FERRIES AND BARGES AT WORK ON THE PANAMA CANAL

BARGES
The regions that built canals during the pre-industrial era were those possessing fairly level landscapes, like Mesopotamia (around Iraq and Iran), Egypt, and China, or where channels were branches of the sea, like in the Netherlands. This pattern occurred because the practice of building locks had not yet been invented. Nevertheless, these waterways were not constructed on one continuous level. Evidence shows that the early Egyptian and Chinese canals were adapted to the differing land contours, often using an inclined plane for transferring boats to successive levels. Even today, China uses similar methods on its extensive canal system. The introduction of locks throughout Europe—primarily for economic, political, and military gains between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries spurred rapid canal-building. France was the first to build extensive systems. The greatest work of that period was the Languedoc Canal, connecting the Bay of Biscay with the Mediterranean Sea. The canal, completed in 1681, was an enormous undertaking with its length of 240 kilometers (148 miles), rise of 183 meters (600 feet) above the sea, numerous locks and aqueducts, tunnel of more than 213 meters (700 feet), and capacity for floating gigantic barges. Gangs of laborers (called "navvies" or "navigators") first constructed British canals to provide artificial waterways for more efficient transportation of goods and materials during the Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth century. Canals served to open up countries to the Industrial Revolution. Waterways afforded a cheap means of transportation, one that could bring input materials to production centers and then take finished products away for mass marketing. Thus, canals played a role in aiding the movement of populations to production centers. Large canals are primarily built for navigation. Navigation canals were developed after irrigation canals, and for a long time were level, shallow depressions, or had inclined planes in which vessels were hauled between levels. Over the years, such canals have been expanded in width and depth in order to accommodate larger boats, and they have, in some cases, been constructed to form bridges or to pass through tunnels to overcome mountains. Canals were built larger and larger so that water transport could better compete with railway transportation. Navigation canals usually are classified as either ship canals, which are deep enough to accommodate oceangoing ships, or barge canals, which are shallow and for use mainly by barges. Some ship canals, such as the Suez and Panama Canals, provide navigational shortcuts by connecting large water bodies. The 64-kilometer (40-mile) long Panama Canal, which goes across the Isthmus of Panama in Central America, allows vessels to travel between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, avoiding the long voyage around South America. At the time it was constructed, it was estimated that this trip around took approximately 5 to 6 months; the canal reduced the length of the trip to as many weeks.
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Barge in Panama Canal circa 1915	Barge in Panama Canal	Champion Tug towing Barge	Cranes "Thor" Barge in Gaillard Cut

By 1923, the U. S. Army had established communication between both shores of the great ditch by the use of barges and gasoline-powered tugboats that sailed the locks of Pedro Miguel, to engage in strictly military type work. By 1927 the control of this operation had been transferred to the Canal Commission Dredging Division, who instituted the service of ten daily round trips, with the exception of Tuesday and Thursday when there were only four.

Belisario Porras (28 November 1856- 28 August 1942) was a Panamanian journalist and politician. He served three terms as President of Panama soon after its independence from Colombia.  Porras serves as President for three terms:

1912 until 1916
1918 until 1920
1920 until 1924

As president, Porras consolidated and organised the political institutions of the new nation by authorising the creation of National Legal Codes and the creation of a National Body of Law. In addition, Porras furthered regional integration by ordering the construction of transportation and communication facilities, such as the Chiriqui Railroad (1916).

Porras prioritised health and sanitation during his terms as President. He founded the Santo Tomas public hospital, which still serves as one of the main public health facilities of Panama. In order to finance the expansion of the health system, Porras nationalised the National Lottery, and its proceeds were targeted for government health expenses and still are funded in this way today.

Inasmuch as the national highway that had begun by the initiative of Belisario Porras was still in the final stages of construction, there was no pressing need to solve the problem of transportation from one bank of the canal to the other. Furthermore the entire population of the Republic of Panama was relatively low; consequently, there were very few automobiles.

Communication to the interior provinces of the country was almost in its entirety by maritime routes. These could be either in small vessels, or the vessels owned by the Pinel Brothers National Navigation Company, which traveled between David and the National Pier; or the United Fruit Company well-appointed ships that traveled between Puerto Armuelles, Balboa, and New Orleans. By 1930 steam tugs replaced those powered by gasoline and the work schedule was now carried out daily from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

As the population increased, on the works of the canal as well as in the Republic itself, the difficulty of traveling to the interior became more acute. The Panama Canal logo bears the phrase, "the land divided, the world united", meaning clearly that Panama had been dismembered for the benefit of the world.

