How the Panama Canal inspired Panamax Vessels
Panamax Ships are a heavily relied upon method for grain companies to ship their products worldwide-specifically through the tight area of the Panama Canal in Central America. This article gives a brief overview into these topics.
By the time you are eating lunch you have relied on an incredibly complex series of transportation systems to get food to your plate. These systems allow us to have fruit, veggies and exotic ingredients at all times of the year. Some of these goods-not only food- have traveled thousands of miles on huge vessels.
These vessels are engineering feats. A Panamax Vessel is any ocean-going vessel whose maximum size can pass through the Panama Canal; these vessels are designed to be operated in both the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean and therefore need to pass through the canal to get to the American continents. In this article, we will discuss the canal itself and the vessels that regularly run through it.
The French government started work on the Panama Canal in the 1880s but didn’t finish the construction due to the difficulty of the engineering obstacles and expense involved. The construction site lay dormant until 1904 when the United States continued the construction to reduce the cost of shipping. The canal was finished in 1914 and from then on-wards, any ship that was the maximum size to fit through the canal was known as a Panamax.
The construction of the Panama Canal was a hotly debated topic at the time as the United States annexed the territory where they would build the canal in a coup d’etat. The territory was controlled by the U.S. government until the 90s when control of the canal was returned to the Panama government.
Construction was brutal and ‘funerals were as frequent as rain’. All this because President Theodore Roosevelt wanted the United States to have a navy that could support both the east coast and west coast. Before the construction of the canal, ships were forced to take the treacherous Cape Horn route. Teddy Roosevelt’s dream to see a two-ocean navy came true when the Pacific fleet transferred through the canal to support the World War 1 effort in Europe.
During the 2nd world war the canal was a vulnerable lynch pin in the American strategy to win the war. The government undertook project SIP 7 to protect against sabotage that Germany was attempting against the canal. During all of this the canal was technically under control of the Panama government despite the United States of America having a military base on top of the canal and despite the United States having complete control of the canal.
In 2007 construction began on an expansion project that would allow larger ships- Post Panamax and New Panamax- larger than the original locks permitted, therefore bringing more tonnage through on a daily basis.
The ‘locks’ are effectively enormous chambers where the ship rests while the water level is raised. Amazingly the water level is raised using only gravity. Throughout the year the rain forests around the canal receives 100 inches (254 cm) of rainfall and this water is funneled into the locks. As the water level rises so does the ship, this happens in 2 separate locks before the ship has been raised from sea level to the level of the lake (the canal).
There isn’t anything particularly special about the vessels themselves, beyond the tremendous engineering feat it is to float such a large vessel. A Panamax Vessel is the largest possible vessel that can pass through the Panama Canal with these dimensions:
· Length- 950 ft (289.56m)
· Width- 106 ft (32.31m)
· Draft- 39.5 ft (12.04m) in Tropical Fresh Water (the lake)
· Air Draft- 190 ft (57.91m)
The New Panamax Ship can be even bigger with these dimensions:
· Length- 1,200 ft (366m)
· Width- 161 ft (49m)
· Draft- 50 ft (18.3m)
· Air Draft- Unchanged
Draft is the size of the ship underwater and how low the ship sits on the water. This varies by water type; therefore, you will see the ships dimensions’ list TFW next to the draft number. This stands for ‘Tropical Fresh Water’ as the ship will sit higher up in salt water than in TFW.
The Air Draft is how high the ship is above the water including how high it’s antennae are. This is unchanged by the new locks as they did not get any higher; simply deeper, longer, and wider. But the height restriction is still there.
By no means are these the biggest ships in the world. Shockingly these ships are only medium sized container vessels. The largest container ships in the world by tonnage are the Triple-E class from Maersk.
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1- YouTube. YouTube, 12 Aug. 2015. Web. 17 Feb. 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt430_qRqHk
2- “Ship Sizes.” Ship Sizes | Maritime-Connector.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2017.
