William Paterson, was born in April, 1658, in Tinwald, Dumfries and Galloway. Though he was Scottish by birth and parentage he was mostly raised in England. When still only seventeen he emigrated to the Bahamas where he made his fortune in the cross-Atlantic commodities trade. Returning to England in 1694, he co-founded the Bank of England which was created to service the growing national debt. Whilst in London he came up with the idea that he believed would reverse Scotland’s fortunes. The Darien Scheme, as it was to become known, would make Scotland rich and restore its national prestige. 

Darien was situated on the Isthmus of Panama and provided the perfect geographical location for Paterson’s scheme. Trade with the Pacific markets was extremely lucrative but could also be ruinously expensive. All merchant ships had to make the long and hazardous journey around Cape Horn on the southern tip of South America. Many ships were lost, insurance costs were high, and the distances travelled added months to the sea voyage. A Scottish colony established at Darien could circumvent all this. Goods could be unloaded on the Pacific shoreline and ferried the 40 miles overland to Darien on the Atlantic coast where where they could be loaded onto ships waiting to make the Atlantic crossing. For this service the Scots would charge a substantial commission.

The scheme, as imagined by Paterson, was pure genius. Alas, he had done little homework and his only source of information regarding Darien was a sailor named Lionel Wafer who assured him that he knew the area well. It was a paradise, he informed Paterson, it had a sheltered bay, the climate was mild, the land fertile, the rivers clean and abundant with fish, and the natives were harmless and vain. Paterson took Wafer at his word. He may not have known much about Darien but he could find it on a map, and it was perfect. The fact that it was already claimed by the Spanish seemed not to have crossed anyone’s mind.

Paterson at first tried to raise the money for his scheme abroad in Germany and on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, but the English, who had got wind of the scheme and were vehemently opposed to it, pressurised potential investors to withdraw. They were determined to oppose any scheme that appeared to threaten their own trade links with the Far-East, especially if that threat emanated from Scotland. 

In response to English interference, Paterson relocated to Edinburgh where he badgered the Scottish Parliament into endorsing the scheme and thereby helping him raise the funds for his newly-established Company of Scotland. The scheme soon took off as the last best hope for Scotland, and Scots rushed to subscribe. In six months more than £400,00 was raised, almost 25% of Scotland’s total liquid capital. Indeed, so enthused were the Scots by talk of an idyllic paradise just waiting to be colonised some spent their entire life savings to invest, others mortgaged their farms to to able to raise the funds to do so.

Paterson, who was himself penniless having squandered his fortune on various other schemes, was provided with £25,000 with which to purchase stores and fit out five ships for the voyage. The excitement in Scotland at the prospects for the venture were palpable, and the 1200 colonists chosen to make the initial voyage were considered to e very lucky indeed. The fact, however, that the ships cargo for the journey included a sizable number of combs for the natives, Bibles with which to convert them, and brand new periwigs for the settlers suggests they did not really know what they were letting themselves in for.

The Darien fleet set sail from Leith on 4 July, 1698. The English had attempted to blockade the harbour and the ships initially became separated due to a dense sea mist. Only Robert Pennecuik and Paterson knew the exact destination. The passengers were provided with sealed envelopes revealing the precise location that were only to be opened once they were at sea.

The fleet did not arrive at Darien until 2 November. Some 70 passengers and crew had died during the voyage, even so upon making landfall the survivors enthusiastically set about building a settlement on the Isthmus they now proudly named New Caledonia. But the land they were building upon was not the rich fertile soil they had been led to expect but a boggy morass, little more than a malaria infected swamp. Not only was it unfit for cultivation it was barely firm enough to build a hut on. The local Indians it transpired were not at all friendly, neither were they remotely interested in combs or any other worthless trinkets. Also, the Spanish were not impressed by what they saw as an unscrupulous land grab and their hostile posturings forced the colonists to withdraw behind a hastily improvised stockade they named Fort St Andrew. 

The Spring of the following year brought torrential rain and by March, 1699, more than 200 of the colonists had died from disease. Those ships that had been sent out to trade returned empty-handed. Unable to bargain for goods with the Spanish they were reliant upon the English colonies nearby, but these had been forbidden from trading with or selling supplies to the Scots. Reduced to a daily diet of mouldy bread and boiled flour that made a kind of gruel that was invariably infested with maggots, the colonists were working 16 hours a day in the most intense heat simply to maintain their settlement. They were weak, malnourished, and dying at the rate of ten a day.

Paterson and the other leaders of the expedition lived better. They recoiled from manual labour and tempered their anguish with ample supplies of rum and wine as they argued amongst themselves as to the best course of action. Should they stay, or should they go? The decision was to be made for them. Learning that the Spanish were about to launch a full-scale assault on Fort St Andrew, they fled.

Of the four ships that left Darien in such haste only one ever reached Scotland with just 300 survivors aboard. One of these was William Paterson, though he had left his wife dead of disease in the swamps of Darien.

As what remained of the first expedition was returning, in August a second left Scotland bound for Darien with 1302 colonists on board. They had no idea of the fate of their predecessors and were shocked upon their arrival to find nothing but hundreds of unmarked graves. Even so, they were determined to make a go of it. Alas, it wasn’t long before disease again took its toll. They were soon dying by the dozen but this time when the Spanish attacked they were determined to resist. They did so for months and even took the attack to the Spanish and won a notable victory, but the final outcome was inevitable. Besieged by the Spanish in their Fort St Andrew they were forced to surrender in March, 1700. The Darien adventure was over, and it had been a disaster.

