238 THE PROPELLING MACHINERY OF THE U. S. S. LEVIATHAN. 



appear that one of the men had done this more in spite than for any real purpose. I think 

 he was probably starting to cut a channel way, but found it impossible to wield a hammer, 

 so he drove in the chisel and left it there. It was about 16 inches long. 



It should be noted that the rotor buckets oi the impulse wheel had unusual features. 

 The first two rows were entirely unsupported, i. e., they had no shroud and no support 

 other than that of the root fixing. The third row had a wire strung through each blade 

 about half an inch down from the tip, and the blades were soldered to the wire. In addition, 

 the blade tips were thinned similar to Parsons practice for reaction, blades. The guide blades 

 in the casing were also unsupported. (See Fig. 11, Plate 99.) 



Mr. Emmet : — Were any of the impulse wheel buckets broken off, or had any fallen 

 out of the rotor wheel? 



Mr. Anderson : — Absolutely none were broken out. There was no sign of a broken- 

 off bucket, and the root fixing was a splendid job. The discharge edge of the nozzles were 

 pretty well choked up and mashed, and many of the buckets in the wheel were twisted and 

 bent badly. 



When we first of all tested the starboard high-pressure astern turbine under steam, we 

 foimd that the throttle valve would not close after being opened, and luckily we escaped 

 having a serious accident with this turbine, because the chief engineer, Mr. Woodward, U. 

 S. N., immediately shut off the bye-pass valve, and this forced the piston down and shut 

 the steam off. On opening up the valve it was found that the body of the cast-iron valve 

 had been broken right round the part where it joins the valve stem, and whilst this permitted 

 the valve to open, it would not close. (See Fig. 14, Plate 102.) It is quite possible that 

 this valve was broken whilst the ship was in service, because on the first trip out of New 

 York Harbor the ship was driven right across the North River and almost crashed into the 

 piers in Manliattan. 



With reference to Mr. Piatt's remarks, I have copied a short article which was pub- 

 lished in the New York Herald of February 3, 1919, and again on referring to my remarks 

 regarding the accident to the ship when backing out of the dock in Hoboken, on starting 

 the return trip of her first voyage, I have copied an article from the New York Sun of 

 May 37, 1914, which articles are as follows : 



(From the "New York Herald" February j, ipip-) 

 U. S. WORKED MIRACLE WITH VATERLAND 



The government officer who convoyed the chief engineer of the old Vaterland to his 

 first internment on Ellis Island asked him what he had done to try and ruin her engines, 

 according to an article in the Red Cross Magazine. He in return was equally frank, even 

 though he laughed in his captor's face. 



"Ruin her?" he roared. "Mein Gott, she was ruined before she finished her first trip 

 across the Atlantic. There never has been a time since she first touched the water when 

 she hasn't been ruined. I will take off my hat to any American engineer who will ever get 

 her across the ocean again." 



He spoke the truth. The Vaterland, as her German builders had turned her out, was 

 a dismal failure. Yet less than three months after they first stepped aboard, the ship ex- 



