The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-05-23

sweepers were blown up and he himself
was on one which was sunk. He was
twenty minutes in the water before res
cued by a German destroyer.
The Imperator had been in the mud
Of the Elbe since the beginning of the
war and It took five weeks to dredge the
river about her 30 she could be freed.
She was then taken to dry dock and
overhauled. Her tunnels, originally q
buff, were painted white. The Captain
was rather pleased that her old, gor-
geous fgurehead, a huge imperial eagle
with wings outstretched on a globe, had
been smashed by heavy seas on lumpy
trip early in her career and that she
came here in democratic simplicity of
unadorned stern.
Deutschland Laid Mines Here.
The German people. the Captain said,
were through with imperialistic figure
heads. He said Capt. Koenig, who
brought the German submarine Deutsch-
land over here, had given her UP after
his commercial trip, and that she had
come over twice, instead OF once, as re-
ported during the war; under other skip
pers to lay mines.
Capt. kruse said that he did not take
much stock in the race between his own
ship and the Americanized Leviathan.
He declared that under forced draught
the Imperator could average twenty
three knots, and that on this trip under
natural draught she had made about
nineteen and a half miles She was not
in so good shape as she had been in, and
she would do much more when In. per-
feet condition. The troopG aboard the
Imperator and some of her naval officers
said that there really had been q contest
hat Aar anl AA n rt,Nl ,.,,, ,,
the uSs OF forced draught, barred by the
naval Regulations. They had simply done
the best In them under natural draught
An officer OF the Leviathan was en-
thusiastic when he gave the story of
the race to the reporters, and he and his
shipmates insisted that there was moth
ing phony about it. Naturally, he said
the Leviathan should have won. as she
is bigger and a newer ship, with more
power in proportion to tonnage. She Is
90 feet longer, and measures more than
1000 tons more than the lmperator.
These facts however. did not prevent
the men of the Leviathan from growing
over the German ship. There was
patriotism involved, and II simply had
to be a race, whatever the Imperator
men might say, and the best proof that
1t was a race was the fact that thou
sands OF dollars, put UP mostly by dough-
boys, had changed hands. II 1t wasn't
a race they fooled the doughboys. Here
Is what may be called the log of the
brush:
The Imperator, with only $3.50 pas
sengers (she will carry 10000 when she
Is fitted up this week.. sailed from Brest
at 10 80 A. NJ, May Is. and the Levia-
than got away at s 80 z. NJ. the same
date. A stern chase Is a long chase
except to ships with power and the
prestige of carrying a Vice-Admiral, the
same being Albert Gleaves. commander
OF the Cruiser and Transport Force,
United States Atlantic Fleet. who helped
shovel coal into one of the furnaces of
the Leviathan so she might overhaul the
Imperator, ten hours ahead.
Now, every doughboy that had bet the
other doughboys aboard the leading
| troopship that the Leviathan's men were
going to land first in Hoboken took a
mighty keen interest In raising the
| Imperator. They crowded forward
some in the lower lookout perches on the
foremost, to get the first glimpse OF
black smoke above the horizon spelling
the rival ship.
It was not until 1880 A. NJ. Tuesday
after most of the doughboys had turned
in. that the lights OF the Imperator were
visible dead ahead. The alleged stan.
dard speed" Of the Leviathan Is q
knots, but it is suspected that she added
a few to that as she spurted to put the
Admirars flag where 1t ought to be
ahead. The next afternoon the Levia-
| than had shortened the stretch OF hori
zon space between her bow and the I'm
perator's stern.
| The battle Of the giants seemed real
enough to the delighted khaki clad pa
| triots aboard the Leviathan when she
passed to starboard of the Imperator or
| Tuesday afternoon, close enough to per
NIT the few thousands on the German
ship to hear the vociferous yells and
| cheers of the eleven thousand. And il
1t wasn't a race, why did they make
so much noise when they got ahead
And why did they put up money on the
hour that the Leviathan was going to dc
the trick? or course. as an Officer