SS Leviathan

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For the 19th-century ship, see SS Great Eastern. For other uses, see Leviathan (disambiguation). For other uses, see List of ships named SS Vaterland.

SS Leviathan 1913.jpg
SS Leviathan in the 1920s
History
German Empire
NameSS Vaterland
OwnerHAPAG Line
Port of registryGermany 1911–1917
BuilderBlohm & Voss at Hamburg, Germany
Launched3 April 1913
Maiden voyage14 May 1914
In service14 May 1914 – July 1914
Out of serviceJuly 1914 to 6 April 1917
FateSeized by the United States to be used in the US Navy.
United States
NameUSS Leviathan
OwnerUnited States
Acquired6 April 1917
CommissionedJuly 1917
Decommissioned29 October 1919
FateSold into civilian service
NotesUsed as a troop ship during World War I
United States
NameSS Leviathan
OwnerUnited States Lines
Port of registryNew York
Acquired29 October 1919
In serviceJune 1923 to 1933, some service in 1934
Out of service1933 to 1937
FateSold for scrapping and broken up 6 June 1938 at Rosyth
General characteristics
Class and typeImperator-class ocean liner
Tonnage54,282 gross tons
Length950 ft (289.6 m)
Beam100 ft 4 in (30.6 m)
Draft37 ft 9 in (11,51 m)
Speed26 knots (30 mph)[citation needed]
Capacity
  • 1965 as originally configured
  • 14,000 as a troop transport
Armament
  • World War I Navy Service:
  • 8 × 6 in
  • 2 × 1-pounder gun
  • 2 × machine gun

SS Leviathan, originally built as Vaterland (meaning "Fatherland" in German), was an ocean liner which regularly crossed the North Atlantic from 1914 to 1934. The second of three sister ships built for Germany's Hamburg America Line for its transatlantic passenger service, she sailed as Vaterland for less than a year before her early career was halted by the start of World War I. In 1917, she was seized by the US government and renamed Leviathan. She would become known by this name for the majority of her career, both as a troopship during World War I and later as the flagship of the United States Lines.

Construction and early career[]

Launch of Vaterland, 3 April 1913

SS Vaterland, a 54,282 gross ton passenger liner, was built by Blohm & Voss at Hamburg, Germany, as the second of a trio of very large ships of the Imperator class for the Hamburg America Line's trans-Atlantic route. She was launched on 3 April 1913 and was the largest passenger ship in the world upon her completion, superseding SS Imperator, but later being superseded in turn by the last ship of this class, SS Bismarck, later the RMS Majestic.

Vaterland had made only a few trips when, in late July 1914, she arrived at New York City just as World War I broke out. With a safe return to Germany rendered questionable by British dominance of the seas, she was laid up at her Hoboken, New Jersey terminal and remained immobile for nearly three years.

World War I[]

USS Leviathan in dazzle camouflage

Vaterland was seized by the United States Shipping Board when the United States entered World War I on 6 April 1917. She was turned over to the custody of the United States Navy (USN) in June 1917 and her German crew was sent to a new internment camp in Hot Springs, North Carolina, where many of them later died of a typhoid fever outbreak in summer 1918 as they were about to be transferred to Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia.[1]

She was commissioned by the USN in July 1917 as the USS Vaterland, Captain Joseph Wallace Oman in command. On 6 September 1917 she was redesignated SP-1326 and renamed Leviathan by President Woodrow Wilson.[2]

The trial cruise to Cuba on 17 November 1917 prompted Captain Oman to order 241 Marines on board to relieve a detachment of Marines and to station themselves conspicuously about the upper decks, giving the appearance from shore that the great ship was headed overseas to increase the American Expeditionary Forces.[3] Upon her return later that month, she reported for duty with the Cruiser and Transport Force. In December she took troops to Liverpool, England, but repairs delayed her return to the US until mid-February 1918. A second trip to Liverpool in March was followed by more repairs.[2]

Leviathan leaving for France from the New York Port of Embarkation with 11,000 American troops.

