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Management Progress Section How Successful Dock Operators Have Met Problems of Giving Best Service to Ships Entrance to Piers at Cristobal, Panama Canal Panama Canal Traffic Reached A New High Record During 192 HE past year has seen the | Panama canal at what may be termed a peak of operations, unless it should develop that this has been only the upward slant of the curve of traffic and that the peak is yet to be reached. Several times during the last year new rec- ords for a month’s traffic were estab- lished. A total of 6085 commercial ships transiting the canal in the cal- endar year 1927 set a new high fig- ure for a year’s traffic. Tolls for the year, also a new record, amount- ed to $26,231,022.94. The amount of cargo handled reached a new high figure of 29,102,538 tons. ‘Traffic in January, 1928, while less than that of the record month of December, 1927, was at a rate higher than the daily average of the year 1927. Traf- fie for the first 15 days of February set a new high record for daily aver- age. The volume of shipping passing through the canal now is about one- fifth to one-fourth more than it was a year ago. Growth has occurred in all major trades except that with Australia and New Zealand. With the exception of the addition of half 78 By Seymour Paul a dozen new pilots and a few more operators of towing locomotives at the locks, the canal administration has not had to increase the force in order to handle the greater traffic. BRIG. GEN. M. L. WALKER, U. S. A. Governor of the Panama Canal MARINE REVIEW—April, 1928 It has, however, increased the length of the operating day slightly. Prior to Dec. 15, 1927, the operating prac- tice was to start ships through the canal from each terminal at approxi- mately 6:30 in the morning and to continue to dispatch vessels at half- hourly intervals up to early after- noon; the last ship from the Atlantic to reach Gatun locks not later than 2:20 p.m. and the last: from the Pa- cific to reach Miraflores locks by 3:30 p-m. The ruling principle was that ships should not be started through the canal so late as to make it im- possible for them to complete pas- sage through Gaillard cut before dark. Beginning Dec. 15, 1927, this practice was modified by adopting a ‘plan whereby ships which cannot be scheduled for complete transit through the canal on the day of arrival may be passed through the locks up to the summit level of Gatun lake in the afternoon after the scheduled hours for complete: transit. Ships so raised to the summit level in the late afternoon or evening are moored at Gatun or Pedro Miguel for the night and leave at daylight the following morning to complete transit. This