Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 95, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 April 1914 — ABDICATE AT CANAL [ARTICLE]

ABDICATE AT CANAL

Captain Rodman to Command Ships Crossing Isthmus. Official Pilot Will Be His DeputyEngines of Steamship Witt Be Locked With Special Device From Entrance to Exit. New York.—That the Panama canal will not only be ready for commercial •hipping in July, but so safe as to be “fool proof,” from a sailor’s point of flew, is the assurance given at Colon by Capt Hugh Rodman, TJ. S. N., who will have entire charge of all the details of putting shipping through. According to Captain Rodman, the meteorological conditions are more favorable for shipping at the entrances of the Panama canal than at almost any other port in the world of anything like the importance of Colon and Balboa.. At Colon the completion of one breakwater and the fat advance of another give a still water entrance to tiie canal. The- aids to navigation through Gatun lake have been made so clear that, as he believes, captains will find the passage through, day or night, as safe and easy as a walk down Broadway, and the Culebra cut passage as easy as any large river. *

All vessels entering the canal will have a canal pilot, who will take the Bhip to an anchorage, from which ehe may not move without permission of Captain Rodman or one of his port captain’s conveyed through the pilot All the officials who vißit ships must report to Captain Rodman as head of the department of canal operation. As soon as the quarantine officer releases a ehip each of the other canal officials will go on board. As soon as a ship moves toward the canal its wireless and all signal arrangements wUI be under the immediate control of the canal authorities, represented by the cabal pUot In addition to the wireless and the international code signal systems each pilot will have with him certain “shape” signals. At three commanding points on the line canal signal stations have been provided, so that from one of them every ship will be practically in eight during its entire passage. The engines of a ship will be turned over to the canal authorities the moment the vessel ties up to the approach wall of the canal locks. The engine will immediately be locked by the canal officials by means of a steel chain and a sealing device. This lock will be under the constant watch of a canal guard and an engineer of the ship until after leaving the locks, when its removal is ordered by the canal pilot on board. The pilots have been selected by

Captain Rodman and for three months he has been instructing and training them. Four of them are from the canals of the great lakes —men who have had experience taking the large ore ships through the Sault Ste. Marie canal. With these will be associated a number of picked men who are thoroughly familiar with local conditions. At the Pacific entrance to the canal, Captain Rodman saye, ships will find no tide interference whatever and an abundance of anchorage room. When a vessel notifies the canal authorities In advance of its arrival as to what supplies are needed they will be put on board in the quickest possible time. The law authorizing the furnishing of supplies to shipping at cost is inter-

preted to include the making of repairs at cost, and this will be done. Captain Rodman graduated in 1880, and all except six years of his service since has been at sea. He has been around the world five times and ha* commanded ships in nearly every big port in the world. It was Rodman whom Admiral Dewey sent to demand the surrender of the Spanish batteries on Corregidor island, outside of Manila bay, and later those at Subig bay. When Admiral Osterhaus commanded the Atlantic fleet Rodman was the fleet captain. When the battleship fleet went to Europe last year Captain Rodman commanded the dreadnaught Delaware. From this he was sent to the isthmus at Colonel Goethals’ request.