SS Leviathan
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| Image:SS Leviathan 1913.jpg The SS Leviathan steaming out of New York Harbor. | |
| Flags: | Image:Germany-Jack-1903.svg Germany 1913-1917 Image:US Naval Jack.svg United States 1917-1938 |
| Launched: | 13 April 1913 |
| US Navy Commission: | July 1917 |
| US Navy Decommission: | 29 October 1919 |
| Fate: | Broken up, 6 June 1938 |
| Tonnage: | 54,282 gross tons |
| Length: | 950 ft |
| Beam: | 100 ft 4 in |
| Draft: | 37 ft 9 in |
| Speed: | 26 knots |
| Passengers: | 1,165 as originally configured; 14,000 as a troop transport |
| Armament: | (World War I only) 8 × 6 in, 2 × 1-pounder, 2 × machine gun |
| Image:USS Leviathan SP-1326.jpg The USS Leviathan in a dazzle camouflage pattern. | |
- Note: "SS Leviathan" was also an early name for the 19th century ship launched as the SS Great Eastern.
Contents |
[edit] Early Civilian Service
SS Vaterland, a 54,282 gross ton passenger liner, was built by Blohm und 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 13 April 1913 and was the largest passenger ship in the world upon its completion, superseding SS Imperator and later being superseded by the last ship of this class, SS Bismarck, the later RMS Majestic.
Vaterland had made only a few trips when, in late July 1914, she arrived at New York, NY just as World War I broke out. With a safe return to Germany rendered virtually impossible by British dominance of the seas, she was laid up at her Hoboken, NJ, terminal and remained immobile for nearly three years.
[edit] World War I
She was seized by the United States Shipping Board when the United States entered World War I, 6 April 1917; turned over to the custody of the U.S. Navy in June 1917; and commissioned July 1917 as the USS Vaterland, Captain J. W. Oman in command. Redesignated SP-1326 and renamed Leviathan by President Woodrow Wilson on 6 September 1917, the former liner completed a trial cruise to Cuba in November 1917 and then reported for duty with the Cruiser and Transport Force. In December she took troops to Liverpool, England, but repairs delayed her return to the U.S. until mid-February 1918. A second trip to Liverpool in March was followed by more repairs. 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 U.S. and Brest, France, delivering up to 14,000 persons on each trip, carrying over 119,000 fighting men, before the armistice 11 November 1918. 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 ending 8 September 1919. On 29 October 1919, USS Leviathan was decommissioned and turned over to the U.S. Shipping Board and again laid up at Hoboken until plans for her future employment could be determined.
[edit] Later Civilian Service
These finally materialized and, in April 1922 the ship steamed to Newport News, VA, where she was completely renovated to suit American tastes and post-World War I standards. Her reconditioning completed in June 1923, the Board turned her over to the United States Lines to operate on their behalf as the U.S. Flag ocean liner Leviathan.
As SS Leviathan, she was the "queen" of the United States' merchant fleet, and operated in the trans-Atlantic trade into the early 1930s. Dubbed "Levi Nathan", the ship was very popular and in 1927 was the #1 ship on the Atlantic in terms of average passengers carried per crossing. The Great Depression hit passenger shipping hard and the Leviathan, like other big liners of the time, began to lose money. She was laid up in 1933 and, with the exception of several months of additional service in 1934, was inactive until 10 December 1937, when she was sold to a British firm and made her final Atlantic crossing to Rosyth, Scotland shortly thereafter, where she was broken up on over the next two years.
[edit] Trivia
- When completed in the spring of 1914 she surpassed her slightly older near-sister, SS Imperator, as the world's largest ship. Vaterland held this honor until 1922, when the last of the three big near-sister German liners, the 56,551 gross ton Bismarck, was delivered after a long delay and almost immediately became the British liner Majestic.
- No U.S. flag commercial ship approached her size until 1952, when the SS United States was completed.
- As the USS Leviathan (in troopship service 1917-19) she held the record as the heaviest ship operated by the U. S. Navy until after World War II, when new classes of large aircraft carriers were commissioned.
- The SS Leviathan Orchestra recorded some gramophone records in the early 1920s, and helped inspire the name for a later band, The New Leviathan Oriental Fox-Trot Orchestra.
[edit] References
This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.
