We have spoken of the investigation of the vessels by Shipping Board
engineers. They were appointed by the board not only to make a survey,
but to superintend repairs. The collector of the port of New York also
named a board of engineers (railroad engineers) to investigate the
damage done the German ships, and to recommend repairs through the
agency of welding. The railroad men, after due study, believed that
their art could be applied to as great advantage on ships as upon
locomotives. The Shipping Board engineers recommended, on the other
hand, the renewal of all badly damaged cylinders. The railroad
engineers, on the other hand, set forth their opinion that all damaged
cylinders could be reclaimed and made as good as new.
As a result of this difference of opinion, nothing was done until the
larger German craft were turned over to the Navy Department to be fitted
as transports, in July of 1917. It was then decided to use welding and
patching on the vessels.
In no cases were the repairs to the propulsive machinery delayed beyond
the time necessary to equip these ships as transports. Electric and
acetylene welding is not a complicated art in the hands of skilled men;
for patching a hole, or filling the cavity of a great crack in a
cylinder, say by electric welding, may be compared to a similar
operation in dental surgery.
Returning to the _Leviathan's_ faulty German construction, be it said
that the opinion of the navy engineers who overhauled her, was that
inferior engineering had been practised in her construction.
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