In this episode we're talking about the Panama and Suez Canals. To support this channel and Battleship New Jersey, go to: www.battleshipnewjersey.org/v...
I’ve been through the Panama Canal 3 times. First with New Jersey in ‘83. The second time was a trip. It was 9 November 1989 and I was onboard USS Luce (DDG-38). We were transiting Caribbean to Pacific and we got fogged in right before the Gaillard Cut, so we had to spend the night in the canal moored to a buoy. We watched the Berlin Wall come down that night.
The Germans in WWII did drop mines from airplanes into the Suez Canal. They were quickly found and dealt with. The Germans after their losses with the airborne assault on Crete, never tried to assault and take Malta. If the Germans had taken Malta, the war around the Mediterranean Sea would have been more difficult for the Allies. Rommel would have had a secure supply line and more forces. Rommel could well have taken the Suez Canal and secured all of north Africa.
I was a nite check supervisor and flight deck T/S with VA87 aboard the USS Independence attached to the 6th Fleet in the Med in November 1979, the Iranian Embassy was overrun on the fourth. The skipper came up on the flight deck after the incident and asked me to extend my enlistment if we go to the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf. We didn't go because the Suez Canal was not available to us. Later found out that the canal had a lot of battle damage vessels and gear that needed to be cleaned up for a carrier to transit the canal.
The USS Midway was already in the Indian Ocean at the time (I was in a LAMPS Det. aboard the USS Stein that was part of her Battle Group). No carriers ever went in the Gulf at that time as it was deemed too confining. We were relieved by the Nimitz in January '80.
@@johnknapp952 I found that out within the last couple of years. I read where the Midway was in Perth and went on station in the I/O and was the longest at sea period since WWII. Ninety some days, which is now normal for a carrier before Covid.
My late grandfather had pictures from when his ship, the carrier Ranger CV4, crossed the Panama Canal after the war was over, when she was transferred from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
@Ray Bourque 77 Interesting. I'm planning on building Trumpeter's 1/350 scale model of Ranger someday. My grandfather was part of Ranger's Marine detachment. He never spoke of his wartime service aside from a few photos of him in uniform. But I'm pretty sure he was on Ranger during her Operation Torch service, where her aircraft assisted in damaging the French battleship Jean Bart. Being built under the terms of the treaties to only 13,800 tons, she was deemed too small and too slow for Pacific service. There were plans for an extensive refit to make her Pacific worthy, but that was ultimately cancelled because it would have occupied valuable yard space.
When I was in the navy (99-03) when we went on 6 month deployment we went through the Suez Canal twice. Once going into the Persian Gulf area and once coming back out to the Mediterranean. Our whole destroyer squadron did.
" displaces as much as *all four Iowa battleships combined* " (emphasis added) See, now *that* is the kind of factoid that makes me glad to sub to this channel. A battleship fan can get distracted by the idea that the Iowas were the pinnacle of heavily-armored, heavily-armed ships in the 1940s, but then you realize... the New Jersey's like an armored medieval knight on roller skates compared to the colossal lumbering brontosaurus that is a modern ultra-heavy cargo ship.
In 1991 or 1992 I had the opportunity to spend a day aboard HMCS Halifax, a brand new frigate, while she navigated the South Shore Canal around Montreal from East to West to pay a visit to Kingston. As an Army officer it was great fun watching how my Navy colleagues did their jobs in such tight waters (though with a little more than a foot on each side of the ship), and particularly fun watching them sweat scratching the bright new paint! Pretty snug for folks used to having the whole North Atlantic for elbow room. But they did a bang-up job and we made it through without a hitch. A great day!
I remember Reagen’s choppers, 3 of them all alike, came in and circled the Jersey. Then started coming in and out like a nut shell game there near the fan tail. Finally, the POTUS stepped out. It was amazing to see. The ship’s final commissioning ceremony was incredible, I wish I still had my photos. I took a lot even though the guard snapped a couple at the sky on the way in.
