Returning to the Leviathan's faulty German construction, be it said that the opinion of the navy engineers who overhauled her, was that inferior engineering had been practised in her construction. There are on this craft four turbine engines ahead, and four astern, on four shafts. All the head engines were in good shape, but all the astern engines were damaged. But the main part of the damage had resulted more to faulty operation of the engines than to malicious damage. Cracks were found in the casing of the starboard high-pressure backing turbine, cracks of size so great as to make it certain that this engine had not been used in the last run of that vessel on transatlantic service in 1914. There was discovered on the Vaterland, or Leviathan, documentary evidence to prove this, and it also appeared from this paper that on her last trip to this country the vessel had not averaged twenty knots. It may be that the German ship-builders had hurried too swiftly in their strenuous efforts to produce a bigger, if not a better, steamship than the British could turn out.
Forty-six of the Vaterland's boilers showed evidence of poor handling. They were not fitted with the proper sort of internal feed-pipes. All these defects, defects original with the steamship, were repaired by the Americans. In addition, evidences of minor attempts to disable the Vaterland were found, such, for instance, as holes bored in sections of suction-pipes, the holes having been puttied and thus concealed. Things of the sort afforded ample reason for a thorough overhaul of the vast mass of machinery aboard the steamship. But eventually she was ready for her test and her performance on a trial trip to southern waters showed how skilful had been the remedial measures applied.
Aboard the Leviathan as other big German liners, such as the Amerika, President Grant, President Lincoln, (recently sunk by a German torpedo while bound for this country from France), the George Washington, and other vessels fitted as troop and hospital ships, and the like, naval crews were placed, and naval officers, of course, in command. They have proved their mettle, all. They have shown, further, that when we get ready to take our place, after the war, among the nations that go in heavily for things maritime, we shall not be among the last, either in point of resourcefulness or intrepidity.
Civilian sailormen who have sailed on vessels commanded by naval officers have been inclined to smile over the minutia of navy discipline and have expressed doubt whether the naval men would find a certain rigidity any more useful in a given situation than the civilian seamen would find a looser ordered system. We can but base judgment on facts, and among the facts that have come under the writer's observation, was the difficulty which the German officers of the Vaterland encountered in taking their vessel into her dock in the North River. The very last time they attempted it the great hulk got crosswise in the current in the middle of the stream, and caused all sorts of trouble.
Our naval officers, however, made no difficulty at all in snapping the steamship into her pier. She steams up the Hudson on the New York side, makes a big turn, and lo! she is safely alongside her pier. Any seafaring man will tell you that this implies seamanly ability.
Following is a list of the larger German ships which were repaired by the navy engineers, with the names under which they now sail:
| FORMER NAME | PRESENT NAME |
| Amerika | America. |
| Andromeda | Bath. |
| Barbarossa | Mercury. |
| Breslau | Bridgeport. |
| Cincinnati | Covington[1] (sunk). |
| Frieda Lenhardt | Astoria. |
| Friedrich der Grosse | Huron. |
| Geier | Schurz. |
| George Washington | name retained. |
| Grosser Kurfurst | Aeolus. |
| Grunewald | Gen. G. W. Goethals. |
| Hamburg | Powhattan. |
| Hermes | name retained. |
| Hohenfelde | Long Beach. |
| Kiel | Camden. |
| Kaiser Wilhelm I | Agamemnon. |
| Koenig Wilhelm II | Madawaska. |
| Kronprinz Wilhelm | Von Steuben. |
| Kronprezessin Cecelie | Mount Vernon. |
| Liebenfels | Houston. |
| Locksun | Gulfport. |
| Neckar | Antigone. |
| Nicaria | Pensacola. |
| Odenwald | Newport News. |
| President | Kuttery. |
| President Grant | name retained. |
| President Lincoln | name retained (sunk). |
| Prinzess Irene | Pocahontas. |
| Prinz Eitel Friedrich | DeKalb. |
| Rhein | Susquehanna. |
| Rudolph Blumberg | Beaufort |
| Saxonia | Savannah. |
| Staatsskretar | Samoa. |
| Vaterland | Leviathan. |
| Vogensen | Quincy. |
[1] Is not this rather a reflection upon a perfectly good American city?