At that time she was repainted with the British-type dazzle camouflage scheme that she carried for the rest of the war. With the completion of that work, Leviathan began regular passages between the US and Brest, France, delivering up to 14,000 persons on each trip. Once experience in embarking troops was gained, 11,000 troops could board the ship in two hours.[4]

On 29 September 1918 she left New York for Brest; she was one of the main carriers of troops to France, carrying 2,000 crew and 9,000 troops. The voyage would prove to have the worst in-transit casualties of the deadly second wave of the Spanish flu. By the time she arrived at Brest on 8 October, 2,000 were sick, and 80 had died.[5]

Before the armistice was signed on 11 November 1918, the ship transported more than 119,000 fighting men. Amongst the ship's US Navy crew during this period was future film star Humphrey Bogart. After that date Leviathan, repainted grey overall by December 1918, reversed the flow of men as she transported the veterans back to the United States with nine westward crossings, the last ending on 8 September 1919. On 29 October 1919, USS Leviathan was decommissioned and turned over to the US Shipping Board and again laid up at Hoboken until plans for her future employment could be determined.[2]

American service[]

The US Shipping Board was by the end of the war encumbered with surplus tonnage and government sponsored shipping companies. On 17 December 1919 the International Mercantile Marine (IMM) signed an agreement to maintain its intended acquisition until a final decision could be made. The Gibbs Brothers Inc., later named Gibbs & Cox in 1929, was hired to survey the vessel and her economic potential from every aspect when newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst objected to the purchase by claiming British influence over IMM, riding on nationalistic sentiment to stop the deal.[6]

Leviathan operated by United States Lines, after her reconversion as an ocean liner, c. 1923

The Gibbs brothers were allowed to continue by the Shipping Board even as the deal fell through,[6] their first big task being the creation of a new set of blueprints. None had been received from Germany under the Versailles Treaty and the price was deemed outrageous. Instead an army of workers measured every part of the ship until a new set of prints had been made.[7]

Having languished in political limbo at her Hoboken pier until April 1922, a decision was finally made and $8,000,000 in funds were allocated to sail Leviathan to Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company in Newport News, Virginia, for her 14-month reconditioning and refurbishment.[6] War duty and age meant that all wiring, plumbing, and interior layouts were stripped and redesigned while her hull was strengthened and her boilers converted from coal to oil while being refurbished; virtually a new ship emerged.[7]

The Ritz-Carlton of Leviathan

The decorations and fittings, designed by New York architects Walker & Gillette, retained much of her prewar splendor of Edwardian, Georgian, Louis XVI styles now merged with modern 1920s touches.[8] The biggest deviation was an art deco night club supplanting the original Verandah Cafe. In June 1923 she was given back to the Shipping Board. Leviathan's measured tonnage had increased to 59,956.65 GRT and her speed trials showed an average of 27.48 knots. Thanks in part to Gibbs' clever accounting and the Gulf stream, she was advertised as the world's largest and fastest ship.[6][7][8] This claim was immediately challenged by the Cunard Line, with a reminder that its RMS Mauretania still held the official speed record for trans-Atlantic crossing, as well as the White Star Line, which claimed the RMS Majestic as the world's longest ship, with a higher gross tonnage if properly calculated.

