Pictorial Record of IOWA
Pictorial Record of IOWA
Transiting the Panama Canal
Mira Flores Locks, March 28-29, 2001
Copyright 2002
IOWA's passage through the Panama Canal generated worldwide news. Joining HISTORIC SHIP'S MEMORIAL AT PACIFIC SQUARE'S ("HSMPS") two photography teams at the Panama Canal were press from all over the world. The Panama Canal Authority extended every courtesy to HSMPS, making these and other photographs possible. It was common knowledge in the naval and shipping community, that IOWA's passage through the Canal was a historic and meaningful event. All photographs are the property of HSMPS.
IOWA's
size at the Panama Canal was a vivid testament to America's determination to
defend freedom. The battleship dwarfed everything and everyone. Here
at the Canal, which the United States constructed, with the U.S.S. Iowa, was a
moment in time when the historic dimensions of being an American became
self-evident.
IOWA
moves into the last set of locks before tasting the Pacific Ocean. Embassy
staff in attendance, NAVSEA personnel, representatives of the Panama
Canal Authority, HSMPS all knew that this historic moment may symbolize the last
time that a battleship completes this rite of passage, a paramount symbol of
American Sea Power. With a battleship on each coast, strategic balance had
been achieved, in many ways.
READY,
SET, GO! IOWA is towed forward into her last lock before being lowered
into the Pacific. Press representatives from Reuters, Associated Press,
and our own photographer were taken to a press observation point on the locks,
where this photo was taken. HSMPS representatives were given wide
recognition and access by the Panama Canal Authority.
As
the water drained and IOWA reached Pacific sea level, the international assembly
of naval officials, government authorities, media representatives, and HSMPS
staff all knew that the Panama Canal Authority had done a great job with the
largest ship passage since Panama assumed control over the world's most
sophisticated waterway. IOWA was Franklin Roosevelt's battleship. It
was Teddy Roosevelt that helped build the Canal. The historic nature of the
moment was apparent to all.