PANAMA CANAL POLITICS NOT FINEST HOUR
By Bob Van Leer

  (AT SEA, Sunday, Feb. 2, 1997) - Our cruise ship, Legend of the Seas, continued heading west today and Capt. Bengt Ronsen said we should arrive at the Panama Canal breakwater about 6:30 a.m. tomorrow.

  We are cruising at 21 knots through 15 foot swells. The stabilizers on the ship work well and even with this swell, there is little movement of the ship.

  At noon Ronsen said our position was 11 degrees, 30 minutes north and 25 degrees, 10 minutes west, with 313 nautical miles to go to to Panama. The weather is clear and a balmy 79 degrees temperature.

  Our ship is registered in Liberia and was built in St. Nazaire, France. Its maiden voyage was May 16, 1995. It is 867 feet long and 105 feet wide, with a draft of 24 feet. The maximum allowable dimensions for regular transits of the canal are 965 feet long and 106 feet wide, and a draft of 39.5 feet.

  The ship has 11 passenger decks and nine passenger elevators. Two of the elevators are glass-fronted and overlook the five deck atrium.

  An assistant waiter said there are 55 nationalities represented in the crew and "We all have to learn to live together". 

  For instance, our waiter, Max, is from the Philippines, Vicki, the assistant waiter, is from Romania. And Juan, the assistant head waiter, is from the Canary Islands.

  Max said his work schedule is six months on and two months off.

  The ship has two pools, a theater for live entertainment seating 800, a gambling casino, exercise room, video arcade, beauty salon and a library.

  There isn't any reason to go hungry or thirsty. The two main dining rooms seat 900 at a seating. There are five other places where food is served, plus room service. Food is being served somewhere from 6:30 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. and room service is 24 hours.

  Bar service is available at seven locations from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. There is no charge for food service and you can eat all day if you wish, There is a charge for bar service, however.

Panama Canal 

  The U.S. ordered a survey of the canal route in 1870 but later U.S. efforts were concentrated on building a canal across Nicaragua.

  The French, meanwhile, began construction of a canal along approximately the present route in 1880. Ferdinand de Lesseps, the man who built the Suez Canal, was head of the company that started construction. 

  Disease and lack of financing defeated the French company which went bankrupt taking hundreds of Frenchmen down with it. A second French company took over after the bankruptcy and mainly kept the concession agreement with Columbia alive until the company was able to sell the interests to the U.S. government (for $40 million).

  The French company, in its failed effort, spent about $287 million. The death toll of workers was estimated at 20,000-22,000.

  Pres. Theodore Roosevelt steered the U.S. away from the Nicaragua site and to the Panama isthmus, the shortest route, but with difficulties the Nicaragua route didn't have.

  Acquiring the route was not the finest chapter in U.S. history. At the time of canal negotiations, Panama was a province of Columbia. A relative handful of Panamanians, with financing of a French manipulator, Philippe Bunau-Varilla, organized a revolution and declared Panama and independent state. U.S. warships prevented Columbia from landing troops in Panama to put down the revolt.

  In turn Bunau-Varilla, who had engineered his own appointment as Panamanian representative, signed a "sweetheart" treaty with the U.S. for building and operating the canal. The U.S. got the canal zone, five miles on each side of the canal, and freedom to use the zone as if it were U.S. territory. Panama got $10 million and $250,000 per year.

  Pres. Jimmy Carter renegotiated the canal treaty with Panama and, after a 20 year transition period, the U.S. will turn the canal over to Panama completely Dec. 31, 1999.

  Betty and I visited Panama on the ground, not through the canal, in 1989. Based on our observations at that time, we weren't convinced Panamanian operation of the canal is going to work very well.

  Some of the canal buildings were turned over to Panama at the time of signing of the Carter treaty in 1979. at the time we were there you could look at a building and tell whether it was still U.S. or Panamanian-owned. In that few years, the Panamanian-owned buildings were just plain shabby in appearance. The canal won't work if it gets that kind of maintenance.

  But we did not have an opportunity on this trip to go ashore to reconfirm the impressions.