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
The Liverpool Drydock
The Gladstone Dock in Liverpool was the only drydock in the world at the time that would take the Leviathan. The entire development of this dock, which included a tidal basin, was not completed when the war broke out, so the tidal basin was abandoned and one of a pair of docks was finished up and a long channel dredged to the River Mersey.
The ship drew so much that we could not enter the dock except at the spring tides, or in other words, only about two days out of a month would permit us to enter the dock, provided the wind did not cut the tide too much.
The next thing was to decide on how to prepare the beds of the drydock to receive the ship. An examination of her bottom was necessary. Divers were sent down and they reported that she had neither docking nor bilge keels, and that her keel plate consisted of a plate of about 2 inches thick by 3 feet wide.