Canals

[The Rock Doctor]

The Darien Canal

The completion of the Trans-Darien Railroad in 1862 came as a result of studies that suggested profit could be made by off-loading cargo and passengers at one coast, transporting them across the isthmus, and re-loading them on different vessels at the other coast. Doing so, it was suggested, would save weeks to months in transit time around the south end of South America. Sure enough, the railway quickly became among the most profitable in the world, and traffic at the two end points, Colon and San Miguelito, began steadily increasing. The rail line was twinned in 1885-7 as a result of heavy demand of its use.

The notion of a canal arose in the mid eighties. President for Life Pedro Alizandro began to view the project not only as an economic driver for the nation, but also as a monument to cap off his presidency. To that end, he ordered studies launched in 1887 that would determine the course and nature of the future canal. Don Pedro strongly preferred the construction of a level canal (that is, one at sea level with no need for locks), but came around to arguments that a lock-controlled canal would not only be more economic, but also easier and quicker to construct.

Construction began in 1890, working from both coasts inland. Initial progress was rather slow despite the use of a number of new tools such as steam-shovels. Frustrated, Don Pedro ordered an investigation in 1892 that disclosed an unacceptable degree of corruption and graft on the part of the canal's management team. Several of these gentlemen subsequently were arrested, tortured, and executed, and the Minister of Industry at the time was persuaded to resign lest the same fate befall him. New executives were brought in to oversee the project and work resumed with a more reasonable amount of corruption, it being understood that some graft was acceptable so long as the actual progress of the canal was not impaired.

Don Pedro's passing in 1896 meant that he would never see the completion of his dream project. However, Don Enrico dedicated the completion of the canal to his father's memory and took considerable interest in its status, visiting it about twice a year.

In 1897, it was decided that the pace of work could be improved with the import of large scale manual labor. Consideration was give towards rounding up the area's peasants, but these individuals were engaged in farming and textile production that, while not spectacular, was still profitable. Instead, the government turned to its jails, choosing long-term offenders (thus the most costly to the State) to serve in the penal battalions. These units - mostly populated by political prisoners and violent offenders - were sent to the interior portion of the Canal and were put to work on twelve hour shifts under heavy armed guard. With the penal workers considered expendable, strict triage was implemented: prisoners who looked likely to recover from injury or illness, or with a good track record of obedience and hard work, received medical aid. Otherwise, stricken prisoners were taken away - ostensibly to a special hospital on the Pacific coast, but actually just to be shot and buried in an unmarked grave.

Casualty rates on the coastal work crews were not unreasonable, around eight to twelve percent annually, most from disease. Inland, the penal battalions suffered losses in the range of fifty to sixty percent, the peak being in 1899. However, this included an unusual amount of non-disease-related deaths, mostly due to a prisoner mutiny in the summer of that year. Overall, it is estimated that approximately thirty-six thousand laborers, mostly criminals, perished during construction of the canal, including over two thousand penal laborers executed after substantial construction had been completed.

Construction of the canal locks (each 300 m x 40 m) began in 1899 and were largely completed by the end of 1901. Construction of the Gatun Dam began in 1900 and was completed in 1903.  By the fall of 1904, water levels were adequate to allow passage of smaller draft vessels.  However, another cycle of rainfall was necessary to allow deep draft (up to 12.0 m) vessels to transit.

Several incidents of sabotage perpetrated against the canal in the last years of construction were ultimately attributed to France, though individual cases might seem to have been the result of Anahuac or Spanish actions.  Although some damage was inflicted and resulted in budgetary over-runs, it did not have a significant effect on the completion date.

On 14 June 1905, the canal was officially opened; the first official transit was by the armored cruisers Campeon and Paladin on 15 June, transiting from the Caribbean to the Pacific to take up station at Esmeraldas.



Below:  The Canal Zone.  Major coastal batteries - eight single 12"/40 cal turrets - marked as red squares.  The Darien Line runs NW/SE to the west of the Canal.

[The Rock Doctor]

The Pimichin Canal

Gran Colombia's acquisition of Amazonas del Sur and Roraima in 1903 created a strategic problem – the most realistic means of accessing the region was via the Amazon River, which flowed through French-controlled Brazil.  Relations with the French at this time were not warm – in fact, they verged on open warfare, with sabotage and subversion being committed by both nations.  The Colombians concluded that there was a strong risk that the French would block any effort to move Colombian shipping up the Amazon. Fortunately, a literature review by Department of Industry bureaucrats turned up two possible options for connecting the Amazon and Orinoco river systems, however.

One option was called the Casiquiare Canal, a three hundred and fifty kilometre long natural offshoot of the Rio Negro (a tributary of the Amazon) that had meandered quite accidently into the Orinoco.  European explorers had documented its existence over a century earlier, and noted that it was at least three hundred metres wide, good enough for a variety of riverine craft. However, the currents at the Casaquiare's lower end were as high as eight knots in the wet season, making for a risky downstream voyage and rendering an upstream trip impractical to most craft. Over the long term, some of the rivers entering the Casiquiare could be diverted to reduce its volume and flow rate, but it would take a fair bit of time and effort that the government didn't want to invest just yet.

By contrast, the Terni River, which fed into the Orinoco, and the Pimichin River, which fed the Rio Negro, were small, fairly sedentary and suitable for small craft – and only sixteen kilometres apart in a remote part of Amazonas del Norte.  The isthmus between the two was close to ideal for construction of a small canal, consisting of low hills and swampland.  Indeed, natives were already using the area as a portage for their canoes.  In this scheme, cargo and passengers would be transported to Puerto Inirida via rail or Orinico river steamer, then southbound through to Manaus or Puerto Enrico on the Amazon.

Construction started in 1904, approximately eighty kilometres south of Puerto Inirida.  Work was undertaken primarily by penal contractors that had become available once the Darien Canal had been substantially completed.   Headwaters of the two rivers, particularly the Terni, required blasting and dredging.  A twenty-two metre wide canal, with sloping sides, was cut between headwaters, going through swamp wherever practical.  A modest lock system was created, and a small town grew up around the lock itself.

The Canal was completed in 1907 and opened to traffic on July 24 of that year.  The canal is a one-way route, alternating direction daily.  The lock limits shipping to seventy metres by ten metres by two metres, and the main canal is designed with similar width/depth considerations in mind, though smaller vessels can operate on the edges of the channel.

Ironically, the majority of the Armada's Amazon Flotilla is incapable of using the canal.  The Cuervo class were designed and built while the canal was getting started, and reached Manaus by running French-controlled waters in 1904.  The mobile battery Pescador was designed and built as a "Pimi-max" vessel, as were the Kuracki class torpedo-boats and the Gorrion class mobile batteries.  However, by the time the Gorrions and the Condor class were actually built, Brazil was under Iberian control – and Iberia was friendly, making canal access less critical.