Entering the Dock
On January 14, 1918, the ship proceeded down the Mersey River to the entrance of the dock, but the wind was too high to attempt making the entrance, and we had to return to Princess Landing. On the 15th conditions were much better but none too favorable. However, as it was the last day of the spring tide we had to make the attempt. The spring tides are about 21 feet, and the current is very swift, so we had less than an hour in which to enter the dock and close the caisson.
The entrance was very narrow, so that tugs were of little assistance and she had to go in under her own power. It was a fine piece of seamanship and was successfully accomplished without damage to either the ship or the dock. The handling of the ship in the long entrance channel to the dock was done by the Senior Captain of the Cunard Line on shore. We were all greatly shocked about two weeks later to learn of his death, due to a channel steamer being torpedoed on its return from France, where he had been called on an important conference. It was the loss of such fine men through the treacherous German submarines that brought home to us more than ever our solemn duty to beat the Germans at all costs.
On the 16th everything was ready for setting her on the center line blocks. The weather conditions were ideal; the wind was on the stern and the ship was on an even keel. The stern touched the blocks and she settled at 3:55 P. M.
Previous to setting the ship on the blocks 12 sighting battons were erected along the level of “B” deck from stem to stem, so that if the ship was strained in any way it could be readily noted. A piano wire was also stretched from side to side at the top of the thwartships coal bunkers amidships and connected to a spring balance, so that any opening up effect, due to the divers not properly packing the main beds, would immediately show.
As soon as the stern touched the blocks the top row of side shores were set up commencing from aft. These shores were spaced every 5 frames, or about 15 feet centers. Altogether there were three rows of these side shores. The water was then lowered to a depth of 32 feet and the water maintained at this depth while the divers packed the main, inner and outer beds. As soon as possible after the water reached 32 feet, the water in all the tanks was pumped out with the exception of the feed tanks and No. 23 and 24 fresh water service tanks. The stem and side anchors were lowered and the pig iron in No. 17 tank, amounting to about 473 tons, was removed.
The water was maintained in the dock at 32 feet, because at this depth the ship was just resting nicely on the center line blocks and would not compress the soft wood caps. We did not want any unnecessary weight on the center line blocks until the divers had finished their work on the main and outer beds, so that when the dock was finally pumped out, the ship would imbed itself in the soft wood capping at a uniform depth. This worked out exceptionally well, and was remarkably uniform on all beds, amounting to about 2 inches at the end of the third day. On the third day the spring balance on the piano wire registered less than an ounce difference. The sighting battons showed that she had settled amidships about 1⅜ inches. After floating she returned to ⅛ inch of the original condition. This I believe to be the natural hog of the ship.
The undocking of the ship was somewhat unusual in that 7,800 tons of coal were placed aboard while she was in dry dock, 1,400 tons while the dock was absolutely dry and the balance of the coal, with from 35 to 37 feet of water in the dock. This was not sufficient to float the ship, and she still rested upon the docking beds. Immediately before letting in the water, all the bilge and hanging shores, and shores under, the stem and stern that would in any way injure the ship should she take a sudden list, or any undue change of trim, were removed. These shores were removed at about 15 minute intervals, so that the ship could adjust itself and any undue settling could be noticed. During this operation men were stationed at the sighting battons and the piano wire. Water was then admitted as quickly as possible to 35 feet and maintained at this level while additional coal was put aboard from barges admitted to the dock at low tide. This was a rather trying ordeal, but was successfully accomplished in 5 days.
Arrangements had been made to leave the dock on February 11th. It was therefore decided to float her on the 10th, and an estimate was made of the coal on board and such tanks as were necessary to bring her to an even trim and even keel, were filled. She floated at 1:20 on the 10th with 38 feet 11 inches draft aft, 39 feet 6 inches draft forward, and less than ½° list to starboard.
I cannot speak too highly of the hearty co-operation received from the ship’s officers and crew, especially Naval Constructor J. H. Jack, U. S. N. This applies not only to the docking of the ship, but to her conversion from a passenger ship to a transport. No duty was too strenuous or hours too long, and during the conversion the living quarters on the ship were not of the best. They were continually shifted from one part of the ship to the other, even the meals were of a makeshift character and at times irregular. Every man seemed to realize what we were up against and that we must make good. Everyone pulling together, accomplishment was made possible.
