Date: 23.01.2021
Author: Cornelius
Position: Panama City
Nautical Position: e.g. 07°19 N 79°45 W
Miles:  157 nm (Total: 8007 NM)
 
The reason why I am writing about the Panama Canal, is that we are going through it the second time soon. It is the first time for the Pelican of London and also for most of the permanent crew, so a pretty big deal! Because of that, I decided to introduce to you readers the canal with some facts:

It all began on the 20th of January 1882, when a french company decided to start digging for personal advantage. But after some years it abandoned the project in 1888 because of the bad conditions, like yellow fever, floods and mud slides. They had spent over $285 millions to build 11 miles of the canal. And there still had to be 40 miles to go.

So, the United States Government took over its construction in 1904 and it worked a lot better. With John Stevens as a project leader, it only took them 9 years to finish. All in all, these 34 year long projects cost over $600 million. From the 80.000 people, who worked on it, 30.000 people died during the process.

On the 15th of August 1914 the Panama Canal was finally opened. Nowadays around 14.000 ships pass the canal every year. It is 51 miles long and it takes you 15 hours to drive through. It makes a lot of things a lot easier because now you don’t have to go around the Cape Horn to get from the Atlantic to the Pacific or from the Pacific to the Atlantic!
There is still something I got to tell you:
Read the following sentence backwards:
 “A man, a plan, a canal, Panama”
 
Julius P.: Happy Birthday Töni!