Word: canalized
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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Down from overcast skies in the Panama Canal Zone fell an envelope attached to a wire and a weight. Where it landed, men in uniform gathered excitedly, discussed its exact location, took the letter to more important men in uniform whose faces were grave...
Lieut. Carrington's letter weighed less than two ounces, but it fell from a bombing plane which carried torpedoes weighing 1,800 lbs. each, and it fell within the vital area of the Miraflores and Pedro Miguel Locks of the Panama Canal. And it fell while the U. S. battle fleet was attempting last week to "destroy" the Canal in the most intricate of war games. The U. S. scouting fleet was trying to defend...
Brilliant were the tactics which allowed Lieut. Carrington to choose the Miraflores-Pedro Miguel letterbox for his correspondence. Off the Pacific entrance of the Canal had maneuvered the two opposing fleets, the attacking Blacks, 99 ships strong, and the defending Blues, with 75 ships. From Hampton Roads was steaming a theoretical supporting fleet ready to go through the Canal to the aid of the Blues. The issue: Could the Blacks bomb the Canal's locks, thus closing navigation before the reinforcements could arrive...
Theoretically, the Saratoga might have been sunk before its planes returned, when at last it fell under the guns of the searching Blues, but the damage would have been done; the Canal was "destroyed;" the supporting fleet must have circled the Horn to have reached the Pa cific...
Conjecture was not the only result of the war games, nor was the death (by drowning) of six naval men. The defeat of the scouting fleet and "destruction" of the Canal added point and pith to the arguments of two vociferous groups at Washington. Obvious was the boost given the Navy's cruiser program now before Congress (see p. 10). Less obvious, equally welcome, was the boost given to the proposed second interoceanic canal through Nicaragua by a sea-level route requiring few if any locks. As the war-game neared its final phase, New Jersey's Senator...