Elizabeth Stanton (AP 69) - Naval Cruise Book

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a dismal failure by the French in 1889, we succeeded in 1914. The canal was in use that year, ten years after the actual digging. Normal transit today takes between seven and eight hours. At a cost of only $380,000,000, the U. S. A. made one of its liest investments. A plane droned overhead. We received a visual signal to lay to until ordered in. We were fortunate in spending a night at Ciisloljal wheie we got a taste of Latin America. Starboard section rated liberty, a short one, Jjut enough to get an idea of the town. The blue moon girls, the alligator purses, the Tabu perfume and the plentiful liquor supply — all were parts of tills incongruous land of American commodities and customs and Latin American peoples. In the morning we began our climi). A ship rides over the mountains as naturally as the trolley climbs the hill on Powell Street in Frisco. As soon as we reached the Gatun locks, our engines stopped. Strong steel hawsers were taken aboard by means of which the ship was slowly towed into the lock. Towing was done by electric locomotives called mules. There was no shouting, no veiling. Signalling was done by hand, with smoothness and efficiency. Once inside the lock, the enormous gates closed silently, and as the valves opened, the water from Gatun Lake entered, slowly filling the lock and raising the vessel. After three such lifts, the ship glided out into the lake. For the next twenty-four miles, we passed islands covered with dense tropical foliage, below us, the winding bed of the Chagres River, along which many years ago, passed Spanish Conquistadores and Forty Niners. Ahead were the blue peaks of the Continental Divide. A ship returning from the Pacific passed and sailors crowding her rail for a look at us shouted, You ' ll be sorry! It was early evening as we began to descend the eighty-five feet to the Pacific Ocean. The locks of Miraflores closed behind us while the lights of Panama City twinkled up ahead. We headed up the coast of Central America, with water our oidy backdrop and the ther- mometer our only indicator of the change in climate. A star sight, a fix: we were off the coast of Southern California. On this trip there were no passengers aboard, so our journey seemed almost a cruise. But yellow t ' hromate on the decks showed that the last few weeks had meant work for all. A sail boat appeared out of the famous San Francisco mist with our pilot aboard. The Golden Gate bridge is a mighty structure. With treacherous currents, the waters flow swiftly by the huge cement pillars sunk deep into the harbor mud. We headed up the bay past the wharves which make Frisco one of the busiest shipping centers in the world. Some of the famous landmarks passed: rocky Alcatraz, Treasure Island. The next big bridge was the Oakland-San Francisco bridge. With Yerba Buena Island on the port side our anchorage was not far distant. As in all the world ports we have visited and have yet to visit, our first thought was of liberty and shore leave. Soon we had a regular running ])oat schedule to the docks. Liberties passed bv in rapid succession with trips to the famous spots: Chinatown, Top of the Mark, the Fleishhacker Zoo, Pepsi Cola Service Center, the Golden Gate Park, Nob Hill, Omar Khayyam. It seemed we had been in San Francisco a very short lini ' when we were loaded and ready to begin a new phase of our history — the Pacific war.

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1. Alcalraz-Tlic Kink. 2. Passing TliningliCal nil Lake. o. Fiill.iuinj; a I.ilierl in (lainn l.akr. 4. Lizzie Approaches the Gainn Locks ()0 5. The Gcihlen Gate in 15.