I've been through the canal on a cruise ship - all of the new supercarriers, including the Ford class, do meet neopanamax and can transit now (though when laid down they were capesize - too large for either Panama or Suez), but the US Navy won't unless there is a true emergency because it would mean leaving the carriers very vulnerable to being disabled in the canal. When we owned the Canal Zone, air cover was always provided to any vessels going through both from bases in the Zone and during WWII from long range USAAF bombers patrolling out of Seymour Island Airfield in the Galapagos. If you can visit the Galapagos, you can still see some USAAF equipment used for B-24 Liberators when you land at Baltra. Most likely a carrier transit today would involve arrangements with the Panamanian government to disembark at least part of the air wing to shore to operate a CAP during the transit, as well as escorts going through both first and last to guard either side of the canal.
YES, Was on the Jersey both ways thru the Canal. First time we were Pier side that night and WAITING to go thru it. Scuppers had to be removed before we could head East! Best Part and Against all Odds. We were heading West, Coming Home! About the Middle of the Canal. There WAS a Cruise Ship RIGHT across from us Heading East! One of Our Shipmates, Grandparents. Were on THAT Cruise Ship! They Knew he was on the Jersey and they got WORD to our Crew on the Main Deck. Word was spread quickly. And he was Up there PDQ, And waving and they were Talking back and Forth. Our whole Crew were Very HAPPY ABOUT THAT TOO!!
She's such a Beautiful ship at sea, I don't know what it is about Battleship and the Iowa class specially that looks so Beautiful and yet Destructive, Carriers just look as cool to me in my opinion. Does anybody else think that?
@@andrewhyde4812 Plus that rising bow. A Beauty it is. I used to make models of these in the 90s. I kept one until last year I got rid of it. It was about six feet long and a foot or so wide.
My Dad was on the NJ second deployment to Korea in 1953, his cruise book shows the trip from Norfolk thru the Panama Canal to Long Beach then to Pearl Harbor and a couple of other ports eventually relieving another Iowa class off Korea…great ship!,
I went through the Suez eight times during Desert Shield/Storm leading convoys. There was a concern it had been mined and the USS Yellowstone was the only military asset available for the job.
@@wrench31e22 Yes the Shenandoah. I was on from 85-88. I think you were later than me. We used to run with the guys from the shipfitters shop. Greenwheel Inn.
For a while I was living in one of the old arty sites covering the first lock on the pacific side of the Panama canal and just before that out by the 300 m targets on the rifle range. So I lived for a few months on the Panama canal. Even watch the hook up to the little train tractors that they have to pull and guide the ships going into the locks. Then one day on a cost guard boat on the canal I got to see the panel system for lining up the ships on the hills for each side. Then the grass ninjas that cut the grass to keep the signs visible from 10 ft high grass. Tankers, role on role off ships, cruise liners of different sizes , container ships and sail boats.
Some great video of the New Jersey. I had the pleasure to steam with her in the mid 80's. I was on the USS Roark FF-1053,and the Jersey met up with us outside of Hawaii and we went to the Pacific side of the canal and back to San Diego. I seen the BB-62 do night gunnery exercises. something I will never see again. The New Jersey is an awesome battle ship.
Back in the late 90s we took a cruise up the Yangtze River. We sailed through the Three Gorges Dam project. The Chinese government built a huge set of locks next to the dam so that ships could continue to navigate the river. Our cruise ship, which was large by river craft standards, but small compared to some of the monsters cruising the Caribbean these days, was dwarfed by the lock we were in and the dam under construction next to it. Our ship was raised to quite a considerable height before we sailed out of the lock. Truly memorable experience.
I first went through Suez in July 1987 on USS Guadalcanal. We had been scheduled for a port visit to Mombasa. But the day after pulling out of Mombasa we were re-directed to Diego Garcia to drop off the Marines and embark a helicopter minesweeping squadron. This was when Iran was laying mines in the Persian Gulf. Three months in the Gulf, then in November we went back through Suez on our way home.
