A swell dug out

taken from a small dug out. in a good swell

I send you his address write him soon he is boarding in the Y.M.C.A Club
Mr C Y Cleall
c/o Panama Banking Co
Colon
Republic of Panama

This appears to be an example of a "real photo postcard" which prior to this example I didn't know existed. And since that sent me on a deep dive into figuring out when these started being made to when they ended, I was able to find the general timeframe this one dates from (via the Britannic Auctions website) .

Each brand marking varied across the forty or so years the real photo postcards were made so the marking on the stamp box is the clue. The AZO brand marking with 4 triangles dates from 1904-1918 and that's what we have here.

If this postcard dates from this time period, then it is likely the person was there during the US construction of the Panama canal. Could he have been working on the canal? I don't have any reason to believe he was or wasn't, but it would be interesting to think so. Maybe the person writing this postcard sent it with another letter to someone who wanted to keep in touch with someone working on one of the immense steam powered machines of American industry. Maybe he was part of the US Army Corps of Engineers. Or maybe he was just a tourist hanging out at the YMCA club and going onto the ocean in a small dugout with his buddy. While others were doing the dug out of the canal.

I couldn't make the pun work but you get it anyways. I'm not sorry.