Crossing the Panama Canal?

LucasHidemiKomori said:

Crossing the Panama Canal?

Yep. And true to nature the Iowa just barely fits through the canal.

wait until this April, Yamato. New and bigger canal locks will be open in April 1st

PSYNtech said:

Lots of squeezing involved. http://i.imgur.com/kHDK4Xi.jpg (note the hull number)

It'll work, just like how she got that top on.

I called it 6 days ago lol.

I guess Iowa truly was a Panamax :)

The hilarious thing is, technically speaking, the Iowa was actually too large to fit through the Panama Canal.
By 3 to 6 inches.

Every time an Iowa-class Battleship would pass through the Panama, they would break something.
Usually, if they were lucky (and they usually were), it was the bilge keels and drain pipes on the ships themselves.
But if they were unlucky, they did damage to the canals.

The Panamax is 106ft wide.
The Iowa is 109ft 3-6in (depending on era and including all protrusions, 108ft 2in just the hull).
(The physical width of the Panama canal is 109ft exact).

You can see the issues.

Bad side of having a large beam.

gsands.g said:

I guess Iowa truly was a Panamax :)

and Yamato is the first post-Panamax warship

kibehisa said:

The Panamax is 106ft wide.
The Iowa is 109ft 3-6in (depending on era and including all protrusions, 108ft 2in just the hull).
(The physical width of the Panama canal is 110ft exact).

Fixed

kibehisa said:

The hilarious thing is, technically speaking, the Iowa was actually too large to fit through the Panama Canal.
By 3 to 6 inches.

Every time an Iowa-class Battleship would pass through the Panama, they would break something.
Usually, if they were lucky (and they usually were), it was the bilge keels and drain pipes on the ships themselves.
But if they were unlucky, they did damage to the canals.

The Panamax is 106ft wide.
The Iowa is 109ft 3-6in (depending on era and including all protrusions, 108ft 2in just the hull).
(The physical width of the Panama canal is 109ft exact).

You can see the issues.

Iowa doesn't break things transiting the Panama Canal, since no parts of her extend over waterline beam, but the Essex class carriers break a bunch of stuff transiting with their 40m+ flight deck. While their waterline beam means they fit, Essex knocked over every single lamp post on the starboard side and wrecked a gun tub when she transited.

fthdyrm5g said:

Iowa doesn't break things transiting the Panama Canal, since no parts of her extend over waterline beam,

Wrong.
The Iowa's Bilge Keels extend past the Listed 108ft 2in beam on the waterline, and extending farther than that are the drainage pipes.
The thing about Waterline Beam is that it only measures the ship's beam at the waterline. It does not figure protrusions.
Have you ever seen the bilge keels on the Iowas (or even photographs of them)?
All of that damage came from transiting the Panama Canal.

They had less than 6" of leeway when squeezing through the canal, and pretty much everyone admits this.
Mishaps happen. A lot.

http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/iowa-class-battleships-are-the-widest-ships-to-ever-use-1680273877