TRANSPORTATION: First Sinking

Last week for the first time since the Panama Canal was opened to traffic on Aug. 15, 1914, a ship sank in the canal.* In Gatun Lake, half a mile south of the locks, the Dutch freighter Brion suddenly began to list badly, sank before she could be beached. All hands (23) were saved by canal launches.

*Most fictitious war stories involving the U. S. and a foreign power begin with the mysterious sinking of an enemy ship in the canal which is thereafter rendered useless for interocean fleet movements.

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