panamacanal

Sorry, but this not the Lexington, but her sister-ship, the USS Saratoga (CV-3) transiting the Panama Canal, during the carrier's maiden voyage toward her future home port of San Diego/North Island area, on 7Feb1928, after a two-day layover in Gatun Lake basin, after passing thru the Gatun Locks on the 5th. Saratoga has not received her funnel vertical black stripe as of this date (received in early part of 1929 after the Fleet Problem IX exercise), and would take aboard her air squadrons after operating off the lower West Coast during further sea trials, only several of the ship's Utility Unit's aircraft were aboard at the time of the photograph. Lexington had a black horizontal stripe surrounding the top of her funnel stack, as did the Saratoga when first launched, but Sara had her horizontal stripe painted over at Norfolk, VA. (which were used for covering the funnel's exhaust gases along the rim, not for identification as were used later on), before leaving on the ship's transfer to the US Battle Fleet. Hope this Helps! Michael Goforth

Michael Goforth Thanks!

Gatu Locks, Canal Zone (Now Panama). Great historical image.

This is actually USS Saratoga (CV-3), note the lower mounted searchlight platforms on the starboard side of the funnel, as compared to her sister ship, USS Lexington (CV-2), whose searchlight platforms were mounted closer to the top of the funnel. It is easy to see why the Navy would subsequently paint a vertical stipe on Saratoga's funnel and a horizontal stripe at the top of Lexington's funnel to ease identification of the ships. Here's a SDASM photo of USS Lexington (CV-2) for comparison: www.flickr.com/photos/sdasmarchives/40227510871/

Agree, this is definitely Saratoga. In fact, it is taken on her initial transit to the pacific, 7 February 1928, and is in the collections of the USN at NARA under accession # 80-G-216837