First Trial Lockage at Cocoli Locks

The Panama Canal's Crane Boat completed a trial lockage of the new Cocoli Locks on the Pacific side of the Canal.

http://gcaptain.com/panama-canal-conducts-trial-transit-through-the-expanded-cocoli-locks/

Now I have no inside knowledge of the choice to use the Crane Boat Oceanus as the first vessel to actually lock through the new Cocoli Locks, but there are some striking similarities that I don't believe are pure happenstance. Perhaps it was a subtle recognition of a little over a 100 years ago...

OK, if you are still here... in January of 1914, the Crane Boat Alexandre LaValle was actually the first vessel to make an ocean to ocean transit of the yet unopened Panama Canal. What may have been a quiet recognition of the French or that is the way it all just turned out, don't really know. The Alexandre LaValle was a crane boat that was used in the French effort to construct the Canal and was one of the few items that was also used by the US in their construction of the Canal from 1904-1914. The LaValle did not make the transit all in one day but instead worked its way through the Canal as construction progressed. The LaValle finally made through Miraflores Locks making it the first vessel to make a complete transit of the Panama Canal. There was no ceremony to mark the occasion.

Fast forward a 100 years... the Crane Boat Oceanus built in Mississippi for the US's Panama Canal Commission and continued in support of the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) an autonomous agency of the Government of Panama. So the Oceanus was previously a vessel used by the US, then passed on to Panama and then in stages locked through the Canal using the new Pacific Locks at Cocoli. Seems to me to be a bit more than just coincidence, makes a nice little tidbit of history.

Thanks Bill, love those historical tidbits.

Your quite welcome... as I am sure you can guess I do enjoy sharing info about the Canal.

A friend of mine who is also a Canal aficionado just sent me a picture of the LaValle. The other two pictures I took which sort of fills in some of the Canal's history on crane boats. The second picture is of of the Atlas which eventually replaced the LaValle as a crane boat. The Atlas was built by the Canal's shops in 1934 and served as a crane boat until 1996 when it was replaced by the Oceanus. The Atlas now serves as a training vessel.

An aside, the Canal has had a custom of naming their cranes after Greek Gods, names like Ajax, Hercules, Titan, Goliath have had a place on the Canal's crane fleet. The Oceanus is one of the newer.

The Alexandre LaValle, East Lane Pedro Miguel.

The Atlas, in the East lane of Pedro Miguel as well. (The crane had been removed)

The Oceanus, in Gaillard Cut.

Thanks for sharing those photos.

I'm reading "The Path Between the Seas" right now (I did not want to read this until we actually had a transit booked as we do now) -- still early in the book; the French are still trying to dig the Canal, so I'm steeped in that late 19th Century history. :)

Ilya R. de Marotta, the engineer in charge of the Canal Expansion posted this "quick time" video marking the trial lockage at the Cocoli Locks of the Oceanus on Monday.

https://www.facebook.com/ilya.demarotta/videos/10154124192405042/

Another video from Ilya Marotta... While I don't know how the ship was locked up into Gatun Lake on the Atlantic side, it completed the transit of the Canal by locking down the new Cocoli Locks. The linked video picks up the transit in Gatun Lake in the vicinity of Barro Colorado Island and ends with the vessel exiting the new locks. The ship is the Cosco Houston 856'x106'... guess they wanted kick the tires of the new locks to make sure it is all ready for the official opening on Sunday.

https://www.facebook.com/ilya.demarotta/videos/10154132095630042/