SWAM PANAMA CANAL

Grey River Argus, 10 May 1930, Page 9

SWAM PANAMA CANAL

PAYS HIS WAY THROUGH LOCKS. I How he dived from tin? sacrificial | altar into rhe famous Well of Death, | 70 feet below, in Yucatan, where hu- • man sacrifices used to be offere4, and i j how hv sv ;ini the Panama Canal, is! I told by a sp’rited American traveller,! Mr Rehhrd Hallibu/tlon, with great humour in his book, “New Worlds to i Conquer. ’ ’ T? get leave to swim the canal he bad an interview with lhe Governor! pf t- •' Canal Zone, General Walker. i win'i this dialogue took place:— “Swim the canal! Why. it’s fifty | miles! Rather a lung pull for one of i your slight physique. I should say.’’ ) “Yog are no doubt right, Governor. I I’m not a professional swimmer—not • cvi n a good swimmer. Bui 1 don’t | mean to do it all at once. before I breakfast—by slow stages rather, as | many miles a day as I can. and sleep i Then came the question of charges. | “How would you meet the lock? ‘‘Just as the other ships mee( it. I sir. J’d p a y according to my ton- • rage- “ loiirige! You!” General Wai I k«. r exclaimed, looking at my 10 stone. * And he laughed as if he’d never in 1 all iiis life heard anything so funny. I ‘‘Ail rigid’ Y’ou wiu! I 'll send you • through-- <>n one condition, my dear t'.-lluw — that yon be held strictly account ible ;.oi any damage you du the Panama Jr-Mml! ’ ’ Accompanied by a. row-boat containing an American marine with a rifle, ready to deal with sburgs. alligators, and other savage treat tires, the sw’.m was made. To reach the Gatun Locks was like swimming up hill—- “ Every few minutes a 'hip steamed by. Gatun bound, and cvei v time such i a ship was either lifted from or lowi tied int o the first chamber the gates

were opened and out rushed nine mil I lion cubic feet of water, down the 500 I ft. channel helter-skelter into the AtI Jantic. ’ 5 When the locks were reached— | “1 knocked at the colossal outer gates and demanded entrance. The gate-keeper looked down ‘What nonsense is this?’ he asked, seeing I insisted on standing on my rights.” But the gatekeeper was vanquished. For the first time in the history of the Canal the locks were opened for a single person, and Halliburton paid j rhe preposterously small sum of 1/6 . for th treat—on “a displacement of ’ l-13th of a ton.” I He. reached Panama in safety, de | spite lhe alligators and bardracudas—j fiersc, shark-like fish—that. chased | him.