The conversion of the ship to a transport speaks volumes for the Navy Department organization and more particularly for the New York Navy Yard, under whose direct supervision the work was undertaken.
The ship was so big that she could not be taken to a shipyard, nor transferred to the Navy Yard. The task had to be undertaken where she lay at her piers in Hoboken and the New York Navy Yard organization was elastic enough and active enough to carry on the work outside the Navy Yard.
The Bridge
W. J.
General conditions on the bridge were good. Instruments had deteriorated somewhat, owing to the long stay in port and not being used.
All signal flags and navigation instruments, including the three chronometers which comprised part of her equipment were removed. The ship was equipped with two master gyroscopic compasses installed on “G” deck and seven repeaters for use on the bridge in steering and taking bearings; these were all found to be more or less in need of repairs and after days of hard and tedious work on the part of Lieut. W. H. F. Schluter and his well organized staff they were put in fine condition and have been kept in this manner constantly even though he has had to add pieces of lead to each master gyro to maintain a level. Being of German manufacture, no spare parts could be obtained during the war, but whenever they were needed Lieutenant Schluter proved to be the “man of the hour.” The gyros were only one of his many troubles for, being electrical officer, there were numerous other duties about the ship. There were a great many German charts left on board but the ship was equipped by the Bureau of Navigation with American charts before leaving port. The steering gears and all the telegraphs were changed to English speaking. The deep-sea sounding machines are still in commission after a great amount of usage, and the motors attached to them for heaving in the lead are still in good working order. The patent log for measuring distance is the “Forbes,” an English patent. Loudspeaking telephones reached to all the principal parts of the ship, and are very much used. A fire-alarm indicator is placed in the wheelhouse and is set at fifteen-minute intervals. This indicator has pipes leading to all holds through which the smoke from any fire in a hold would be drawn and can be seen in the wheelhouse when the alarm goes off. A steam hose can be connected to the pipe and the fire smothered. There is a control for operating water-tight doors and a diagram showing location of each door; upon this diagram an electric light burns when each door is closed, showing the officer of the deck whether the control works properly.
The big 44-inch searchlight on the foremast is controlled very readily from the bridge by a small lever; the fog bell is rung and all whistles are blown by an electrical attachment. The master electric clock is on the bridge and gives the time to 550 repeaters situated throughout the ship. These clocks required a great amount of painstaking labor to be put into good condition and demand constant care and supervision. During the alterations in which first class staterooms were ripped out to make troop quarters, the wiring system to the clocks was torn out by the workmen as well as everything else which happened to be in their path.
As mentioned previously the ship’s chronometers, three in number, were missing. These were afterwards found by the Secret Service in a nautical school in New York City. The commanding officer had to send them to the Naval Observatory at Washington, D. C. This was done with great reluctance as they were of the finest type and a good chronometer is a very valuable and much used article aboard a ship. Others were sent to replace them. The bridge and signal bridge were altered for transport purposes. The fire control and range finder stations being built on the signal bridge, and the fine bright finish of the wood was changed to the more popular color at that time—the war gray. Otherwise the Leviathan remains the Vaterland, as when she was in the merchant service—a German transport in disguise.
The Deck Force
F. C. W.
When the Leviathan was taken over by the Navy, the chief difficulty that presented itself was the scarcity of men available for the deck force. Only a few of the crew that had been assigned to the ship had ever been to sea. A few—gun crews, for the most part—had had some experience, but not enough to qualify them as seamen. This was partly due to their short terms of service.
As a result, the brunt of the work fell upon the shoulders of a few experienced petty officers, who fortunately had been assigned to the ship. These men worked day and night in a supreme effort to organize their crews and create a working machine. For the first few days they did everything from scrubbing the decks to exploring the double bottoms. There was no distinction between the rated men and the seamen in this line of work.
The size of the ship added to the confusion. It was impossible to keep a detail together for more than a minute and a half. It was easy for an entire working party to get lost between decks. It was easier for some to get lost than others. Finally, it was decided that the only way to keep a working party together was to hang a bell around the neck of the petty officer in charge. This scheme worked well until two working parties met, when it was necessary to call in a traffic cop to get them separated.
Because of their unfamiliarity with the ship, details were apt to deliver sacks of “spuds” to the Commander’s cabin, and stationery to the blacksmith shop. This situation was relieved by the appointment of guides to conduct the working parties around.
