“Have you ever crossed Panama Canal?” One of many questions we mariners encounter while interacting with landlubbers, if they are smart enough not to ask questions like “where do you sleep at night on ship?”.
Panama Canal is perhaps one the most remarkable feats of engineering ever conceived by the whole of mankind. Its sheer size tells a beautiful tale about human endurance, determination and accomplishment.
As a seafarer, I would say we are a privileged lot who get to see the Panama Canal in a very intimate way by actually sailing through it. Thus it would not be wrong to mention that it is a kind of moral obligation for us mariners to know few intricate facts about it.
Let’s take a look at ten important Panama Canal facts below:
1. Who Built The Panama Canal?
Everyone knows that the Panama Canal was built by the United States of America, but very few know that work was in fact started by the French. It was Mr Ferdinand de Lesseps, a French diplomat who first started the work back in 1881. The work had to be stopped in the year 1894 because yellow fever and malaria claimed the lives of an estimated 22,000 workers and spending nearly USD $ 287 million bankrupted Mr Ferdinand de Lesseps.
