The Engineer Officers
Lt. Watson Lt. Miller Ens. Leventhal Lt. Keeser Lt. Kirk Ens. Wilson Lt. Bright
Lt. Lau Lt. Edwards Lt. R. H. Jones Com’dr. Woodward Lt. Andrews Lt. Schluter Lt. Parker
At the end of the third day I conveyed this information to the Captain with the request that he bring pressure to bear on the Bureau of Navigation to send our personnel, both officers and enlisted men, as quickly as possible. The men and officers began to arrive and by August 15th the last officer of the complement had arrived. As each arrived he was put in charge of a station and told to trace out his station, make a thorough examination of the interior of all piping and machinery and submit a report on repairs necessary and estimated time. Most of my time during the day was spent below and the nights were occupied drawing up station bills and handling the office paper work, my only assistant being a reserve yeoman in the service of the Shipping Board. I realized that, even at the expense of time that should be spent inspecting repair work, I must get my organization planned and laid out as quickly as possible, and in operation. By August 5th all station bills and organization had been completed and blueprinted and all officers on board instructed. At this time, on account of report of damage to machinery under repair on German ships by aliens, I organized a secret service force below in an effort to detect any attempts made to inflict damage. I purposely let the report spread around among the civilian workmen that there was a large force of government agents employed among them and also in the crew. This seemed to have the desired moral effect, because during the entire period there was but one case of attempted malicious damage, which was discovered immediately. An attempt had been made to thrust welding wire into both of the L. P. astern turbines through the gauge line holes in the flanges and thus damage the blading.
I will not go into details as to the condition of the machinery, but will indicate some of the work done and the changes made in order to get her ready for sea in the quickest possible time. Most of the changes in design and arrangement were made before her dock trial.
Each piece of machinery and boiler was opened up in all its parts and thoroughly examined for foreign material or damage. While open necessary repairs were made.
The joint on every auxiliary steam and exhaust line at the piece of machinery was broken and steam blown through before attempting to operate the machine: this to free the line of foreign material.
All main, spring and thrust bearings were opened up, examined, cleaned and realigned.
The float of the main thrusts were changed from .006 to .015 inches to conform to U. S. Naval practice.