Today I finished reading David McCullough’s The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal 1870-1914. I first laid eyes on the book on December 23, 2008, while anchored in Gatun Lake on the Panama Canal. I was aboard the Matarua, a Canadian yacht whose skipper had offered me free passage through the Canal in exchange for helping to handle ropes in the Canal’s three sets of locks. We had left the Atlantic port of Colón late that afternoon and passed through the first set of locks that evening. After a night's sleep, we would resume our passage at dawn, reaching the Pacific about 2:00 p.m.
I was excited to find that the Canadian couple had a copy of The Path Between the Seas in their library. I had wanted to read the book while visiting Panama, and had almost ordered it before coming. But I decided against it on account of the extra weight it would’ve added to my pack. Now, however, as it was set on the table as Joyce, the skipper’s wife, fixed us gin and tonics after dinner, I had the chance to glance through it. The next day I would borrow it again for the above photo, taken as we passed through the Miraflores Locks. The photograph was meant to illustrate the symbiotic relationship between a book and place in travel, which I’ve written about elsewhere.
I’ll be sharing a few excerpts from the book in the year ahead. For now, since it’s nearing my bedtime, I’ll just pluck a quick tidbit from near the end of the book:
Construction of the canal would consume more than 61,000,000 pounds of dynamite, a greater amount of explosive energy than had been expended in all [of the United States'] wars until that time. A single dynamite ship arriving at Colón carried as much as 1,000,000 pounds—20,000 fifty-pound boxes of dynamite in one shipload—all of which had to be unloaded by hand, put aboard special trains, and moved to large concrete magazines built at various points back from the congested areas.
My thanks to David McCullough for putting together such a readable history, and especially to Peter and Joyce for inviting me onto their yacht. The Matarua was among the last of 14,702 vessels to transit the Canal in 2008.
