In preparing her for sea the engineers found it necessary to overhaul,
partially redesign and reconstruct many important parts of the
_Leviathan's_ engines. As in her case, the most serious typical damage
was done by breaking the cylinders, valve-chests, circulating pumps,
steam and exhaust units in main engines; dry-firing boilers, and thus
melting the tubes and distorting furnaces, together with easily
detectable instances of a minor character, such as cutting piston and
connecting rods and stays with hack saws, smashing engine-room telegraph
systems, and removing and destroying parts which the Germans believed
could not be duplicated. Then there was sabotage well concealed: rod
stays in boilers were broken off, but nuts were fastened on exposed
surfaces for purposes of deception; threads of bolts were destroyed, the
bolts being replaced with but one or two threads to hold them, and thus
calculated to give way under pressure. Piles of shavings and inflammable
material with cans of kerosene near suggested the intention to burn the
vessels, intentions thwarted by our watchfulness, while the absence of
explosives has been accounted for purely on the ground of the risk which
the crews would have run in attempting to purchase explosive materials
in the open market.
No great amount of damage was done to the furnishings or ordinary ship's
fittings. Destructiveness was similar in character throughout all the
vessels and involved only important parts of the propulsive mechanism or
other operating machinery.
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