The Story of the Panama Canal

Meeting of September 20, 2018

Past Prez Chris Eckert was back at the helm, filling in. (Does this mean Prez Bruce is now a HAS BEAN?)

 

We started off with Angel Riley asking us to put our left hands over our hearts—WTH? She took the ribbing well. (This editor would not have called attention to this, except an anonymous Rotarian with the initials MW insisted we run it!)  As it turns out, Angel said that even in the military, she was always going in the wrong direction.

 

Rod Linhares gave us the thought of the Day, quoting Bobby Kennedy and St. Francis of Assisi. He also talked of Rotary International’s tremendous progress in eliminating polio worldwide. Only 15 cases this year.  (When his name is called, am I the only one who thinks it sounds like Rodlynn Harris?)

Sheila Canzian gave the newscast, entitled “I Don’t Know it for a Fact…I Just Know it’s True” with some classic quips.

 

Mitch Williams—nice initials!—gave the Sunshine Report, which was that there was no report.

 

Rosemary Azem reported that there were no visiting Rotarians. (I thought this fill in Spinnings job was going to be a piece of cake until the speaker and slides came along!)

 

Dave Skromme had Mark Allen, owner of Color Printing, as his guest.

Rosemary Azem presented Tony Villanueva with his third Paul Harris award.

 

 

The following announcements were made:

 

Rosemary Azem reminded all of us that it’s not too late to get your tax deductible raffle tickets for a donation to Rotary International. She outlined the many things Rotary International does around the world, from education help, to wiping out polio to helping struggling local economies. 

Margaret Taylor asked all who have volunteered to donate to provide benches in Aron Hoffman’s name for Central Park to turn in their checks at our registration desk.  Alan Talansky, the front man for the hard working Fun Run Committee, said volunteers and runners are needed for the Oct. 22 event. He said the group will be updating the poster next week, so additional sponsors would be welcome. 

 

Dick Bennett plugged the Oct. 13 Summer of Love BBQ to be held at Dave Bennett’s beautiful home.  At the party, which goes from 2 to 6 PM, Dave’s nine-piece band will play, there will be dancing, a great, catered meal and silent auction prizes. Additional silent auction prizes would be welcome. Please see Dick Bennett to donate.

 

 

Dave Bennett was fined for a photo of him playing with his band.  He joined the President’s Club.

Tom Huening was shown in a Vietnam era pilot’s jumpsuit that still fits. Apparently, his wife’s family had a Summer of Love party.  Tom said, “While many of you were smoking pot, I was in Vietnam.”  When Tom noted that he’s joined the President’s Club multiple times, Prez Chris decreed that Tom’s fine would be passed on to President Bean Counter upon his return.

 

John deRussy was fined for all of the traveling he’s been doing with his wife Joyce, now fully recovered with two healthy knees. John joined the President’s Club.

 

Jodi DeSmidt brought Carey Gorgolinski up front to present her with her permanent badge.  The bad news: there was no permanent badge there; the good news: Carey said she was glad to get rid of “the bozo badge”.  Carey said she’s been in her title industry for 32 years and has been involved with various organizations, but wanted to commit to an organization with a local presence with service to the community, hence she joined our club. 

 

John deRussy introduced our guest speaker Rick Deutsch, “author, enthusiast, history lover.  John noted that Rick is all about going through his bucket list, from cruise ships to hiking Yosemite to visiting the Great Wall of China and Mount Fuji.

 

Among the facts Rick presented on the Panama Canal:

 

The Panama Jungle is hostile and hard to get through;

Balboa discovered the Pacific and found Panama in 1513;

 

The Chagres River across Panama is 50 miles wide;

 

In the gold rush of 1848, people moved to California, but it was a big hurdle to cross the mountains in Panama.  (The route across Panama was 8,000 miles shorter than going around South America);

 

In 1855, the Panama Railway Company had 5,000 deaths just among those building the railroad. (No one knew the cause of the deaths. Many attributed it to the air.)

 

In 1879, Ferdinand deLesseps’ company raised $400 million in stock to build a railroad using French labor;

 

The French labor was made up of 9,000 Jamaicans, 1000 Barbados natives and 2,000 French managers;

 

Malaria and Yellow fever, both borne by mosquitoes, killed 200 people a month;

 

In 1883, Jules Dingle became the engineer, losing his entire family and, later, his fiancé to disease there, before he left Panama;

 

The French went bankrupt and DeLesseps was accused of embezzling;

 

In 1898, during the Spanish American War, Teddy Roosevelt was frustrated that there was no easy way to get from the Philippines to Cuba, so he decided the government would build the canal;

 

John Stevens was hired as the engineer and 19,000 workers made up the US labor force;

 

The labor pol was made up of workers from Spain, Italy, Greece, the West Indies and Barbados. Jamaicans were forbidden from working there, as so many had been lost earlier.);

 

Colonel William Gorgas was brought in to figure out what was killing people and he determined it was disease spread through mosquitoes. (Please note: Oscar Lopez Guerra wants it emphasized that only the female mosquitoes bite.);

 

With noisy trains going through and dynamite blasting, many workers were killed because they couldn’t hear the train coming;

 

The locks they built were the biggest concrete structures in the world and had to be built from molds;

 

In 1914, we opened the Panama Canal;

 

In 1915, SF and San Diego both had celebrations, knowing they would benefit form a lot of ships going through the canal;

 

In 1977 President Carter gave the canal back to Panama. (Contrary to popular belief, it was not a 90 year lease—we owned it prior to that.);

 

In 1999, Panama took over the canal;

 

Panama City has over 100 skyscrapers;

 

Today’s canal uses different locks and a single (vs a double) slot.  The old lock capacity was 5,000 standard containers, but today the capacity is 13, 000 containers.

 

A good book on the subject is David McCullough’s The Path Between the Seas.

 

Interesting talk!

 

Thank you to our photographer Peter Webb, MD!

 

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