By this time United States Lines, which had interested IMM, had been sold and contractually obligated to run Leviathan for a minimum of five return voyages on the Atlantic run per year. The Gibbs Brothers Inc would run her for her first voyages and train the crew until ownership officially changed hands.[6] She immediately proved popular with the American public in the '20s, starting her career fully booked for her maiden voyage departing on 4 July 1923.[9] Her passenger average reached a strong 1,300 by 1926, making her the #1 traveled ship on the Atlantic, but given her capacity of 3,000 it was too little to be profitable.[7]

Advertising poster for United States Lines of the late 1920s, depicting Leviathan

Her economic problems lay primarily in high labor costs and fuel costs which were compounded by Prohibition. From 1920 all US registered ships counted as an extension of US territory, making them "dry ships" according to the National Prohibition Act. With the Atlantic shipping capacity oversaturated, especially after the Immigration Act of 1924, alcohol-seeking passengers readily chose other liners.[7] But Leviathan was an American symbol of power and prestige, which despite her economic failings, made her a popular ship with loyal travelers. She attracted attention as the largest and fastest ship in the American merchant marine and featured in countless advertisements. The only serious incident occurred one day out of Cherbourg on a winter crossing in 1924 where she met a fierce storm with 90 ft waves and winds up to 100 mph, at times forcing her into 20 degree rolls. Eleven portholes were smashed and 32 passengers injured by the time the storm abated.[10]

The ship's orchestra, the SS Leviathan Orchestra under the direction of Nelson Maples, was also well regarded enough that in 1923 and 1924 Victor Records engaged it to record eleven selections at their New York studios, of which eight were commercially released. The band would later become the inspiration for the New Leviathan Oriental Fox-Trot Orchestra decades later. The orchestra, renamed The Great White Fleet Orchestra, played at The Cinderella Ballroom in Hartford, Conn. on December 11 and 23, 1924.[11] Throughout 1925 and 1926, the 11-piece band led by Charles Mazetti toured extensively in New England (primarily Pennsylvania) and in the Midwest [12] and Canada in 1926.[13] Many ads and plugs for The Great White Fleet Orchestra, often described as wearing white uniforms, can be found in New England (primarily Pennsylvania) newspapers in 1925, 1926, and photographs appear in The Hartford Daily Courant, Hartford, Conn. (1924-12-21), The Plain Speaker, Hazleton, Penn. (1925-05-25) and other newspapers. It seems to have been dormant in 1927 and 1928, but ads begin to appear again in 1929, calling it a Tango Orchestra with Vocal Quartet. In the 1930s it was sometimes advertised as 12-pieces, and most early 1930s ads were for "Johnny Brown and His Great White Fleet Orchestra" although Ray Brown, Jan Campbell and Fritz Meyer were named as leaders in some 1935, 1936 and 1937 ads and publicity. The band appears to have become dormant again, but in August and September 1949, "Janet Ruth Crockett and the Great White Fleet Orchestra" appeared at the Gulfport Casino in Florida.

Leviathan in drydock, December 1931.

Captain Herbert Hartley commanded Leviathan from July 1923 until he retired in February 1928. (Hartley published his autobiography titled Home Is the Sailor in 1955.) By 1927 the "good years" were over, during which time United States Lines had been sold and re-nationalized. In 1929 Leviathan was finally allowed to serve "medicinal alcohol" outside US territorial waters to make her more competitive with foreign lines and was quickly sent on Booze Cruises to make money.[14][15] The Great Depression was the final nail in the coffin and United States Lines actively lobbied for the Shipping Board to either take the Leviathan back or provide a subsidy for her operation. She was laid up at her pier in Hoboken, New Jersey, in June 1933, having lost $75,000 per round trip since 1929.[16]

United States Lines had been acquired at auction by IMM in 1931; IMM was just as eager to be rid of the white elephant. The government steadfastly stipulated that Leviathan should sail, and so she did after a refurbishment costing $150,000, for another five round trips. The first round trip sailed on 9 June 1934, high season on the Atlantic, and tallied a loss of $143,000. By Leviathan's fifth voyage she sailed at barely half capacity. IMM paid the US government $500,000 for permission to retire her while keeping her in running order until 1936.[17]

