The Washington times., 1922-09-17
To
Be QUEEN Of
OCEANL|NERS
Super-Ship, Saved to U. S. by
Mr.. Hearst, to Sail Again
Next January.
WILL BE QUEEN OF LINERS
Admiral Benson Writes Glow
ing Report After Inspection
at Newport News Ways.
By WINDER r. HARRIS,

BY WINDER X. HARRIS,
Unfversal Service staff Correspondent.
"Old Glory" once more will take
her rightfully proud place on the
seas-flying from the mast Of the
finest vessel afloat of her class
and type-when the Government
owned super-liner "I.eviathan" Is
placed in commission next year as
the queen Of Americas passenger
fleet.
Rear Admiral William S. Ben
son, who recently inspected her
from stem to stern at the plant Of
the Newport News Shipbuilding
& Dry Dock Co., Newport News,
Va, where the monarch Of the
oceans is being reconditioned, de-
clares she will be as nearly per-
feet as it is possible to have a
ship.
"No liner travelling the seven
seas will surpass her in appoint
ments, comfort or safety" the
admiral confidently asserts.
To Sail In January.
Admiral Benson made the in.
spection on behalf of the United
States Shipping Board. of which he
is one of the commissioners and
former chairman under the Wilson
Administration. His long service in
the Navy, where he rose to the
post of chief of operation, which
corresponds to chief of staff in the
army, before his retirement to take
charge of the Shipping Board,
qualities him as an expert in the
appraisal of steamships.
He found more than 25 per cent
OF the task Of making her over
from an army transport. which
carried more than half a division
of troops to France, for the peace
time supremacy had been >com-
pleted. Twenty-nine hundred men,
he said, were engaged in entirely
refitting her from top to bottom
and rearranging her internal sturc-
ture-making her better vessel
in every way than she was when
her former German owners sent
her down the ways the last word in
ship construction.
And when she sails out Of New
York on her maiden voyage as an
American passenger liner soon af-
ter the New Year begins. every
patriotic American heart may
throb in tune with her engines as
they hum across the Atlantic the
song of Americas maritime re-
juvenation.
Saved BY Mr.. Hearst.
This great achievement for the
American merchant marine was
made possible when william Ran
dOlph Hearst saved this wonderfci
ship for the United States.
The stage was all set a little more
than two years ago to turn over the
I.eviathan and all the other former
German passenger liners to the
British controlled International Mer-
camille Marine for a mere pittance.
A contract had been drawn up by
John Barton Payne, then chairman
OF the Shipping Board. and p. A. s.
Franklin, head OF the I. NJ. M. in
the United States, and had been
sanctioned by the Wilson Admins
tration.
The price to be paid for the
Leviathan was about $4,0O0,OO0,
whereas Homer L. Ferguson. presi-
dent and general manager Of the
Newport News Shipbuilding and
Dry Dock Company, at whose plant
she is now being overhauled, went
before Senate investigating COM
mittee and testified that she could
not be reproduced for twenty-five
to thirty million dollars.
But a crew had been put aboard
her by the British-controlled COM
pany, fires were burning under her
boilers and everything was ready to
transfer her from the possession Of
the United States Government to a
service where her owners would
have had to operate her at the dicta-
ton of their British bosses.
Fought Single Handed.
Single-handed against these odds
and at his own expense, Mr.. Hearst
went into court on his right as a
citizen and taxpayer of the United
States and stopped the sale. The
Supreme Court of the District Of Co
lumbia heard his plea that the great
vessel be saved for his own Govern
ment and its people and granted an
injunction restraining Chairman
Payne, up to the time me went out
of power with the end Of the Wilson
administration, from surrendering
It and the other former German
ships to alien control.
Mr.. Hearst's patriotic stand for
America and the American mer.
chant marine at this critical hour
vas enthusiastically commended by
ell the leaders in the Senate and
House Of Repre- resentatives and has