The Path Between Two Oceans!

Historically Speaking...

By Tom Morrow

     The so-called “Path Between Two Oceans,” more commonly known as the Panama Canal, is the result of a long-held 18^th and 19^th centuries dream by American leaders to shorten the trip by more than 7,000 miles from the East coast of the United States to its West coast.

     Travel by ship from East to West and vice versa required sailing around the southern tip of South America. The only alternative was to debark from a ship on the isthmus of Central America and traverse the jungle and board another ship on the opposite coast. The long, arduous and disease-infested trip made the “around the (Cape) Horn” voyage preferable.

     Ironically, back in 1878, it was a French company that first attempted cutting a canal through the narrowest part of the Panama isthmus. The private company was led by Ferdinand de Lesseps. Because of under-financing, disease, mudslides, and poor planning, the venture was abandoned. The French effort was disastrous as some 22,000 workers lost their lives in countless construction accidents, as well as battling the disease-ridden jungle and tropical heat.

     In 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt led the American movement to build a canal. The first choice was a path across Nicaragua, but volcanic eruptions caused that plan to be discarded in favor of one across Panama, which at that time was a province of Colombia. But, Roosevelt’s overtures for permission to build were rebuffed by the Colombians. Not to be deterred, Roosevelt encouraged a group of politicians in Panama to secede from Colombia and form their own country. To ensure Colombia wouldn’t interfere, Roosevelt stationed a U.S. Navy warship to patrol the coastline of Panama.

     Before any sort of trouble had time to erupt, the United States received a “sea-to-sea right-of-way” in perpetuity from the new Panamanian Republic. The treaty gave the United States a “zone” of five-miles on each side of the path for the canal. In 1903, the U.S. construction crews moved in and after 11 years of planning, fighting disease and the development of construction facilities, the canal opened for full operations in 1914. Although no longer in office, Roosevelt was there for the dedication ceremonies.

     The cost of building the canal was enormous. Some 5,600 lives were lost, mostly to disease. The cost was staggering and no exact amount has ever been placed. The canal is 48 miles long, 500 feet wide, and 40 feet deep. It was the most ambitious construction project ever undertaken in modern times.

     Not without controversy, the U.S. administered the Canal Zone as American  territory until it was handed back to Panama in 1999.

     Depending upon shipping traffic, it takes approximately 12 to 15 hours to traverse the canal. With no traffic, it’s a nine-hour traverse, but there is a constant stream of ships waiting to go from one ocean to the other.

     Going through the canal on a cruise ship is a popular vacation trip. It’s an adventure everyone should do at least once in a lifetime.

More colloquialisms

“The Whole Nine Yards,” as in: “Give ‘em the whole nine yards,” or “They took the whole nine yards.” This saying comes from the battlefront, probably World War I. Nine yards is the length of an ammunition belt for a machine gun. Taking the whole nine yards, indeed, would be quite an impact.

     The word “Nasty” comes from the late 19^th and early 20^th century. Thomas Nast was a popular newspaper political cartoonist. His drawings frequently would skewer politicians and business leaders. His work was often referred to as “Nasties.” Over the years, the word has become part of American vocabulary meaning anything distasteful or dirty. Examples: Parents admonishing their children to put something down because “that’s nasty,” or someone talking vulgar as in “he has a nasty mouth.”

     The following example is NOT a dirty or off-color saying: With all the chilly weather we’ve been having, it’s been “cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.” Now, before you get excited or offended, let me explain. During the days of sailing warships (16^th, 17^th, and 18^th centuries), the cannon balls were held in place alongside the guns for easy access to gun crews as they fired at the enemy. The cannon balls were held in place, sitting on an apparatus made of brass known as a “monkey.” What began as an entirely innocent saying, has morphed down through the years and taken on an off-color or nasty connotation.

     So, the next time you’re having a trivia discussion on history, try the above three slang examples to show off your knowledge … just a tad.

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Chapter

9

       Danny got little sleep that night. He tossed and turned to the point Yolanda wakened several times. Danny kept thinking about both murder cases, but Dr. Dobbins’ recall to the alleged attack at his home kept coming back to him. Something wasn’t right in the old physician’s account of what happened.

