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Ships in the Canal

The Panama Canal has almost every type of ocean-going ship passing through. The largest vessels designed to go through the canal are known as "Panamax" ships. They can have a maximum length of 980 ft., a maximum width of 98 ft., and a maximum draft of 40 ft. Here are some of the ships we saw during our stay in the Canal.

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	The McKinney Maersk is one of the larger container ships we saw. My big brother in the SAE fraternity at MIT was named Bob McKinney, which is the reason for this picture.
	My cousin Ernst August Roloff lives in Braunschweig, Germany, which is the reason for taking this picture of a large Ro-Ro (Roll On-Roll Off car carrier). These ships may not be the longest ones passing through the Canal but they certainly are the tallest, especially when you are behind them in a lock on a small boat - just ask Judy and Bob on SV Amazing Grace.
	Evergreen lines has several of these "Panamax" ships which are the largest ones that can pass through the locks of the Panama Canal. We counted one ship that had containers stacked 13 across by 7 high with 12 rows of them from bow to stern. That was over 1000 containers just above deck. We were not able to see and count how many were in the hold.
	This was one of the smallest containers ships that we saw. It had a very peculiar appearance with the bridge ahead of any containers. It appeared to be a coastal vessel able to go into small ports and off-load containers withour support from shoreside cranes.
	This was one of the "low riders" that wen saw in the Canal. It was a fuel barge being pushed by a tug.
	The TV crews were out in the rain photographing the southbound (Atlantic to Pacific) transit of this cruise ship. We were told that it was the first Japanese cruise ship to transit the Panama Canal since WW II. Our boat, MV Heather K., can be seen to the left and in the same row as the sailboat. We were sitting in the clubhouse of the Balbao Yacht Club while a short rain squall blew through the area. Notice how close the Balboa YC anchorage is to the main Canal channel.
	This was one of the few US Navy ships that we saw during our three weeks in the Canal. It is a large Military Sea Transport ship passing us while we were on a Panama Canal tug for a day (see the story in the Stories from Our Trips section)
	A Panamanian navy vessel that appears to be a fast coastal patrol boat. It looked very much like one of the PT boats made famous in WW II, but without torpedoes.
	This US Navy destroyer came in right behind us when we arrived at Balboa. We had just tied off to the buoy at the Balboa YC when they passed us. Unfortunately I lost it's name and would appreciate getting it from anyone that knows it.
	We were on the tug Esperanza attached to the ship on the right as it went through Gaillard Cut and had just cast off at Gamboa when the other ship passed us. As you can see, there is not much maneuvering room as two vessels have to pass each other in a curve. In Gaillard Cut, the channel is so narrow, at present, that only one-way traffic is permissible for large ships.

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