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Total Run This Leg:
1,697.4
Nautical Miles
Total Average Speed: 5.23 Knots
Hours / Days This Leg: 324.5 Hours, 13.52 Days
Distance To Go This Leg: 1,250.4 Nautical Miles
Estimated Time Of Arrival: 7:00 a.m., Saturday, October 16
Present Course: 117 Degrees, Southeasterly
Winds: Northeast at 5 Knots
Seas: Rippled Surface
Swells: 7 Feet from the West Southwest
Barometric Pressure: 1009 Millibars
Air Temperature: 76 Degrees
Sea Temperature: 80.5 Degrees
Visibility: 10 Miles
Skies: Overcast with Showers
Sea Floor: Ocean depths below USS New Jersey in this area range from 900
and 1,850 to 1,925 Fathoms, or from 5,400 and 11,100 to 11,550 Feet Position:
USS New Jersey is now passing 62 Nautical
Miles South of Punta de Rocas. From this coastal point, for 15 Miles Eastward, is a
sandy beach which then rises abruptly to a series of high bluffs into Bahia de Puerto
Angel, a small harbor providing shelter from November to May to small craft with local
knowledge.
USS New Jersey Stuck In Canal For One Hour, 1953
The Navy Times Newspaper, on November 9, 1953, published
the following story about the Battleship's Panama Canal transit that month on her way from
Norfolk, Virginia to San Diego, California.
The article was provided courtesy of 1st Sergeant Roger
Lockwood, USMC, who served aboard the "Jersey Bounce" with the ship's Marine
Detachment, for two years during the Korean conflict. Now retired and living in
Minnesota, Lockwood, 80, will reflect on his experience with the ship and her crew in a
future report.
"The Navy Times, Panama Canal Zone, November 9,
1953"
"The 45,000 ton United States Battleship New Jersey
got stuck in the entrance to Miraflores Locks today shortly after starting the Northbound
transit of the Panama Canal. It was about an hour before she could get clear."
"The bow of the big Battleship was well over the
lock sill when she became fast. Neither electric towing locomotives nor her own
power could move her forward. Water was finally spilled into Miraflores Lake to
raise the water level before the big Battleship could back off."
"Canal officials said the area would be swept
tomorrow to determine if silt was the cause. The Battleship has one foot clearance
on either side of the locks, and a maximum draft of 38 Feet, which could give it a 3 Foot
clearance."
"Officials said there was no apparent damage to the
ship or lock."
Lockwood was aboard the ship when she stuck that year,
and said there was really no concern from either the Captain of the ship or any of the
ship's officers.
"They knew the ship would be cleared," he said
in an interview. "I do remember looking over the side of the ship and seeing
the side of the deck scrape the edges of the Canal lock. Then, when they pulled the
ship into the lake, it had to be all scraped off and painted so it would be all ready for
display when we got to the west coast," Lockwood recalled.
He had been through the Canal previously, without
incident.
"The first time going through? Well, there
wasn't much except sightseeing," he said. "I think it was a wonderful
experience seeing how the locks were filled, and the ship raised step-by-step to reach the
other side into the lake, and then leaving and going up to San Diego. I was just
amazed at seeing something like that," he said.
Submitted by Bob Wernet onboard the Sea Victory.
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