Jefferito

Hi Bill,

Sorry to be so slow in answering. My older brother went down to the CZ from New Orleans in early 1969 with his car and then returned to the States in April. Since it was not summer she was not very full. I'll have to ask him what life was like on board without a bunch of kids. He had temporarily dropped out of college and was considering going into the apprentice program out at Miraflores before returning to college, but then Uncle Sam sent him greetings, so those ideas were dropped and he joined the Navy. Those were his last trips on the Cristobal. My parents rode on her one more time in June 1973 when they retired and came up to the States for the last time. What fond memories we all had of riding on her!

I think the Cristobal was converted over to the 12 passenger and mostly cargo role because there was so little traffic riding her most of the year since she could not carry any non government passengers anymore, and that was also part of the reason for changing from New York to New Orleans in the early 1960s. The other reason was that since she was the primary means of getting Supply Division goods to the CZ, the voyage time was three days VS five days. Ships are limited by law to 12 passengers if they don't carry a doctor, so I assume that they stopped carrying one as another means of economizing.

What was it like with so few shipmates? It must have been kind of boring without all of the activities. Where did you get married and where did you go on your honeymoon? I'm 57 and you must have a few years on me!

Regards,

Jeff

I guess there are at least 3 former passengers here!

Greetings!

Make it 4........ I first sailed on the Cristobal to New York in June of 1958. I still remember the stop in Port Au Prince with the Haitians surrounding the starboard side in their dugouts and bartering their wood products for soap, fruit, etc, and diving for coins. After a while, the crew would drive them off with a fire hose.

We lived on the Pacific side in Balboa and later in La Boca, and sometimes we would take the boat train. When the train arrived in Colon, they would uncouple the extra cars and deliver you right onto the pier beside the ship, which I really thought was cool. We did that whenever we had sold our car and were going to buy a new car in the states for our vacation.

As someone mentioned earlier, the food was fantastic. Usually my mom would have to call me to eat several times at home before I would come, but she never had to call me at all on the Cristobal! When I would hear the steward with the bing-bong xylophone in the morning, I was ready in a flash! I hardly ever saw a kid refusing to eat something on that ship.

My dad sailed on the Ancon once, but the rest of us only traveled on the Cristobal. They fitted screens on the portholes and the door leading out to the pool from the upper cabins so the mosquitos wouldn't be a problem going up the Mississippi to New Orleans. It was really neat when you saw the ocean turn muddy since you knew the mouth of the river was just a couple of hours away. The trip up or down the river was fascinating too, especially when you met oncoming ships headed the other way.

Those are some fantastic memories.......................

Regards,

Jeff