There are
on this craft four turbine engines ahead, and four astern, on four
shafts. All the head engines were in good shape, but all the astern
engines were damaged. But the main part of the damage had resulted more
to faulty operation of the engines than to malicious damage. Cracks were
found in the casing of the starboard high-pressure backing turbine,
cracks of size so great as to make it certain that this engine had not
been used in the last run of that vessel on transatlantic service in
1914. There was discovered on the _Vaterland_, or _Leviathan_,
documentary evidence to prove this, and it also appeared from this paper
that on her last trip to this country the vessel had not averaged twenty
knots. It may be that the German ship-builders had hurried too swiftly
in their strenuous efforts to produce a bigger, if not a better,
steamship than the British could turn out.
Forty-six of the _Vaterland's_ boilers showed evidence of poor handling.
They were not fitted with the proper sort of internal feed-pipes. All
these defects, defects original with the steamship, were repaired by the
Americans. In addition, evidences of minor attempts to disable the
_Vaterland_ were found, such, for instance, as holes bored in sections
of suction-pipes, the holes having been puttied and thus concealed.
Things of the sort afforded ample reason for a thorough overhaul of the
vast mass of machinery aboard the steamship. But eventually she was
ready for her test and her performance on a trial trip to southern
waters showed how skilful had been the remedial measures applied.
Pages:
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160