the Canal had been built at sea level, the passage from one ocean to the other would have massive water passing through. Sometimes from the Pacific, and sometimes the other way. How could ships manage such movement of waters?

Another unusual fact most of us do not know. One would assume going from the Atlantic to the Pacific, one would be going west. But that is not the case. The curve of that part of Central America has it curving to the north right at the Canal. The passage of a ship from the Atlantic to the Pacific actually goes northeast.

Now that we are done with the geographic aspects, we can turn to the other reasons for putting in locks and raising and lowering the passing boats. I wrote last week that there were some lakes that could be used in part of the crossing. Dams were built, and a good portion of our crossing was not spent in a canal but sailing in a lake or two.

Why build more canals when one can redirect nature and use existing waterways? But the lakes were higher than the oceans so the ships must be lifted to get into the lakes. A second reason to raise and lower the ships was that it crossed in areas where the terrain is more mountainous. The crossing at a higher level of water meant less excavation.

Long after the initial creation, a third channel was dug. This third one rises even higher than the first two and is larger as ships have increased in size. The demand for passage also made the need for a third channel.

We sat one night in Limon, Panama, so that we could get in line and make our passage during daylight. I am not sure of the arrangements, but we paid to see the crossing and doing it at night might have upset a few payers. The commercial carriers were also lined up with us, many going through at night. It was amazing to see all the boats that were near the canal entrance but waiting their turns.

As we passed through one of the first three locks, if we looked to our right there was another huge ship 68 feet above us and traveling at the same speed. It was loaded with containers made by Maersk, one of the largest manufacturers of those huge containers. The boats propel themselves through the canals, but two trams, one on each side, have a rope to the bow of the ship, not to drag the boat but to keep it properly centered in the canal.

Now the stuff that came as a total shock to me. What do you think a ship pays to go through the canal. Either way. Well, it does depend on the size. While we were on a fairly large cruise ship, it was totally dwarfed by the many ships carrying those containers. I do not know what our ship paid, but we were told that the largest ships pay as much as $250,000 per passage.

We also learned that the income from the Canal produces one-third of the gross annual income for Panama. As I viewed the skyline of Panama City, I could understand. It looked like Manhattan with its skyscrapers.

Another interesting bit of information, who is the principal competitor of the Panama Canal? The Suez Canal. Each regularly keeps track of what the other canal is charging. If you were in India and wanted to ship to New York, you could go through the Suez, through the Mediterranean, and across to New York. Or you could go east through the Pacific, through the Panama Canal and up the coast to New York. Which way is cheaper or faster?

But there are other ways to deliver us their products. As we sat on the deck in Limon that early evening, we watched a huge container ship being unloaded of its containers. Every two containers went on a single semi and were driven off. How could a town like Limon use a fraction of these things being unloaded?

I inquired and learned that another way to go from one ocean to the other was to have a ship and a port on each side of Panama. Unload all the containers. Drive them across to the other side, perhaps 30 miles, and then reload them on to a sister ship for delivery to someone on the Pacific side. Again, it is all about costs, and perhaps this way was cheaper for some, especially if one had extra ships.