Order Of The Ditch Panama Canal Patch

A ship going through the Panama Canal climbs 85 feet through the locks to Gatun Lake and comes back down to sea level on the far side, and the sailors aboard come out members of the Order of the Ditch. The Navy keeps the Order of the Ditch on its list of traditional crew certificates, given for transiting the canal between the Atlantic and the Pacific. Nobody crosses a line to earn it, the way a Shellback crosses the Equator or a Golden Dragon crosses the 180th meridian. The ship works up three steps at Gatun, crosses the lake, then steps down through Pedro Miguel and Miraflores, or does the same in reverse heading east. It is a long day of line handling, lock walls close enough to touch, and a fleet that just swapped oceans.

The canal opened on August 15, 1914, and each of its original lock chambers is 110 feet wide with 1,000 feet of usable length. That size became a shipbuilding limit known as Panamax. The Iowa-class battleships, USS Iowa (BB-61), USS New Jersey (BB-62), USS Missouri (BB-63) and USS Wisconsin (BB-64), had a beam of 108 feet, which made them the widest ships ever to use the canal, with roughly a foot of clearance on each side. Built on the East Coast and bound for the Pacific, they went through the locks from their first wartime voyages, and USS Iowa made her final transit on March 28, 2001. Electric locomotives the canal crews call mules run on rails along the lock walls, holding each ship centered while her own engines move her ahead.

The patch is a 4 inch circle with a black merrowed edge and a wide gray ring. ORDER OF THE DITCH arches across the top in bold white letters, and PANAMA CANAL runs across the bottom. Inside the ring the field is laid out in the quarters of the Panamanian flag, a blue star on white at upper left, a blue quarter below it, a red star on white at lower right and red at upper right, with a green map of the isthmus running down the right side. In the center a gray battleship rides in a lock chamber beside the lock wall, masts and turrets standing tall under a pale sky, green banks behind her. It shows the canal the way a sailor on the fantail saw it, a warship with almost nothing to spare.

For two World Wars and the long Cold War after, the canal was how the Navy moved ships between the Atlantic and Pacific fleets. Battleships, carriers, cruisers, destroyers and transports all made the trip, and many sailors made it only once, on the way to a new homeport or a Pacific deployment. Even the smallest ship needed every line handler on deck and a pilot on the bridge. Sailors still talk about the heat, the jungle on both banks and the mules pulling alongside. The card that came after was a joke between shipmates, and it still hangs in plenty of dens.

Put it in a shadow box with the Order of the Ditch card, a ship's patch and a photo of your ship in the locks. It also fits on a ship reunion vest or a sea bag, and it makes a good gift for a shipmate who rode through with you. The backing is iron-on, and it can be sewn on for a permanent hold. About fifty miles of water, and everybody who made the trip remembers it.