The nightmare that had been Darien traumatised Scotland. A country already reeling financially had been dealt a body-blow from which many thought it would never recover. Those who had participated in it and survived were now ostracised from their own communities, blamed as they were for bringing a once proud nation to its knees. 

Many Scot’s believed that there last opportunity to prosper as an independent nation had been deliberately sabotaged by the English. Their anger spilled over into violence and a number of English sailors were lynched as a result. The sense of resentment felt at their bullying neighbour helped fuel Jacobitism and a longing in large parts of the country for a return of the Stuart Monarchy.

The English also feared a Stuart revival and now began to pressure Scotland into agreeing to political union. They agreed to compensate the Scots for the Darien disaster, offered to reduce the tariffs on their goods, promised them opportunities to trade in English markets abroad, and made it clear that political union with England would mean that in future Scotland’s debt would become Britains. If they refused, however, the border with England would be closed and a trade embargo enforced. 

One of the prime movers for the political union of the two countries was William Paterson. He argued vociferously that Scotland was doomed to become a primitive, poverty-stricken, agricultural backwater, economically subservient to its more powerful neighbour. The dispute was bitter and drawn out. The two Commissions established to negotiate terms, one Scottish, one English, never met but worked through intermediaries. On 1 May, 1707, the Act of Union was signed. Scotland and England, that had previously been two countries united under One Crown, would now, along with Wales and a few years later Ireland, be a single unitary State – Great Britain. A short time later, £398,000, the exact amount lost in the Darien Expedition was deposited into the Scottish Treasury.

Scotland’s national poet, Robert Burns, lamented what had been done, “ We were bought and sold for English gold. Never were there such rogues in a nation.”

After some initial hardship and Jacobite rebellions in both 1715 and 1745, Scotland was to indeed prosper within the Union. But it was a sad and shameful way for the nation of William Wallace and Robert the Bruce to lose its independence. An independence forged in the fiery furnace of war and at the cost of such sacrifice and bloodshed over so many centuries.  

Even with the emergence of modern -day aircrafts that made transportation swift, ships are still and will always be of major importance for the transportation industry, specifically in the transportation of commodity goods worldwide.

First, it is much cheaper than air transportation. Energy consumption of an airplane is far greater than consumption of a ship.

Second, it is by far safer to travel on water than on air. When a plane crushes, survival rate is almost zero. Whereas, when a ship submerges, there is still a big chance to survive.

And lastly, ships can transport more cargoes than airplanes, thought ships travel much slower.

And because of these, the Suez and Panama canals play a major role in the transportation of export and import products worldwide. And both are vital too, in the tourism industry.

Map of the Suez Canal

A view of the Suez Canal

SUEZ CANAL

Suez Canal is a ship canal in Egypt and a major navigational route for world trade. It crosses the Isthmus of Suez and links the Mediterranean Sea with the Gulf of Suez, an arm of the Red Sea.

The Isthmus of Suez connects the continents of Asia and Africa

IMPORTANCE:

It eliminates the long voyage around Africa for ships traveling between East and West. Thus, saving lots of money time and effort and thereby, reducing the risks of voyage from calamities like typhoons, hurricanes, tornadoes, and others.

REASON WHY CONSTRUCTION WAS EASIER AND CHEAPER:

It has no locks because there is virtually no difference in the levels of the Mediterranean and Red Seas.

BUILDER:

Ferdinand de Lesseps – a French diplomat and engineer.

COMPANY:

Suez Canal Company

DURATION OF CONSTRUCTION:

It took ten years to complete the canal from 1859 to 1869.

LENGTH:

The length of the canal is slightly more than 100 miles (160 km.)

COST:

$100,000,000.00

OPENED:

November, 1869

A view of the Panama Canal

PANAMA CANAL

Panama Canal is a ship canal across the Isthmus of Panama joining the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. It is an impressive engineering feat.

The Isthmus of Panama connects the continents of North America and South America.

IMPORTANCE:

It eliminates the long journey around South America for ships traveling between East and West. Thus, saving lots of money time and effort and thereby, reducing the risks of voyage from calamities like typhoons, hurricanes, tornadoes, and others

REASONS WHY CONSTRUCTION WAS HARDER AND MORE EXPENSIVE:

1. The Panama Canal has locks to raise and lower ships because the water levels of Pacific and Atlantic Oceans are different.
2. Outbreak of Yellow fever and malaria during the construction period
3. Massive machines were needed to dig through solid rocks.
4. Frequent landslides.
5. Temporary railways was built to transport men and supplies
6. Average labor force was 40,000 men.

BUILDER:

1. Ferdinand de Lesseps began the construction but went bankrupt.
2. The US took over through the Spooners Act of 1902 passed by the US Congress.

COMPANY:

Isthmian Canal Company

DURATION OF CONSTRUCTION:

10 years from 1904 to 19914

LENGTH:

The length of the canal is 50 miles (80 km.) half the length of Suez Canal.

COST:

$366,650,000.00. It cost more than three times as much the cost of Suez Canal.

OPENED:

1914

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