SS Vaterland (1913)

German ocean liner Vaterland, seen in 1914.
History
German Empire
Name	Vaterland
Owner	HAPAG
Operator	Hamburg America Line
Port of registry	Hamburg
Route	Hamburg – New York
Builder	Blohm+Voss, Hamburg
Yard number	212
Laid down	13 April 1911
Launched	3 April 1913
Completed	29 April 1914
Maiden voyage	14 May 1914
In service	14 May 1914 – July 1914
Out of service	July 1914 to 6 April 1917
Identification	Code letters RVFJ[1] Call sign DVD[2]
Fate	Seized by the United States
United States
Owner	United States Shipping Board (1917—1929)
Acquired	Seized: 6 April 1917 Navy custody: June 1917
Commissioned	July 1917
Decommissioned	29 October 1919
Fate	Sold into civilian service
Notes	Commissioned as a troopship in World War I
United States
Name	Leviathan
Owner	United States Shipping Board (1917—1929) United States Lines (1929—1938)[note 1]
Port of registry	New York
Acquired	29 October 1919
Maiden voyage	4 July 1923
In service	June 1923 to 1933, some service in 1934
Out of service	1933 to 1937
Identification	US official number 215446[3] code letters LHQD (until 1933)[3] call sign WSBN (by 1934[4]
Fate	Sold for scrap in 1938, broken up after 1946 at Rosyth
General characteristics
Class and type	Imperator-class ocean liner
Tonnage	59,956 GRT, 27,696 NRT (1925)[3] 48,942 GRT, 15,796 NRT (1934)[4]
Length	950 ft (290 m) 906.9 ft (276.4 m) (Registry)[3]
Beam	100 ft 4 in (30.58 m)
Draft	37 ft 9 in (11.51 m)
Depth	23 ft 7 in (7.19 m)[3]
Decks	6
Speed	26 knots (48 km/h; 30 mph)[6]
Capacity	1st class: 752 2nd class: 535 3rd class: 850 4th class(intermediate): 1,772 Total: 3,909
Crew	1,234[5]
Armament	World War I Navy service: 8 × 6-inch guns 2 × 1-pounder gun 2 × machine gun

SS Vaterland was an ocean liner launched on 3 April 1913 and began service in 1914 for Germany's Hamburg America Line. The ship, second of three running mates and then the largest passenger ship in the world, made her first voyage to New York arriving on 21 May 1914 under the command of a Commodore and four Captains of the German Naval Reserve to celebrations featuring German and American officials at the line's Hoboken facilities.

The ship was designed to carry 4,050 passengers with most in third or fourth class. Those among the 700 first class and 600 second class passengers traveled in considerable luxury. The main public rooms took advantage of an unusual arrangement of the routing from boiler to stack along the sides rather than center to feature long and unbroken access from a replica of the New York Ritz-Carlton Restaurant main dining room forward to the lounge and ball room aft. Vaterland served on the route for less than a year before being laid up at the line's piers in the neutral United States due to the start of World War I and risk of seizure by the Allies at sea.

With U.S. entry into the war in 1917 Vaterland and the German line's Hoboken facility were seized by the US government. The ship was placed under the control of the United States Shipping Board and in July 1917 to the Navy for completion of repairs and conversion to a troop ship. In July 1917 the ship was commissioned as the USS Vaterland and on 6 September 1917 renamed USS Leviathan (ID-1326) and assigned to the Cruiser and Transport Force. The ship's first troop transport voyage departed New York on 17 December 1917 with 7,250 troops. At Liverpool, England, the ship spent fifty days in drydock, where her size was shown to be a problem, and troop capacity was expanded to 8,200. Further trips were destined for Brest, France and troop capacity was incrementally increased to 10,500 by summer of 1918 and with double bunking to 14,000. The ship's speed allowed transit without escort and often Leviathan and the fast ships Great Northern and Northern Pacific made the transit in company without escort. During the war the ship made ten round trips transporting more than 119,000 troops to Europe. That process was reversed after the war with the ship's last voyage with returning troops arriving on 8 September 1919. The ship was decommissioned and turned over to the Shipping Board on 29 October 1919, remaining laid up at Hoboken until April 1922.

At the end of the war there was a surplus of ships and a large number of Shipping Board sponsored companies. Leviathan was not only competing against that surplus but from lack of information such as blueprints from Germany, so that new ones had to be created by actual measurement of the ship. The ship was also caught up in controversies regarding the company originally agreeing to operate the ship. In April 1922, $8,000,000 in funding made it possible to move the ship to News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company, Newport News, Virginia, for a complete refurbishing and overhaul including all wiring and plumbing being replaced and conversion from coal to oil as fuel. Interior decorations, though much was kept, were modernized in a 1920s style. In June 1923 the ship was returned to the Shipping Board as the SS Leviathan with an increase in gross tonnage leading to advertisement as the largest and fastest liner, a claim that was challenged by both the British Cunard and the White Star lines. The United States Lines was contracted to operate the ship for a minimum of five Atlantic voyages per year. Though popular in the U.S. market, high cost and inability to sell alcohol during Prohibition, in which all U.S. registered ships were "dry", made it so that many sought foreign shipping. Even with the ship eventually being allowed to serve "medicinal" alcohol when outside U.S. waters the Great Depression drove the line to demand either subsidies or that the Shipping Board take the ship back. In June 1933 Leviathan was laid up at Hoboken. The Shipping Board required the ship to go into operation but losses were high. The 1936 high season for the Atlantic saw a loss of $143,000 on the first trip and by the required fifth voyage the ship was at half capacity. The line paid the Shipping Board $500,000 to retire the ship with a continued requirement to keep it in running condition. In the entire operating period as a U.S. liner the ship never made a profit despite efforts by the United States Line to make her profitable including the installation of a sea plane ramp above her bridge.

British Metal Industries Ltd. bought Leviathan in 1937 with the ship arriving at Rosyth, Scotland, on 14 February 1938 for scrapping. The size of the vessel and start of World War II delayed final scrapping until 1946.

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