1 June 1952

"I did not go over here in Panama. I stood by for Bennett. I had seen some of the things that happen over on the beach before. I'll go over in Norfolk where I will enjoy myself. The women actually ask you to ???? them over here. I never in my life have seen anything like it."

Note: This is another first-hand account of the incident during the ships course thorough the Panama Canal: 
I was talking to Burt Olson on the phone the other day and he reminded me of an incident that happened on our reporting of the ship from Bremerton to Norfolk. We were in the Panama Canal when either a gust of wind or an error in ship handling caused the ship to hit the side of the lock and tear the screw guard off the side of the ship. The hole in the side happened to be in one of my storerooms. I was the Storekeeper called “The Jack of the Dust.” I took care of all dry stores. The word was passed for me to lay down to this particular storeroom, but I was so far up in the 01 decks rubbernecking, that I never heard the announcement. A shipmate saw me and told me that they had been passing the word for me. I hightailed down to the storeroom just in time to see them cut the lock off the hatch. We went in and started tearing off the insulation to find the damage. We found that we had ripped a hole through to the outside. We were so covered with fiberglass that I itched like the devil . The hole had to be patched before we got out of the Canal and into the Atlantic, so we put men over the side to weld a patch over the hole. The patch held while we were in Guantanamo and Haiti and when we got to Norfolk we went into dry-dock for a more permanent repair.               

Jim Smith SKG3, 1952

Submitted by Burt Olson