I have been to the Panama Canal, and watched a big cargo ship (with thousands of containers) go thru the Atlantic lock. It was amazing, and each 'car' on the side that takes the ship thru is something like $3M! There are 3 on each side. These 6 are computer controlled and not only do they pull the ship forward, but also maintain the sideways tension so the ships do not hit the sides. None of the ships go thru the lock on their own power.
Went through on the New Jersey coming home from Beirut in 1984. Even with all the machinery running in #2 engine room you could hear the scraping as we transitioned. Not as loud as when Midway CV-41 drug a rudder leaving Hong Kong in 83 but still audible.
The Suez Canal was closed for eight years after the Six Day War in 1967. After the canal was demined in 1975, a convoy of ships transited the canal and one of the ships is now a fellow museum ship, USS Little Rock.
Actually, the US Navy does use the Suez Canal to transit from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf, via the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. This has been going on since at least 1987 when the US was escorting tankers during the Iran/Iraq war. I was stationed aboard USS KIDD (DDG-993) during the Persian Gulf Escort Ops ... and I have the T-shirt to prove it! :) I don't recall if any US BBs or CVs transited the Suez during Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm, but I'm certain that other vessels did. ... On a side note, during the Suez Canal transit in '87, we had a closeup look at a Soviet/Russian destroyer (or maybe cruiser? Not sure of the ship type) while transiting the Great Bitter Lake. The crew were performing calisthenics on deck, presumably to impress us.
Did two tours on USCGC Mariposa out of Detroit. Our normal op area was Lake Erie and Ontario. We used to transit the Welland canal numerous times a year. Most impressive part was the triple locks by St Catherines. Also did two winter deployments in and out the St Lawrence seaway, and finally a change of homeport out down and around from Detroit to Seattle. via the panama canal.
A couple of years ago we went through the Panama canal, but for all my time in the Navy this was done on a cruise ship. My uncle still held the family record for passages, having been in the Merchant Marine and as a sailor onboard none other than the New Jersey herself. He told stories about the tight fit and it was a little anticlimactic to go through the wider canal with a drink in my hand.
2013 transited the Suez Canal twice on USS Carter Hall 26th MEU at general quarters and in condition river city. We Marines were a grunt unit and had every single heavy weapon mounted on the flight deck and AAV’s on the fight deck each armed with a .50 cal and Mk19. We also had snipers, DM’s and light machine guns in the tops, on the forecastle and on the Fantail. Overall, there were about 150 heavily armed Marines out on the ship ready to defend her from a USS Cole type situation.
I am from Panama and got a chance to go onboard the New Jersey when it crossed the Canal in 83. I was just 5 but remember being mesmerized looking up at the gun turrets. 🤓
I transited the Panama Canal in spring of 1966 aboard USS Beale DD 471 out of Norfolk with 32 squadron after being hastily transferred from 36 squadron on a round the world cruise with a slight stop in Viet Nam. It was a great transit , we had all the fallout sprayers open and fire hoses goin to flush them. We stoped on the Pacific side NavSta but were not allowed into the city deemed unsafe due to rebellious activity.
I worked on the New York State Barge Canal (the successor to the Erie Canal) in the 1970's. Commercial pusher tugs (just one on the back) slipped square barges thru the locks with a foot clearance on either side all day long (36 locks from Albany to Buffalo) although of course those locks were 45' wide and 328 foot long. And those things had to fit under bridges too. And of course "Panamax" ocean going ships do it all day long too. But to do it with a ship's crew that is not used to doing it, in a ship that is a significant military target, must have made for some puckering moments. Great video. Carry on.
When I was in the navy my ship went through the Sueze Cannel. I remember this well because there is a lake they use as an reserve basen to assign ships their que to go through the cannel. While we where waiting for the South bound ships to pass it was Thanksgiving and we had a cookout on the fantail for our Thanksgiving festivities. The next day we led the North bound flow. Apparently North and South are on an odd and even bases according to the last didget of the date.
I was on a tour boat in the Soo locks shared with one of the ore carriers if that counts. I think it was the Arthur Anderson which turned around to search for the Edmund Fitzgerald. We were completely dwarfed by the ore carrier. We had to look up at about a 40° angle to look at the main deck.
