William C. Gorgas and the Panama Canal
Introduction
The construction of the Panama Canal dates back to the 16th century. There was a potential link between North and South America through a water passage between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. The early European colonialists identified this potential, and there were several proposals to construct a canal. Towards the end of the 19th century, commercial pressure and technological advances necessitated work to begin. The initial attempt to build the Panama Canal was made by the French under engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps. This pioneer group encountered difficulties in excavating the rugged terrain of Panama land. Many people lost their lives because of tropical diseases, and the project was abandoned after partial completion. This essay examines the construction of the Panama Canal after the first attempt by the French failed. Additionally, the essay discusses the health challenges that workers faced and how military-man Colonel William C. Gorgas provided sanitary solutions that saw the success of the Panama Canal construction project.
Background
William Crawford Gorgas is renowned for his military success and his infectious disease control measures that saw the completion of the Panama Cana construction. William Gorgas was born on 3rd October 1854 in Alabama. He was born to a United States Army Ordinance Officer living in Charleston, South Carolina. William C. Gorgas was a renowned U.S. Army physician who also was the 22nd U.S. Army Surgeon General (1914 – 1918). In his formative years before the Panama Canal project, Gorgas was revered for his ingenious U.S. Army prototype for Preventive Medicine Officers. He initiated a group called the Army Sanitation Corps, and he was resiliently determined in all his duties. He was open to new ideas, and he always endeavored to put these ideas into practice. William C. Gorgas believed in what he was doing. The following quote from Gorgas sets a good for the rest of this essay as it aptly captures the resilience in Gorgas that saw the successful completion of the Panama Canal project.
“The person appointed to be in charge of a sanitation system is a key determinant to the success of this system. If the person has tact, he believes in the system, he is persevering, and enthusiastic, then the system will succeed. If the person is easily distracted and gets discouraged by difficulties and opposition, then he is bound to fail regardless of the correctness of the system.”
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In the pioneer attempt by the French to construct the Panama Canal, more than 22000 workers lost their lives due to tropical diseases such as yellow fever and malaria. These diseases had terrifying symptoms such as headaches, fever, extreme thirst, back pain, and black vomit due to internal bleeding. The effects of these diseases could spread and cause seizures, kidney failure, coma, and eventually, death. The disease caused a yellow tinge like that of jaundice, and hence it was named yellow fever. The United States took over the construction of the canal in 1904, in the backdrop of the challenges experienced by the French. The new effort by the United States of American had planned to construct a new canal altogether. The Panama Canal construction site was politically unsuitable for the United States, especially following the failed French attempt. The Colombian government was also hostile towards the United States in their bid to carry on with constructing the canal. However, French financier and engineer Phillippe-Jean Bunau-Varilla extensively lobbied and secured rights for the United States to lead the construction effort at the canal.
Developments at the Panama Canal Construction Project
The failure of the French to construct the canal is attributed to the many challenges they faced. The French project was faulty and did not consider basic issues like rivers which flooded the canal, thereby making the construction work difficult. The project was marred by accidents and infirmities like malaria and yellow fever which claimed at least 20000 lives of construction workers. The rampant diseases are explained by the fact that the canal passed through the jungle of Panama that was a breeding ground for mosquitoes. By then, people did not know that mosquitoes played a role in transmitting yellow fever and malaria. The infirmities and the related deaths were the major challenges that made the French abandon the project. There was a need to address sanitation issues and improve overall engineering skills.
The success of the United States of America is attributed to two main factors. The first factor was that the U.S. began by converting the original sea-level set by the French into a more lock-controlled canal. The second reason is the subject matter of this essay. This was the control measures put in place to control diseases that were apparently decimating management and workers alike in the pioneer project by the French. When the United States took control of the construction project in 1904, Theodore Roosevelt (1858 – 1919) appointed William Crawford Gorgas (1854 – 1920) to be the Chief Sanitary Engineer in the construction of the Panama Canal. President Roosevelt sent William Gorgas to Europe and Egypt purposely to study why the French failed in the Panama Canal project and the techniques used to build the Suez Canal in Egypt successfully. He found out that at least 25 per cent of the French workforce died at the time of the project and there was a lot of absenteeism every day due to sicknesses. He established that more than 22000 people died because of infectious diseases during the pioneer attempt by the French at Panama Canal. He purposed that for the Panama Canal project to successful, he needed to control yellow fever and malaria in Panama.
