History of the U.S.S. Leviathan, cruiser and transport forces, United States Atlantic fleet / Compiled from the ship's log and data gathered by the history committee on board the ship

by U.S.S. Leviathan History Committee

Docking and Undocking

Directing the Docking of the U. S. S. “Leviathan”

In docking the Leviathan there is no particular trick that must be known, but on undocking her it must be so timed that while on the New Jersey side at Hoboken the water is dead slack, the flood on the New York side has just begun to make. This helps the operation in two ways. First, by getting her away from the dock before the flood current begins to press her against the dock, and second when she backs out, the beginning of the flood current on the New York side assists to turn her stern upstream and operates to point her correctly. In leaving New York for sea, the ship must be manœuvered over to the New York side, the deepest water being on the New York side. In midstream and on the New Jersey side, between Hoboken and the Statue of Liberty, there is not enough water to float the Leviathan. In docking and undocking we need from fourteen to sixteen tugs. Abnormal conditions can be expected in the winter months. Upstate freshets and northerly gales sometimes operate to kill the flood current off Hoboken and to cause a continuing ebb current. Such a condition has happened, making it impossible to point the ship correctly downstream, and it has been necessary to yield to the elements and to permit her to turn the ship. There is always an apprehension in entering and leaving New York Harbor lest merchant vessels carelessly anchor themselves in the Leviathan’s fairway. Such a condition adds difficulties to the piloting of the ship.

Brest Harbor

Like most passenger vessels she is designed to have a slow and easy roll, which means that she has not a great margin of stability. In entering New York, bringing troops homeward, it is necessary to keep the troops in control and evenly distributed, because in their excitement and happiness, they tend to rush from one side to another on the passing of every cheering ferryboat, heeling over even this great ship. When this ship heels over, owing to her great beam, and to her box-like dead-flat section, it materially increases her already great draft. Large ballast tanks with suitable pumps are provided for the purpose of counteracting the tendency of the ship to heel over, but in spite of this, at sea she lies over to the breeze, and in entering New York she is very sensitive to the movement of troops about the deck.

In mooring to the buoy in Brest Harbor, it is an advantage to arrive at slack water; she must be brought to the buoy with her momentum entirely gone, for her great weight of sixty-nine thousand tons, if moving when the buoy is correctly placed, would make it impossible for the mooring party to handle the great heavy links of four-inch chain, and to connect the mooring shackle.

Drydocking the U. S. S. “Leviathan” in Gladstone Dock, Liverpool, England

By Lieut. A. W. Minuse, U. S. N. R. F.

Drydocking a ship in a graving dock means placing the ship in a dock or basin at the entrance of which is a gate or caisson, accurately centering the ship over a system of blocks or beds, previously prepared according to plans and then pumping the water out of the dock.

When a ship is designed the Naval Architect always prepares a docking plan showing in detail just how to prepare these beds so that the ship will rest evenly without straining her in any way. Ordinarily, docking a ship up to 32,000 or 33,000 tons is not much of a problem, nor does it involve much of a risk, but on larger ships with all the necessary data known, those connected with the docking always feel easier when they see the ship setting safely on the blocks.

To give some idea of the size of the Leviathan consider our latest, biggest and most powerful battleship, the New Mexico. She weighs 32,000 tons. The Leviathan weighed or displaced at the time of docking more than twice this, or approximately 66,000 tons.

We had no docking plans nor plans of any description showing her form or construction. The Germans had either destroyed or removed all her plans. This was the problem we were confronted with in January, 1918, when it was decided to dock the ship in Liverpool for the necessary cleaning and painting of her body under water, and doing other necessary work, including a clump on her forefoot for towing the paravanes, or mine-sweeping device.

In Dry Dock