The Atlantic fleet uses the suez more then you state, especially in the last 20 years. Did 3 deployments to the gulf from Little creek and each time we went through the suez with the entire battle group.
Eisenhower Lock on the St Lawrence Seaway was a great tourist destination when I was growing up. I have been lucky enough to see some military vessels go through, USN Destroyer, HMCS vessels, USCG. A few years ago I took the family there and it is still impressive to see, but gift shop & cafeteria resembles a ghost town. I highly suggest anyone in the northeast to go see active lock for 78’ beam x 740’ length ships. Nearby hydroelectric dam does have good visitor center museum.
I always wonder why our enemies didn’t just scuttle a civilian ship in a straight or canal to screw them up. Like imagine if the Japanese or Germans had sunk a ship in the Panama to harm transport.
That would require the Japanese or Germans to make a ship look like a friendly vessel to get into the chock point. Second this would close the canal for a few months at most. Doing long term damage is very difficult. Sinking a ship is easy if you get the ship to blow themselves up or burn to death, but canals don't have that vulnerability.
@@zeroone8800 You'd need to do something like the St Nazaire Raid and blow apart a lock. It was difficult enough to do when the British could launch such an attack from one side of the Channel. Doing it from the other side of the Pacific would be near impossible. Even then, unlike St Nazaire, the Americans would be super motivated to get it back in service quickly whereas the dry dock at St Nazaire was far less strategically important. Hence why the Germans didn't prioritise its repair.
I was stationed at Fort Clayton, CZ for a year and a half 1969-71. Clayton is/was next to the swing bridge at the Miraflores Locks. You could buy a Triumph 650 bike in a crate for $650. Not a bad tour. Panama City is completely changed it appears, but I have not been back. Culebra Cut has been very significantly dug out. The ships were moved through locks with four electric engines, two per side. They ran on rails and had a cog drive between the rails to prohibit slippage. It was those "Mules" as they were called that permit such close clearances between ship and lock. Much better than the tugs they use on the new locks AFAICS.
I transited the Suez Canal southbound from 02Jun67-04Jun67. I will never forget sitting at anchor in the Great Bitter Lake (to allow the Northbound convoy to pass through) watching Mig 19s and Mig 21s taking off and landing at an Egyptian Air Force Base right at the north end of the Great Bitter Lake. After we passed Port Tawfiq and starting southbound through the Gulf of Suez, we heard about the start of the Six Day Way. Little did I know that in less than 24 hours, all of those Egyptian Migs I was watching, and the runways they were using would be blasted to bits by the IAF. And the ships behind us were really unlucky, there were a number of ships that were trapped in the Canal and were not released until the Canal reopened in 1975. They gained the moniker of the "yellow fleet" from the layers of desert sand that covered them all over that long 8 year layover
In 1990 I was assigned to 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion. The rush to get so many troops to Saudi Arabia fast created a mess so our unit split and if I remember right left on the USS Manitowoc, USS LaMoure, USS Iwo Jima as well as LAV-25s being put on the MV Strong Texan and those crews flying over on MAC all going through the Suez Canal. I reported from MOS school for duty the day they were deploying. Literally an hour before they left. A Staff Sargent said "Good your in charge while we are gone. Here are the office keys." So I was left in North Carolina as the only admin support to run rear Headquarters for a Lieutenant, 25 injured Marines and 10 with other issues. I heard some amazing stories when everyone returned.
It's too bad the Iowas weren't still around during the Somalian piracy problems several years ago. After the first pirate skiff met an Iowa, the others would have been much more reluctant to go out to sea...
I was glad I got to see east coast but could not stay very long this time I stayed at Hampton inn in convention center area of Philadelphia downtown an loved it.