After spending two years in Europe and Egypt, Roosevelt appointed Gorgas as an advisor to the Panama Canal Commission at the Canal Zone. The American Medical Association supported this decision by the president to appoint Gorgas to the Commission. Therefore, William Gorgas officially began his trials having been described as affable, courtly, and a lovable man by an American engineer. Prior to the appointment by President Theodore Roosevelt, Gorgas had successfully led a yellow fever eradication mission in Cuba in 1901. This was after it had been discovered that a type of mosquito called Aedes egyptii was a yellow fever disease carrier.
Most people believed that yellow fever was a disease resulting from decomposing matter and spread mainly by fomites. This was a common belief among members of the Isthmian Canal Commission (I.C.C.). The I.C.C. would even think that Col. Gorgas wasting money and time by eradicating mosquito breeding grounds. They refused to give him the support he needed in terms of medicines and supplies. In early 1905, there were several deaths, and this caused more than 500 American workers to run away from the Canal Zone. There was widespread panic and demoralization to the project itself. The I.C.C petitioned the then acting President Theodore Roosevelt to sack Gorgas and replace him with someone else because he concentrated on mosquitoes and paid little attention to cleaning the filth. They wanted men with a more practical approach to be placed in charge of the sanitary department. They argued that Gorgas had an understanding of what caused yellow fever, but he appeared to lack practical methods of executing his ideas.
To their disappointment, President Roosevelt supported Gorgas because he had seen the work that Gorgas did at Havana. The mosquito theory was established beyond peradventure, and it was remarkably successful in Havana. Yellow fever was more pronounce and impactful in Havana than Panama. The president was convinced that theory would work in Panama and refused to sanction the activities of the Gorgas-led team. He directed people to support William Gorgas and his sanitary officials in whichever way they wanted. President Roosevelt appointed Mr John Stevens as the Panama Canal project chief engineer to take the position of the former chief engineer who had resigned. Stevens was appointed as a member of the I.C.C. from which he expressed a lot of confidence in the Sanitary Department led by Col. William Gorgas. The support from Stevens came at a time when William Gorgas was facing a lot of challenges from people following the rampant deaths.
The I.C.C. recommended that the Sanitary Department be made to stand on its own as an independent bureau. This was a major boost for Gorgas in his activities to fight yellow fever. He would now report directly to the chairman and make known his requests for the department. The chairman was always loyal to the Sanitary Department, and he gave his unwavering support whenever it was needed. This was a watermark period for sanitary activities in Panama. More than 4000 people were recruited to assist in the fumigation of homes, spray drains, put up screens, drain stagnant water, and spray pools of water with oil. Remarkably, by the end of 1905, there was no death reported due to yellow fever in Panama. This development quieted the alarms raised by the I.C.C. and Gorgas together with his sanitary officials were given prestige; not only from the Panama Canal construction employees but also from the native Isthmian population.
In the construction of the Panama Canal, the years 1905 and 1906 were considered halcyon days for William Gorgas and the Sanitary Department. This is the time that the sanitary team accomplished their activities. In the advent of 1907, the Gorgas-led team had completed all their work, and they had won the fight against yellow fever in Panama. The team was focused on maintaining the status quo and ensure that there would be no more cases until the project was completed.
Conclusion
Despite the imminent dangers from the rugged terrain and the infirmities that the French pioneers faced in the Panama Canal project, there were still some people who were willing to go to the Isthmus. Through the resilience of able men like William Gorgas, the project was started and completed. Gorgas provided sanitary solutions at the Panama Canal project, and he oversaw the project from the beginning to the end. Upon his appointment to the Canal Zone, Gorgas was sent Europe (to study and understand why the French failed in their attempt at the Panama Canal) and to Egypt (to know how they managed to build the Suez Canal successfully). He came back to Panama with solutions to eradicate mosquito breeding grounds as a control measure for malaria and yellow fever. This approach worked, and he was able to oversee the successful construction of the Panama Canal.
References
Hull, Jr. Reuben F. “The French Attempt to Construct a Canal at Panama.” Engineering the Panama Canal, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784413739.002.
Rogers, J. David. “The American Engineers That Built the Panama Canal.” Engineering the Panama Canal, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784413739.005.
Maurizio, Arcari. “Panama Canal.” Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law, 2009. https://doi.org/10.1093/law:epil/9780199231690/e1334.
Mckillen, Elizabeth. “The Panama Canal: Tropical Tropes and Working-Class Realities.” Diplomatic History 35, no. 1 (2010): 55–60. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7709.2010.00918.x.
Giroux, Raymond Paul. “Building the Panama Canal (Men, Machines, and Methods).” Engineering the Panama Canal, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784413739.003.
