Studded all along were thousands of dead bare
tree trunks and forks still sticking up out of the water, and
some of those trees went by us not any too far off.
Entering an approach to the first lock, six electric "mules"
(three on each side) would take hold of us by heavy wire cables,
get us midway from the sides of the giant cement walls. We would
creep along into the lock proper. There we were, way down there
below the surface of the lock, with a monster set of double steel
doors ahead barring our further progress. Another pair of steel
doors would close behind us. No way to get out. Then the water
below started bubbling and we started rising.
The way that lock filled with water was a marvel. All the
Baptists in the Southern jurisdiction pumping simultaneously
wouldn't have raised us the first foot in an hour. A young fellow
standing at the rail with me said it took eight or 10 minutes
and, after a rapid mental calculation, three million cubic feet
of water. I made it 20 minutes and three billion cubic feet of
water. The young man said he worked at the locks. Let's give him
the benefit. So when I get home don't come bringing me a lot of
authentic figures.
We got out into the canal and on into the lake and to the
Atlantic locks, where the process was reversed and we were
lowered about 87 feet.
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