Quote:
Originally Posted by Llarry
The Iowa-class battleships built during World War II were built to just fit through the Panama canal. They had a beam of 108 feet and a few inches and the narrowest locks of the canal were 110 feet.
When transiting the Miraflores locks in October 1945 en route the Atlantic, the USS Missouri (BB 63) had about 8 inches clearance on each side.  I suspect she needed some paint touchups after the transit. Here's a photo. |
Back in the day we were leaving Inchon, Korea. The harbour had a lock system to keep the harbor water "pristine" (this was in the late 70's, so things may have changed). The wind was pretty strong and the pilot refused to take us out because of the ship's (LPD) large "sail area." Our captain decided to take full responsibility and out we went. We smashed the lock on the forward starboard side, gashing the ship and knocking some concrete chunks into the water. The ship then swung the opposite direction and hit the aft, port side, ripping off the garbage chute! The captain still got to finish the cruise.