In response to the large number of automobiles and a central highway soon to be inaugurated, that led all the way to Chiriquí, the Panama Canal Mechanical Division built two ferries in August 1931, at a cost of $127,930 each, to ferry back and forth from both shores of the Canal.

They were christened President Amador and President Roosevelt (in honor of Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt, the first of two U. S. presidents of the same name). These twin vessels, with a capacity for 30 cars, measured 125 feet in length and 38 feet in width, and had 325hp diesel engines capable of displacing 68.7 tons and travel at a speed of 6.8 knots an hour. They were initially assigned to the Pedro Miguel locks, but after a few months, on September 1, 1932, were transferred to Balboa after the road was built to join the west ferry terminal to the central road in Arraiján. 

The Roosevelt was specially constructed to take Arctic explorer Robert E. Peary to the north polar region. The rugged little ship did her job well and on April 6, 1909, Peary planted the Stars and Stripes atop the North Pole. She was sold and resold many times and finally, in January 1937 while being operated as a tug, the Roosevelt was taken to the Mount Hope Shipyard to repair a leak and storm damage. But she was too far gone. The work was never started. The historic vessel was ordered beached on a mud bank of the Old French canal to keep it from sinking at dockside.

MAURICE HUDSON THATCHER
THATCHER FERRY SERVICE
This road, similar to the ferry service, was named the Thatcher Highway and Ferry Service, in honor of the memory of Maurice Thatcher, an outstanding civil administrator during the period of 1910 to 1913. He subsequently became a congressman in the United States House of Representatives, where he sponsored a bill to establish the Gorgas Commemorative Institute.  Maurice Hudson Thatcher (August 15, 1870 - January 6, 1973) was a U.S. Congressman. Thatcher was elected to Congress in 1923 from Kentucky. He served until 1933. Thatcher was a member of the Isthmian Canal Commission and civil governor of the Canal Zone from 1910 to 1913. Thatcher was the Commission's longest-lived and last surviving member. Thatcher served on the general counsel of the Gorgas Memorial Institute of Tropical and Preventative Medicine, Inc., Washington, D.C. beginning in 1939 and became its vice president in 1948, a post which he held until 1969 when he was made honorary president, a position only previously reserved for Presidents of the United States. In 1962, the first bridge connecting both sides of The Panama Canal was named after him (Thatcher Ferry Bridge). In 1979 the name was officially changed to the Bridge of the Americas. As of 2006, he was the longest-lived person to have served in the United States Congress.
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Thatcher Ferry Dock		Maurice Hudston Thatcher
			Those traveling from the interior provinces of Panama had to do so according to the established schedules, which provided service to both ends every thirty minutes between the hours of 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Everything had to be planned to arrive at the ferry at those times, otherwise one was resigned to wait patiently until another arrived from the opposite end. Because the demand for these services was great, on July 1, 1935, the schedule was expanded to 24 hours a day.
Thatcher Ferry 1940's

In August 1940, another similar service was begun with barges powered by gasoline engines, mainly to serve military operations and meet the needs of new town sites and installations of the US Army and Navy, as a result of World War II.  The peak year was 1941 when cars were ferried 990,000 times, and passengers were ferried 5,590,000 times on the Thatcher Ferry; and on the Miraflores Lake vehicles were ferried 422,000 times and passengers were ferried 1,500,000 times. These disquieting statistics caused the Canal Commission to consider acquiring additional vessels. Consequently, they purchased two ferries that had been operating the New York-New Jersey route; they were named Governor Moore and the Frank E. Gannett, later renamed the Nassau.

The Governor Moore sunk in the midst of a storm in the Atlantic in January 1942, as it was being towed to Panama. The second arrived in the Port of Cristobal in November that year, and after an overhaul, was christened Presidente Porras. This ferry, built in 1927 in Camden, New Jersey, had a carrying capacity for 500 passengers and 50 cars.

It was powered by diesel engines and had a length of 155 feet. Initially, it was used as a replacement, while the other ferries were being repaired or maintained. On June 3, 1942, construction of the Miraflores swing bridge was accomplished and, consequently, the operation of this ferry was suspended. On Labor Day 1950 a new phase begun for tourism in the Gaillard Cut and the locks, ferrying distinguished personalities, and on many occasions, children from public schools. The ferries also served to accomplish various emergency and humanitarian missions as well as to move troops during military maneuvers and in armed conflicts.

PEDRO MIGUEL FERRY SERVICE

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Pedro Miguel Ferry Service circa 1920

AUSTRALIAN CRANE & MACHINERY PTY. LTD.
42 Glenbarry Road,
CAMPBELLFIELD.  Vic. 3061
AUSTRALIA

Tel:  +61 (03) 9357 7524
Fax: +61 (03) 9357 7521