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

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.