The Sperry Service Organization

The Sperry Service Organization is one which serves in all parts of the world. A corps of Service Engineers, having special training at the factory in all departments relating to the Gyro-Compass, are available in nearly every large port of the world. These engineers are ready to come aboard your ship, to clean, adjust and overhaul the Gyro-Compass, thus relieving the navigator of all care other than the actual use of the Gyro-Compass.

During the war we had Service Engineers in every port where the ships of the Navy were likely to call. Our men have been in many of the naval actions and have been able to render very con­sid­er­able service on many un­usual oc­cas­ions. For example, it was desired to place an equipment on a British ship which was on her way to the Dardanelles. The Admiralty instructed us by telegram to have an equipment and a Service Engineer meet the ship at the British Naval Station at Malta in the Mediterranean. By sending the equipment with our Service Engineer via a passenger train to the south of Italy and via destroyer to Malta we were able to meet the ship there on the day she arrived. The ship was able to stay only twenty-four hours, and as it took about four days to install the equipment, our engineer remained on board and finished the work while the ship was enroute from Malta to the Dardanelles.

The Whale-back, steadiest of all in rough weather.

This ship, the Inflexible, arrived at the Dardanelles just in time to join in the first naval action directed against the land batteries. During the first part of the engagement our engineer remained with the Master Compass which was installed near the dynamo room. When he saw that it was functioning properly he left it to go on deck and view the action, the effects of which he had become aware of, as a number of shells from the land batteries had hit the ship. Almost immediately after he arrived on deck a torpedo struck the ship directly under the compartment where the Gyro-Compass was located, killing every man in that compartment. Although badly damaged the ship was able to get out of range of the land batteries and reach the naval base near the Dardanelles.

The Gyro-Compass was, of course, almost totally destroyed. Shortly after the action ended our engineer was enabled to get ashore on a Greek island via one of the British destroyers. This island had a telegraph station which he used to cable us that “Equipment No. 286 is under four feet of water,” and that we should have another equipment ready to replace it. We took this telegram to the Admiralty who authorized us to have another equipment prepared to meet this ship at Gibraltar. This we did, again sending a Service Engineer who met the ship at Gibraltar, on her way back to England to be repaired and refitted.

The Sperry Service Organization stands ready to help all ships equipped with a Gyro-Compass at all times, even in emergencies such as those experienced by naval vessels.