THE PROPELLING MACHINERY OF THE U. S. S. LEVIy\THAN. 239 



perts of the Navy Dqiartmcut had sent her on a trial trip to Cuba and had returned her 

 — in the iiands of a green crew — at a speed of 33^ knots an hour. And this without 

 great pressure upon her engines. 



(From "The Sun." Wednesday, May 2j, 1914.) 

 GIANT VATERLAND, IN SAILING, SINKS BARGE. 



Finds Hudson Too Small in Pulling Out in First Return Voyage — Almost Backs 

 INTO Pier — Upheaval Started by Mighty Propellers — Tears Steamships from 

 Lashings. 



The pilot of the Hamburg-American colossus Vaterland probably did not meditate on 

 the relation of the length of the ship to the width of the Hudson between the Hamburg- 

 American pier at Hoboken and the piers of the Southern-Pacific Fleet on the Manhattan side 

 of the stream, at the foot of West 11th Street, when, he took her out in the fairway yesterday 

 and finally headed her on her first trip to Hamburg. 



H e might have reflected that less than 6 lengths of Vaterland stretched across the Hud- 

 son at that point would have enabled folks to walk the distance dry shod. Also, he might 

 have considered the ponderous displacement of the mighty vessel and the difficulty in check- 

 ing her momentum under stemway. 



Whatever his sentiments may be on the subject, he and Commodore Ruser are the only 

 persons perhaps who knew exactly why the mammoth ship almost backed into Manhattan 

 Island after getting away from her pier yesterday morning, and created a river upheaval in 

 the slips of the Southern Pacific Fleet that was likened to a tidal wave by rivermen who hap- 

 pened to see it. This tore the tankship Topila and the freighter El Valle from the lashings 

 and sunk a coal barge. 



within four feet of pier. 



The German ensign floating over the taffrail was within 4 feet of the pier end when the 

 ship began to make headway. It was the narrowest shave that ever Commodore Ruser 

 came to a real accident in all his lucky career. It took only a few minutes for the swiftly 

 backing Vaterland to make Manhattan from Hoboken. The churning of her propellers in 

 going astern sunk in a mist on the usually quiet Hudson, and naturally the vessels in the slips 

 were drawn out to the vortex. Hawsers snapped on a half dozen craft. It looked for a 

 moment as if all would be dragged into the stream. Just then the talent on the liner 

 discovered the proximity of Manhattan and propellers whirled with much more force the 

 ether way and a powerful freshet-like current was shot towards the Manhattan shore. The 

 big and little ships that had been sucked out into the channel were sent back on the crest of 

 the combers created by the sudden and swift reversal of the ship's ponderous screws. The 

 force of the wave crest was so great that they leaped over pierheads and spurted in front of 

 bulkheads like breakers on a rocky New England coast. The man who most appreciated the 

 power of the propellers of the greatest liner in the world was the skipper of the coal barge 

 Ulster, of the Dexter & Carpenter Coal Company, which was hurled against the pier and 

 sent to the bottom. He jumped overboard and swam about in the combers until a line was 

 cast to him and he was hauled to safety. A Pennsylvania lighter and the Southern-Pacific 

 finer Oakland were damaged and the piers and bulkheads were torn and dented. The dam- 

 age which will be paid by the Hamburg-American Line may exceed $10,000. 