The parts of the ship allotted to the deck division (at that time we could only boast of one), were in rather good shape, considering the time the ship had been laid up. The weather decks were littered up like an old woman’s backyard after a hard day’s washing, but most of the truck was movable. Boats were piled across the hatches and all over the decks, making it impossible to get around. Boxes, stores and cordage were everywhere.
The process of making the ship habitable was accomplished by a mere handful of men, most of the division being assigned to various details for work in other compartments.
After the work of cleaning up had been completed, attention was turned to the rigging. The running rigging was in bad shape and it was found necessary to refit all of the davits that were rigged with manila rope. The booms were also refitted with new whips and guys. Requisitions for wire and manila lines were made right and left and all of the rigging was overhauled.
Of the 72 boats on board, 26 were equipped with friction winches and needed no power for rigging out and loading. The power for hoisting was furnished by electric motors, each one operating two or more winches. These winches were given a thorough overhauling and found to be in excellent condition. The boat falls, which were of special laid wire, were then unrove and tested. Only two of the entire number needed attention. At that time we had no serviceable wire, and it was a case of a few well-made long splices.
The ground tackle on the ship was all that could be desired. Of the three Hall type anchors, the largest, or stem anchor, weighed a little more than twelve tons. The other two, port and starboard, tipped the scales at eleven tons. These little trinkets were the only articles on board considered safe from souvenir hunters. For the information of landsmen, the “anchor watch” has no connection with the anchor itself, but is merely the men on watch as Officer of the Deck’s night messengers while the ship is at anchor.
The stem anchor was fitted with a 4-inch stud link chain, 150 fathoms in length. The port and starboard anchors had chains of 164 and 150 fathoms, respectively. The chains for the latter were three and three-eighths inches in diameter, the size of a chain being measured by the diameter of the material of which the links are formed.
The anchor engines were of corresponding size, and could be connected with the capstans on deck. In addition to them, there were seven more engines for capstans in all parts of the ship. In consequence, mooring the ship to a dock was not the hard task that it usually is.
The stern anchor and chain had apparently been left in Hamburg. The hawse pipe aft, and the stern chain locker were utilized for the handling and stowage of the heavy manila hawsers.
Most of the manila hawsers on board had to be replaced. Natural decay or possibly a small application of acid had so weakened the lines that they had a tendency to break at the most inopportune moments. The wire hawsers, however, were in A-1 condition, and up until the present time, have never been replaced.
But the work of fitting out was not all that had to be done. Men must be fed; and it seemed, from the accumulation of provisions on the dock, that we were being depended upon for the entire job of feeding the A. E. F. Truckload after truckload of stores was piled on the dock, and hoisted aboard, day after day. We soon learned that one trip with 10,000 red blooded men aboard involved the consumption of almost everything we had been piling into the ship’s storerooms and refrigerators. Besides food, there were general stores to be handled, including everything from safety pins to dishwashing machines. Every department was working overtime to get things ship-shape, and the deck force most of all.
At last it was rumored that we were about to make our maiden trip under the American flag. This was followed by a speeding up in all departments. It received final substantiation when military equipment and stores began to arrive. The time had come for a real test.
We had a chance to test our booms when a five-ton truck showed up as a part of the equipment to be loaded. The booms were of three-ton capacity and it was necessary to strengthen the lifts and rig a purchase in lieu of the single whip. It was taken aboard without mishap.
Just before leaving all boat-falls were given a final test. Every boat was rigged out and lowered to within a few feet of the water. A party of sixty-five men then clambered in and the boat was hoisted and lowered ten feet or more. This party was used for all of the boats, which were found to be in satisfactory condition. A few boats not on davits were hoisted overboard and tested for watertightness.
One morning in the fall of 1917 we slipped away. There were many conjectures as to our destination, one opinion being that we were bound for Panama for a last overhauling in dry dock. It developed that we were taking 1,500 marines to Guantanamo.
Upon our arrival in Cuba, we discharged all equipment and turned our attention to the boats once more. The boat officers were given their first lesson in the handling of the boat winches, and some of the men were given their first experience in a boat under oars.
Back again to Hoboken—more handling of stores and provisions. The Marines, although few in number, had managed to put quite a hole in our store of provisions. But the worst was yet to come. Orders sending the ship to France came, and with them 7,500 soldiers.
