Looks like Ajax is dismantling some tower. Can see on the left where it had been detached, and then at the foot there is considerable debris from the metal framework………piled up as being just dropped rather than having a neat stack to be picked up for assembly. No idea when – but with the weeds in the background – it appears to be located as some off the main line
The jib, as my best guess will be, is the horizontal working arm, or boom, of the crane; it moves up and down and side to side, and can perform both movements at once. The jib on the crane Ajax has been dismantled for maintenance? repairs? replacement? The Maintenance Division at Gamboa had two of these huge cranes, the Ajax and the Hercules, if I’m right. Maybe the Hercules is the second crane in the photo, in the back, holding the Ajax’s jib with the two overhead lift pulleys. I was allowed in the cab of the Hercules for a brief look around during the summer of 1965, when I was “working” as a lowly machinist’s helper in the Canal Zone College Student Assistant Work-Training Program. Those three months are very memorable. For that period I was awarded a small, round, shiny Panama Canal Company necktie pin that I proudly wear when I happen to put such a noose around my neck.
—Carl N. Berg of Cocoli
The Ajax is a floating crane and it may be alongside another floating barge crane and is in the process of dismantling that barge crane. The Ajax and Hercules were built in Germany and brought to the Panama Canal during WW I. A peace accord allowed a safe transit across the ocean.
5 Comments
John Schmidt ( BHS 50 )
Looks like Ajax is dismantling some tower. Can see on the left where it had been detached, and then at the foot there is considerable debris from the metal framework………piled up as being just dropped rather than having a neat stack to be picked up for assembly. No idea when – but with the weeds in the background – it appears to be located as some off the main line
Carl N. Berg
The jib, as my best guess will be, is the horizontal working arm, or boom, of the crane; it moves up and down and side to side, and can perform both movements at once. The jib on the crane Ajax has been dismantled for maintenance? repairs? replacement? The Maintenance Division at Gamboa had two of these huge cranes, the Ajax and the Hercules, if I’m right. Maybe the Hercules is the second crane in the photo, in the back, holding the Ajax’s jib with the two overhead lift pulleys. I was allowed in the cab of the Hercules for a brief look around during the summer of 1965, when I was “working” as a lowly machinist’s helper in the Canal Zone College Student Assistant Work-Training Program. Those three months are very memorable. For that period I was awarded a small, round, shiny Panama Canal Company necktie pin that I proudly wear when I happen to put such a noose around my neck.
—Carl N. Berg of Cocoli
Malcolm Stone
The Ajax is a floating crane and it may be alongside another floating barge crane and is in the process of dismantling that barge crane. The Ajax and Hercules were built in Germany and brought to the Panama Canal during WW I. A peace accord allowed a safe transit across the ocean.
Max
I think date of the photo is October 9, 1914 (http://ufdc.ufl.edu/PCMI005624/00001?search=ajax).
Max
Crane assembling after transportation from Germany