The control and manœuvering of a large ship such as the Leviathan is a responsible job. This vessel’s steering arrangement, or steering gear, is of steam engine type, connected to a hydraulic telemotor. The gear is so easily manipulated that a small boy standing on the bridge of this great ship can control any course or given route that is desired to be taken.
The engines, of which there are two, one port and one starboard, are connected to the rudder head, which is approximately thirty inches in diameter, by meshing into a huge quadrant gear twenty-four feet in diameter. This gear secured to the rudder head or stern is moved right or left, i. e., starboard or port, by a simple turn of a small steering wheel on the bridge. This wheel is connected to the telemotor, which is simply a hydraulic ram of two system pipe lines with plungers set amidships when the rudder, engines, steering wheel and rudder quadrant are in a neutral or center line position. The telemotor is in the wheel house on the bridge approximately 800 feet from the steering engine, which is aft or at the stern of the ship. Two small three-quarter inch copper pipe lines, one port and one starboard, extend from bridge to steering engine room and these little pipe lines are filled with a fluid mixture of fifty per cent glycerine and fifty per cent water. When the hand wheel on the bridge is moved, this forces the hydraulic ram down or up, causing the fluid in pipes to open a control valve on the steam steering engine operating this engine and moving quadrant to right or left as desired.
This rudder and stem and steering engine quadrant are the largest and most powerful installed on any vessel afloat.
The Black Gang
BY ONE OF THEM—H. E.
The fire room boys of the Leviathan came from almost every State in the Union. They worked hand in hand from about August 1, 1917, until the end of the war. The success of the big ship is due to their hearty co-operation. The part taken in the war by the Leviathan is known the world over, and the spirit of the “black gang” merits commendation and a chapter in this book.
While in the dreaded war zone, trip after trip, these boys plugged the fires, day and night, determined to beat Kaiser Bill and fool the submarines. The submarine scare from time to time aroused the firemen and the ship made far greater speed than even the original contractors thought possible. The pressure on the gauges at all times was on the blood mark.
The pass word throughout the fire rooms was: “Give her hell, boys.”
At no time was there a boy or man who showed signs of fear during any run, they had no time to think of “subs.” Speed, chow and liberty in Hoboken was all we thought of. Our work was hard and laborious, but no one grumbled.
Believe me, we had at first some ash-hopper installation. The Germans who installed the outfit in these fire rooms should have been made prisoners before the war started. Water in fire rooms was ankle deep. We were also obliged to use coal from the barrows in charging the furnaces owing to the Leviathan’s goat getter “flarebacks.”