The Forgotten Adventures of Richard Halliburton by R. Scott Williams

Author:R. Scott Williams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2014-09-04T16:00:00+00:00

Richard Halliburton’s “recreational” travel document issued on May 25, 1928, used as he explored South America for New Worlds to Conquer. Courtesy of the Rhodes College Archives and Special Collections, Memphis, Tennessee.

Opened in 1914, the Panama Canal is fifty-one miles long and connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. The canal cost the United States more than $300 million, and while it was the single most expensive public works construction project in history at the time, it shaved twelve thousand miles off a boat trip from New York to San Francisco. It took ten to twelve hours for a ship to pass through the canal, and during the process, six chambers that were eighty feet deep were filled and emptied with 9 million cubic feet of water. Ships were raised and lowered as they passed through a series of locks. As expected, the governor of the Panama Canal zone, M.L. Walker, initially objected to Halliburton’s request on numerous grounds. But once again, Halliburton’s persistence paid off, and eventually the governor provided a letter stating there was “no objection on the part of the canal authorities” to the swim and even gave permission to have a rowboat with a rifleman to ride along beside him. Both Halliburton and Governor Walker knew the public relations value of this swim and even included an element that was sure to be a strong media hook: Halliburton would pay a fee for passing through the canal, but just like a ship, it would be based on his weight. Halliburton got word to the local papers, the Associated Press and the United Press, and by the time he was ready for the actual swim, reporters were gathered to cover the event and dispatches sent out around the world. He was in the news again.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.