In 1937 she was sold to the British Metal Industries Ltd. On 26 January 1938 Leviathan set out on her 301st and last transatlantic voyage under the command of Captain John Binks, retired master of the RMS Olympic, with a crew of 125 officers and men who had been hired to deliver the ship to the breakers. To quote author Melvin Maddocks, Binks was not the luckiest of men now he had a ship to match him...it was no easier steering the old monster to her slaughter than it was to steer her any where else.[18] Leviathan arrived at Rosyth, Scotland, on 14 February. In the 13 years that she served United States Lines she carried more than a quarter-million passengers, never making a profit. Due to the size of the vessel and the outbreak of the Second World War, final demolition took place only in 1946.[7]

  • SS Vaterland, USS Leviathan, SS Leviathan

  • SS Vaterland, photographed ca. 1914-1915

  • Swimming pool aboard the Vaterland

  • USS Leviathan escorted by USS Allen, both in dazzle camouflage, painted by Burnell Poole, 1918

  • USS Imperator (at left) and USS Leviathan (at right) at Hoboken, New Jersey, circa 1919

  • SS ''Leviathan'', painted in 1925

References[]

  1. ^ Painter, Jacqueline Burgin (1992). The German Invasion of Western North Carolina: A Pictorial History. The Overmountain Press. ISBN 1570720746.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c Naval History And Heritage Command (29 July 2015). "Leviathan (SP-1326)". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Naval History And Heritage Command. Retrieved 16 March 2021.
  3. ^ USS 'Leviathan' History Committee (1919). History of the USS Leviathan. New York, NY: Brooklyn Eagle Press. p. 50. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
  4. ^ Huston, James A. (1966). The Sinews of War: Army Logistics 1775–1953. Army Historical Series. Washington, DC: Center Of Military History, United States Army. pp. 346–347. ISBN 978-0-16089-914-0. LCCN 66060015. Retrieved 23 October 2014.
  5. ^ Sorick, Meg. "Research Notes – The Great War (9) Plague Ship Leviathan". Megsorick.com. Retrieved 30 September 2018.
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Braynard, Frank (2002). "The Big Ship". In Braynard, Frank; Westover, Robert Hudson (eds.). S.S. United States: The Fastest Ship in the World (50th Anniversary Maiden Voyage Edition). Paducah, Kentucky: Turner Publishing Company. p. 24. ISBN 978-1-56311-824-1. Retrieved 9 October 2011.
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f "Vaterland/Leviathan". The Great Ocean Liners. Archived from the original on 2 June 2017. Retrieved 9 October 2011.
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b "The SS Leviathan". Gjenvick-Gjønvik Archives. Retrieved 9 October 2011.
  9. ^ "Cast Of!". TIME. 16 July 1923. Retrieved 22 November 2018.
  10. ^ "Storm". TIME. 15 December 1924. Retrieved 22 November 2018.
  11. ^ The Hartford Daily Courant, Hartford, Conn. December 11, 1924 and December 21, 1924.
  12. ^ Herald and News, Randolph, Vt. July 30, 1925.
  13. ^ Pottsville Evening Republic, Pottsville, Penn. August 18, 1926.
  14. ^ Maxtone-Graham, John (1997). The Only Way to Cross. New York City: Barnes & Noble. ISBN 978-0-76070-637-4.
  15. ^ "Wet Leviathan". TIME. 22 April 1929. Archived from the original on 27 October 2010. Retrieved 9 October 2011.
  16. ^ "Monster out of morgue". TIME. 21 May 1934. Archived from the original on 25 November 2010. Retrieved 9 October 2011.
  17. ^ "Monster back to morgue". TIME. 24 September 1934. Archived from the original on 4 November 2007. Retrieved 9 October 2011.
  18. ^ Maddocks, Melvin (1978). The Great Liners (The Seafarers). Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books. ISBN 978-0-80942-664-5.

Further reading[]

  • Holt, Brent I. (2009). SS Leviathan: America's First Superliner. Classic Liners series. Stroud, Gloucestershire: The History Press. ISBN 9780752447636.

External links[]

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