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TK1K NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph by Ralph Stock 



PAJAMAS CONSTITUTED THE SAIUOK's UNIFORM ON THE "DREAM SHIP" 



Peter at the lookout. Leaving the Canaries, 3,000 miles of ocean stretch before her in the 

 direction of Barbados, British West Indies. 



the charges were altogether beyond us ? 

 It would mean Cape Horn! Cape Horn 

 or the abandonment of the dream ! 



Which was worse for one who, after 

 sixty below zero on the Canadian prairie, 

 four below zero in France and Belgium, 

 and sometimes far worse in coal-less 

 London, has taken a solemn oath never 

 again to leave the forties of latitude? 



These terrifying reflections were cut 

 short by a voice. 



"I can't make it more than twelve 

 tons." 



"Twelve tons?" 



The Canal official deigned to exhibit 

 surprise by a slight elevation of the eye- 

 brows, then smiled. 



"The measurer has been aboard." he 

 told me, "and you are twelve tons net. 

 The lolls will be fifteen dollars. Will 

 you pay now or at the other end?" 



Such was my relief that I paid on the 

 spot, reducing our united capital to £20, 

 or, at the prevailing rate of exchange, 

 $78.00. 



This brief interview with officialdom 

 i- typical of Panama Canal methods. 



Speed, silence, efficiency ; nothing else 

 "goes" in "the zone." Things are done 

 in a few seconds and utter silence here 

 that would take hours and pandemonium 

 elsewhere. The entire miracle of passing 

 a ten-thousand-ton liner from Atlantic 

 to Pacific through six locks and forty 

 miles of tortuous, ever-threatening chan- 

 nels has been performed in six and a half 

 hours, and with a lack of fuss that is 

 almost uncanny. 



But the Dream Ship was twelve tons, 

 atid not ten thousand, and for that rea- 

 son it is probable that she gave more 

 trouble than any craft since the canal 

 was opened. Yet on every hand we re- 

 ceived the utmost courtesy and kindness. 



Such treatment made us feel like a 

 pestiferous mosquito being politely con- 

 ducted to the door instead of squashed 

 tlat on the spot, as we deserved to be. 

 But you shall see. 



STARTING THROUGH Tlllv CANAL 



Punctually at 5 o'clock a. m. the pilot 

 came aboard in his immaculate white drill 

 uniform and. without a smile at his sur- 



