Evening star., 1923-07-04
LEVIATHAN SAILS INTO
! STORM, HER FLAGS
DROPPED WITH RAIN
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Continued from First Page.)
per hour, sustained speed in a twenty
five hour test and number Of nautical
miles travelled in the period.
a squadron of airplanes and a flotilla
of harbor boats planned to escort her
to the sea. A reproduced Clermont,
Americas first steamboat, floated be-
side the giant craft at her pier.
Story Discredited.
The story of a German attempt to
disable the Leviathan, then the Water
land. on February 8. 1917 when Amer
lea appeared to be drifting toward war
with the central powers. today was re-
called by the declaration OF F. H. Gibbs
Of Gibbs Bros. who reconditioned the
giant liner. that damage at that time
was the result Of an accident
Mr.. Gibbs, whose engineering COM
pany refitted the Leviathan, charac-
terized as false the story circulated at
the time that the German crew of the
Taterland deliberately had injured her
mechanism and disassembled her parts
so as to render her unfit for service as
an American transport.
MIshap in Docking.
Damage to the vessel, he said, had
later been found to have been the
result of a mishap in docking the
vaterland on her last trip to this
country under the German flag In
1914. This left her with several
1roken turbine blades and other dam
sged parts. Efforts of German en-
fineers to repair the damages made
matters worse, while, he asserted,
members of the crew in occupying the
fessel during the long period of in
fernment also had caused other minor
damage.
I When the broken parts were dis
lowered, he asserted, credence was
given to the story that the Germans
Had attempted to cripple the ship
&hree months before she was seized
by the American government.
The popular version of the damage
10 the ship appears In the Leviathan
&ouvenir booklet, which will be dis
Fibuted among her passengers. To-
days statement by Mr. Gibbs came
Is q surprise to the authors of the
Hooklet, but 1t was said at the Of
4ces of the Shipping Board that the
Question of the origin of the damage
10 the ship had not been raised when
t1he souvenir was printed.
bCapt. L. p. Jessop, retired, who was
IN charge of the official inspection of
t1ne Vaterland when she was taken
&er and who also supervised the re-
lie had found the following specific
INJURIES when he boarded the vessel:
List Of Damage.
kAbout three tons of blading from
sfarboard high pressure turbine
missing.
lone eight-foot crack in high press
4re cylinder.
EThrust blocks on propeller shafts
xemoved, permitting seepage of more
%han 1000 tons of water into the
Ahip's hull. 49,
BNumerous holes bored in outboard
3ater pipes and then filled with
Iutty.
> sFTags and labels on all Important
electric and steam lines altered and
shifted so that the American engi-
1seers were completely in the dark as
to the purpose of this equipment.
sAll of these repairs were made to
put the ship into the troop transport
service. and before she was turned
over to the Shipping Board.
1.-THE Leviathan probably was the
least damaged by sabotage of any of
the seized German ships" said Capt.
Jessop. This was due, 1t seems,
TO the fact that her commander su-
pervised her building, and simply
could not bear to see his beloved
chip injured"