As an engine cadet and engineer I have gone through the Suez, C&D, Cape Cod, and Panama Canal. I spent three years going from New York to the west coast of South America which required two transits through the Panama which took 3 to 4 weeks, depending. So I have some experience as a Merchant Seaman. We had no such thing as a special sea detail In the engine room the only change was that the first would come down to take the throttles and at times we would have both generators on line. Ships propulsion power was barely used (except entering and exiting the canal and passing through Gatun Lake). We were pulled through the locks by the "mules". Two to a side. Ships propulsion was only used to to get us started. I do not remember if anything special was done by the deck department. The Canal Authority put several line handling gangs on bard. The ship's crew did not normally handle the lines. This was 50 or so years ago. I believe that with the wider canal, tugboats rather than mules are used. Going through through the other canals was similar. We had no extra crew members to spare for a "special sea detail" we stood normal watches.
Years ago a friend noted he was aboard a battleship that just barely fit through the locks of the Panama Canal during WWII (may have been Korean War). He noted they had added many additional guns and gun tubs. One apparently extended past the edge of the lock chamber when the ship got a bit askew. He noted as the ship dropped in that lock, the gun tub just folded up against the wall like a folding knife.
I was glad to visit my ship after being off it since 1986=I made trip back to see her and did my cool awsome interview with the veterans officer. He did my story for when I served in uss New Jersey during first lebanon war in gorgous long beach naval station way before navy closed it down for good in 1997 I think I gave my interview on pearl harbor day December 7 this yr
14:55 Ever Given has a crew of 25 plus the local Egyptian pilot who was driving the Suez. It's full displacement is about 225,000 tonnes, for comparison that's more than double that of the new Ford class carriers. And she's got only 1 centerline screw & 1 rudder plane. So yeah, these ships maneuver like bricks.
Information is a little off on Battleships passing through the Suez canal. During Operation Desert Storm/Desert Shield, Both BB63 USS Missouri, and BB64 USS Wisconsin both transgressed the Suez Canal and were both in the Persian Gulf. I wasn't Navy, but I was in on some of the Bombardments in Iraq and requested fire from both Ships.
I've been through the Panama Canal twice, on board the USS Vincennes, CG 49, back in '96. Unfortunately, it was at night so I only got to view the locks at twilight.
My Brother was aboard two DDG's that transited the Suez, once as Strike Officer and again as Navigator. Main reason he never had a line crossing ceremony.
I was standing watch in Starboard steering space during an "UNREP" when OUR ship lost steering control from the bridge. They had to shift control over to me and I was "that guy" who lived through the scenario of... "when you least expect something to go wrong it will".
I was on the USS Cleveland (LPD-7) when we transited the Panama Canal in 1992. It was memorable, as we got stuck in the first canal lock. They got us unstuck and towed us back to Rodman, where they had to cut off several protrusions from the sides of the ship. I guess no one looked at the revised drawings of the ship, as over time things were added that increased her beam. The Chief Engineer was fired and I, as the MPA, had to take over his job for the rest of that deployment. As far as I know, we were the first ship to get stuck in that canal. Fortunately, the transit back through the canal was smooth. They since widened the canal, so that would not be an issue today.
I have officially gone completely through the canal twice. In 1961 as a Cub Scout from Atlantic to Pacific (southbound) on the seaplane tender USS Currituck, then again northbound in 1970 on the SS Austral Patriot with my college roommate who came down to the CZ with me to visit over Christmas. We returned home to the Pacific side on the train (Panama Railroad) after the ship docked in Cristobal. I also learned to water ski in Gatun Lake and grew up in the Canal Zone on the Pacific side. I loved it there! I still miss it after leaving 49 years ago. The sun rises on the Pacific side of the Canal and sets on the Atlantic side. Don't believe it? Look at a map of Panama... You'll see!
I went thru the Panama canal in 1986 on the Iowa as part of a Central America cruise ( CentAm. ) Unfortunately we only made it as far as Honduras up the West Coast, no transiting to Pearl much less a Westpac. I also transited the Suez canal in 1990 on USS Scott part of the Eisenhower battle group for Desert Shield. How many noticed this video is of the New Jersey is during the Vietnam war not during the 1980s?
