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August 15, 1914 SOME WORLD FAMOUS VESSELS A2~gUst 15, 1939
Tavemilla, sent to assist the old tug, took the its being made in 1939. A transit of the main
Jason in tow, while the Roosevelt again limped body of the Fleet is an impressive and spectacular
back to Cristobal. The vessel was leaking so bad­ sight for visitors and residents and provides an
1y that it had to be beached soon after arrival.
On'; ill-fated ship which transited the Canal
and which created much attention and notoriety
while in Canal waters was the motorship Badenexcellent
test of the facilities and personnel of
the Canal under stress of emergency conditions.
During the last three transits of the Fleet all
commercial traffic was temporarily halted as the
Baden. It was originally built as a yacht but powerful battleships and other war vessels were
later was converted into a rotor ship and made sent through in a steady procession.
one trip across the Atlantic Ocean powered by Naval vessels of all the leading nations of the
rotors, invented by Anton Flettner, a German. world have transited the Canal since it was
However, it wa~ found that the rotor principle opened. The largest warship to transit the
for motive power was not successful and the ship Canal was the British battleship Hood, which also
was later converted into a freighter. The ship holds the record of having paid the highest toll
was involved in much litigation while in Canal charges of any ship to transit the Panama Canal.
water:;. The snip's crew libeled the Baden-Baden The Hood transited in July 1924. It has a
for wages. Other suits were filed, and within an displacement tonnage of 44,800 and paid $22,400
eight-month p.eriod no
in tolls. Other notable
-----,,-_.,,"'.'.,= _.~...
less than four 'libel suits
British warships which
were filed against it in
have passed through the
Canal Zone courts. The
Canal were H. M. S.
vessel was finally sold,
Nelson, which transited
the libel cases settled,
in February 1931, and
and its name changed to
H. lV1. S. Renown which
M. S. Rio Nozara, after
brought the Prince of
which it was placed in
Wales (later King Edward
VIII) to the Isth­
service along the Pacific
coast of Cen tral America.
mus in March 1920. The
In October 1931 the
Renown returned in January
1927, at which
Rio Nozara sailed for
Colombian ports in the
time the Duke and
Atlantic to get a load of
Duchess of York (now
salt. It ran into heavy
King George VI and
weather and foundered
Queen Elizabeth) visited
with the loss of five
the Isthmus.
An oil tanker in Mirafiores Locks. Tankers are an important
men, including the two
Thousands of troops
component of Canal traffic. :Much of the oil from South
owners who refused
weretransportedthrough
A merican ports goes to Eu.rope.
to abandon the ship.
the Panama Canal during
the World War and for a few years after­
Eleven members of the crew put to sea in a lifeboat.
After drifting for four days the lifeboat wards from Australia and New Zealand to
was sighted by a Pan American Airways passenger
plane and the survivors were rescued by last of the famous "Anzacs" were not returned
the European front and home again. The
the U. S. S. Swan, airplane tender from the Fleet home until 1920, the last of the troop ships
Air Base at Coco Solo.
returning to New Zealand that year through the
The British barkentine Success, which was Canal.
used during the first half of the nineteenth century
for transporting prisoners from England to which have transited the Panama Canal. Few
These are a few of the ships of the seven seas
Australia and Tasmania, was towed through the ports in the world are visited by as many interesting
ships as the terminal ports of the Canal.
Canal in December 1914 on its way to the Panama-Pacific
Exposition in San Francisco. The Among the thousands of vessels which transit
barkentine was launched in 1790 at Moulmein, the Canal every year or visit the ports of Balboa
near Rangoon. It was built entirely of Indian and Cristobal are many which have a story and a
teak. It was converted to a prison ship in 1802 history, less notorious perhaps but no less interesting
than the pirate ships and sea rovers which
and was so used for about 50 years.
The United States Fleet has made several once sailed the Spanish main in the vicinity of
transits of the Panama Canal, the last two trans- the Isthmus of Panama.
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