       The next morning back at the office, Danny told his partner, Joe Stein, they were going back out to the murder scene at the Dobbins home. The doctor remained in the hospital for observation, so Danny wanted to get back to the scene before anything was cleaned up.

       As the two detectives walked into the bedroom, the murder scene, Danny began looking closely at the walls, especially near and around the couple’s king-sized bed where Harriet Dobbins’ body was found.

       “What are we looking for?” Joe Stein asked.

       “Anything the field tech team might have missed,” Danny replied. “Hand me those photographs of the murder scene.”

       Stein thumbed through the folder he was carrying of the evidence summary. He handed seven photographs to his partner.

       Danny shuffled through all seven pictures.

       “Are these all we have?” he asked.

       “Yeah, that’s what they sent over from the lab,” was Stein’s reply.

       “I don’t see any photo evidence of blood specs on the wall behind the headboard of the bed, yet, I can see some right here,” Danny said, pointing to very faint blood spatters.

       “I can see how they might of missed ‘em,” Stein said. “Hell, I didn’t see them until just now when you pointed to them.”

       “That’s why they call us ‘detectives,’” Danny said with a sarcastic chuckle. “We’re supposed to see this stuff.”

       Danny’s eyes followed the faint blood stains up the wall. He got a chair from the living room so as to get closer to the ceiling.

       “You have to look very close, but you can see the line of blood up onto the ceiling,” Danny said, pointing it out to his partner. “I really need Sherlock Holmes’ magnifying glass to really see this stuff.”

       Stein laughed, thinking it was a joke.

       “I’m serious, Joe. This is significant.”

       “How so?”

       “Well, we can tell where the perp was standing when he beat the woman, and we may be able to determine the type of weapon. I’d say some sort of a stick or club.”

       “A golf club?” Stein asked.

       “Could have been. Let’s look around to see if the doc has a set of clubs. Don’t all doctors golf on Wednesdays?”

       Stein left the bedroom and started looking around the house, in closets, anywhere a set of clubs might be kept.

       “Check the garage,” Danny yelled so his partner could hear him from the other parts of the house.

       Within two minutes, Stein re-entered the bedroom carrying a set of golf clubs.

       “How ‘bout these?” Stein asked.

       “Anything missing?”

       Stein began going through the bag, checking the various clubs.

       “There’s no driver,” Joe said. “There’s a No. 2, No. 3, and No. 4, but no biggie.”

       “Whoever heard of a golfer with no driver?” Danny said. “So, if that be the murder weapon, where is it?”

       “Dunno,” Stein said. “I’ll look around some more.”

       Stein came back about 10 minutes later with the missing club. “I found it up in a storage bin over the workbench in the garage.”

       “Hmmmm. Now, that’s awful considerate of the perp to hide the weapon before he left,” Danny said, pondering the discovery. “Let’s get the tech team back out here and have them get everything they can off of these blood stains. Determine, without a doubt, they’re from Mrs. Dobbins.”

       Danny took off his rubber gloves. “Bag that golf club and give it to the techies.”

       “By ‘bag it,’ ya mean ya want it back in the golf bag, or into a plastic bag,” Stein said with a slight smile on his face.

       “In a plastic bag, ya dumb kraut,” Danny said, shaking his head.    

       “I know, I know. I’m just trying to put a little levity into our work,” Stein replied.

       “Yeah, well, I’ve been in homicide for the past five years and I’ve yet to find anything funny about murder,” Danny replied. “You stay here until the techies arrive, I’m going back to the station to get a closer look at what evidence they collected yesterday.”

       On the drive back to the main police station, Danny kept going over the evidence and Dr. Dobbins’ story in his mind. The detective pondered: why the murderer would hide the murder weapon? Why would he club Mrs. Dobbins to death, but just wound the doctor by shooting him and not killing him? Why would a perpetrator break into a beach home, kill one of the occupants, wound the other, and not take anything? Where’s the gun?

       Why and where, indeed?