On the NJ transit of the Panama in 1968 - there were a thousand or more spectators on the lawn adjacent to the locks. I assumed it was only because it was a newly commissioned ship. Two years later, transiting the Canal on the newly commissioned USS St. Louis (LKA-116), there was not a spectator in sight. Representative of the the impression the NJ made throughout the world. Wayne Greenleaf, Fourth Division Officer, USS NJ, Vietnam
USS New Jersey looks very pretty transiting the Panama Canal! (Assuming that was during the Vietnam conflict?) The Panama Canal was and is a wondrous achievement.
Was working at the Courier Post newspaper in Cherry Hill NJ when the BB62 went thru the panama canal for the last time. They allowed a reporter on board for a few days traveling thru the canal. Reporter wrote a nice book on it. A year later the paper still had 1 or 2 pallets of these unsold books. Same people made up tons of PVC pipe sealed with a newspaper for first day of the 21st century. Yep that did not sell many of these over priced white elephants ( $20 ).
During the 80s, I watched the USS Iowa transit the Panama Canal while I was there on AF Reserve duty ... Also got a brief tour of Iowa after she had docked in Panama City...
While I'm working on an ATB (articulated tug/barge unit), it's 600' long from stem to stem of the tug, we draw 27' when loaded, and feels like a ship in narrow channels. Went through the panama canal three times in 2016.
At some point my wife's father and her family lived in Panama during his many years in the Army. They have quite a few pictures from there. My wife was born after their time in Panama. He served fighting in WWII Island hoping the Pacific.
In the 90s, I watched the New Jersey going up the Columbia River on its way to Portland's Rose Festival. A sight for sure. In this video it is nice to see the Naval personnel wearing squared away headgear rather than what you see in a Hollywood movie.
I have been on a CVN and DDG going through the Suez Canal and a DDG going through the Panama Canal. The Suez is vital to all ships going to the Red Sea, Indian Ocean and Arabian Gulf from the Atlantic Ocean because it is so much faster.
Really enjoy your videos. Bringing the many unique aspects of Navy life to the public via social media is fantastic. USN recruiting should become a sponsor! You do your homework, and it really shows. Thanks and please keep up the great work! Gotta throw my $.02 in though. The Suez Canal's southern terminus is in the Red Sea, not the Persian aka Arabian Gulf. To get from the canal to the Arabian Gulf, you must sail down the Red Sea, then through Straits of Bab El Mendeb (which every sailor, from my era at least, called the the Straits of Barbara Mandrel), across the North Arabian Sea, up through the Straits of Hormuz, which gives access (finally) to the Arabian Gulf. BTW, I don't know who gets to name bodies of water, but the Arabian Gulf and the Persian Gulf are the same thing. The US "officially" uses "Arabian Gulf" because we currently are better friends with the Arabs (Saudis and all the smaller kingdoms on it's western shore) then the Persians aka Iranians on it's eastern shore. And for the record, our carriers and their escorting "small boys" go thru the Suez Canal all the time. USS GW and one escort (USS NORMANDY maybe) made three round trips between the Arabian Gulf and the Adriatic Sea in one six-month deployment back in the mid 90s. That's six trips thru the canal in about 4 months. Good thing the Egyptians are our friends, too!
Being from Michigan, I am more familiar with the Soo Locks and the Welland Canal. Today, an Iowa Class Battleship could go through the Poe Lock at the Soo. The problem is there is no way these ships would fit in the many locks of the Welland Canal that bypasses Niagara Falls. Before the Welland Canal was enlarged in the late 1950s, ship size was limited to less than 300 feet. During that time if you wanted to get a bigger ship through, you cut it in half. This was done many times to get cargo and passenger ships built in the UK into the Great Lakes. An example is the Canadian passenger ship Keewatin now a museum in Canada. I toured this ship when she was a museum in Douglas, Michigan. Even with today's Welland Canal, to get an Iowa through the canal, you would have to literally cut the ship in fourths. In half both length wise and laterally and then have it still somehow float! I imagine if you talked with any Big J vets and say you were going to do that, they would have you committed to the nearest insane asylum yet today! Thanks!
