Panama and Beyond

Sail into the bygone era of steamship journeys and Panama Canal Construction. The serendipitous discovery of letters and a journal a century old send the author on a voyage from Massachusetts to a family gathering in Cuba, through the construction of the Panama Canal, up the Pacific Coast, and on to Hawaii. Meet William Hobby, a junior engineer on the Canal, his independent and curious Cousin Mabel, his uncle who had never been farther west than upper New York State, and his aunt...
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Sail into the bygone era of steamship journeys and Panama Canal Construction. The serendipitous discovery of letters and a journal a century old send the author on a voyage from Massachusetts to a family gathering in Cuba, through the construction of the Panama Canal, up the Pacific Coast, and on to Hawaii. Meet William Hobby, a junior engineer on the Canal, his independent and curious Cousin Mabel, his uncle who had never been farther west than upper New York State, and his aunt visiting her sister on a San Diego ranch. The long-forgotten letters they sent home, along with William's journal, inspire the author to take a vicarious journey in their footsteps. Along the way, she not only discovers a world long gone, but encounters intriguing questions and facts. How is a tugboat like Mark Twain's donkey? Is the Santa Maria volcano still active? How did an item manufactured in Vermont find its way to a port in Costa Rica? A single sentence about the Sosostres wreck exhumes three versions of the ship's fate. Frigatebirds sleep while flying, mangroves are essential to planetary health, and a postage stamp may have blocked a proposal to build a railway to carry ships across Nicaragua. Hours and months spent deciphering faded ink and smudged pencil create a glimpse of their world as you sail with them in the Golden Age of Steamships to Central American ports and opportune side trips with passengers whose weeks aboard ship gave them no time for boredom.