We had one piece of luck in getting off. While the crews of other transports had been compelled to sit and watch civilian stevedores put their stores aboard, the crew of the Leviathan were allowed to handle everything going aboard the ship themselves. There were no restrictions whatever, permission even being given to work night and day at the job. All of the equipment handled by the civilian stevedores belonging to the army. The crew handled all of the naval equipment aboard, including Liberty motors, aeroplanes and S. P. boats.
Liverpool had the honor of receiving us on our first and second voyages. Here we went into dry dock for final repairs, and here we had our first experience coaling ship in drydock. Coaling was carried on from cars running along the dock and also from small lighters or flats in the dock itself. The lighters were emptied and taken away only at certain stages of the tide. There was always a chance of the ship floating during one of these manœuvers, and the work of bringing loaded lighters into the dock and sending the emptied ones out required quick action and plenty of it. The notorious punctuality of time and tide is especially noticeable in the Liverpool drydock, and we worked at all hours of the day and night to keep in step.
The bottom of the ship was given a new coat of paint, and we left for Hoboken and more troops. On our second voyage to Liverpool our paravanes were installed, adding a little to the work, but contributing a good deal to our sense of security. Once more, for the benefit of the landsman: The paravanes, or PVs, are contrivances fitted to the bow of the ship, as a protection against mines, so constructed that they will automatically pick up the moorings of a mine and cut it adrift.
Beginning with our third trip, we worked on an express train schedule. Everything depended upon speed. Our cargoes increased at the same time. In addition to all kinds of army equipment, we frequently carried aeroplanes, boats for overseas duty, and on one trip a large mooring buoy. In order to load them on board, additional changes had to be made in the rigging, purchases and guys of the booms. Even the weather decks were utilized for the transportation of cargo for the naval forces overseas.
At the present writing the good old ship is still on the job—bringing them back. The machine is running as smoothly as the ship’s engines, and instead of having a few inexperienced men in the deck force, we have an organization, built from almost nothing, that can compete with anything in the navy.
Embarkation and Debarkation of Troops
W. S. A.
This is a brief description of how the Leviathan’s human cargo was loaded and unloaded. The plan had been followed from the beginning with slight changes made by experience in carrying troops over before the armistice and carrying them back afterwards.
The ship’s troop capacity began at 6,800 and on the 13th voyage it was approximately 12,000. Throughout the war it averaged about 10,000. In addition, officers’ space has varied between 400 and 600.
Throughout the war, carrying troops east, five gangways were employed on G-deck forward, to fill forward compartments; C-deck and F-decks amidships, to fill amidship compartments; E-deck and G-deck gangways aft to fill after compartments.
On each gangway, the compartment farthest away and lowest was filled and so on to the gangway compartment. In no case did troops crowd through a filled compartment.
It was early realized that loading the ship with troops was a Navy function and was treated as such. The organization at each of the five gangways was: one naval officer in charge and assisted by one chief petty officer and fifteen men. Wherever Army officers were available one was detailed to assist the Naval officer.
Prior to embarkation on each voyage, the ship’s embarkation officer made an assignment of all troops the ship was to carry, so organizations would not be split up but located in the same part of the ship to facilitate work. Often this was a problem on account of the arrival of trains or ferries and the size of organizations carried. Also, troop compartments had an arbitrary number of bunks in them, based on the amount which could be put in and not upon the number in military organizations. By planning we were able to get a complete regiment amidships, one aft, and a battalion forward, then filling in smaller units up to capacity.
Generally a battalion, or approximately 1,000 men, came to the ship a day in advance of embarkation for the guard and mess details. The next day the balance of the troops arrived. When the guard was not posted before embarkation, the troops were all over decks, superstructure, and masts, resulting in much unnecessary confusion.
Embarkation usually began about 8 o’clock or 9 o’clock in the morning, although on one occasion it began as early as 5:30 A. M. Organizations marched on the dock, both upper and lower levels, the Army checkers checked the individual soldier’s names upon the passenger lists and the soldier would receive a billet ticket which showed his compartment, bunk number, deck space, abandon ship station, safety rules, etc. Then the column would move over the gangway and the prescribed routes to the compartment. Each of the five columns were led by a Naval guide, and other Naval guides were posted along the route and seven or eight Navy men in the compartment, to direct the columns to the proper bunks and put the soldiers in the bunks called for by the billet tickets. The numbering in compartments generally began in the forward starboard corner and ended in the after port corner. Later on, the bunks in the amidship compartments were renumbered so that a column of troops could be directed up a passageway and men could get into the bunks on both sides of it.