The Deck Force
F. C. W.
When the Leviathan was taken over by the Navy, the chief difficulty that presented itself was the scarcity of men available for the deck force. Only a few of the crew that had been assigned to the ship had ever been to sea. A few—gun crews, for the most part—had had some experience, but not enough to qualify them as seamen. This was partly due to their short terms of service.
As a result, the brunt of the work fell upon the shoulders of a few experienced petty officers, who fortunately had been assigned to the ship. These men worked day and night in a supreme effort to organize their crews and create a working machine. For the first few days they did everything from scrubbing the decks to exploring the double bottoms. There was no distinction between the rated men and the seamen in this line of work.
The size of the ship added to the confusion. It was impossible to keep a detail together for more than a minute and a half. It was easy for an entire working party to get lost between decks. It was easier for some to get lost than others. Finally, it was decided that the only way to keep a working party together was to hang a bell around the neck of the petty officer in charge. This scheme worked well until two working parties met, when it was necessary to call in a traffic cop to get them separated.
Because of their unfamiliarity with the ship, details were apt to deliver sacks of “spuds” to the Commander’s cabin, and stationery to the blacksmith shop. This situation was relieved by the appointment of guides to conduct the working parties around.
The parts of the ship allotted to the deck division (at that time we could only boast of one), were in rather good shape, considering the time the ship had been laid up. The weather decks were littered up like an old woman’s backyard after a hard day’s washing, but most of the truck was movable. Boats were piled across the hatches and all over the decks, making it impossible to get around. Boxes, stores and cordage were everywhere.
The process of making the ship habitable was accomplished by a mere handful of men, most of the division being assigned to various details for work in other compartments.
After the work of cleaning up had been completed, attention was turned to the rigging. The running rigging was in bad shape and it was found necessary to refit all of the davits that were rigged with manila rope. The booms were also refitted with new whips and guys. Requisitions for wire and manila lines were made right and left and all of the rigging was overhauled.
Of the 72 boats on board, 26 were equipped with friction winches and needed no power for rigging out and loading. The power for hoisting was furnished by electric motors, each one operating two or more winches. These winches were given a thorough overhauling and found to be in excellent condition. The boat falls, which were of special laid wire, were then unrove and tested. Only two of the entire number needed attention. At that time we had no serviceable wire, and it was a case of a few well-made long splices.
The ground tackle on the ship was all that could be desired. Of the three Hall type anchors, the largest, or stem anchor, weighed a little more than twelve tons. The other two, port and starboard, tipped the scales at eleven tons. These little trinkets were the only articles on board considered safe from souvenir hunters. For the information of landsmen, the “anchor watch” has no connection with the anchor itself, but is merely the men on watch as Officer of the Deck’s night messengers while the ship is at anchor.
The stem anchor was fitted with a 4-inch stud link chain, 150 fathoms in length. The port and starboard anchors had chains of 164 and 150 fathoms, respectively. The chains for the latter were three and three-eighths inches in diameter, the size of a chain being measured by the diameter of the material of which the links are formed.
The anchor engines were of corresponding size, and could be connected with the capstans on deck. In addition to them, there were seven more engines for capstans in all parts of the ship. In consequence, mooring the ship to a dock was not the hard task that it usually is.
The stern anchor and chain had apparently been left in Hamburg. The hawse pipe aft, and the stern chain locker were utilized for the handling and stowage of the heavy manila hawsers.
Most of the manila hawsers on board had to be replaced. Natural decay or possibly a small application of acid had so weakened the lines that they had a tendency to break at the most inopportune moments. The wire hawsers, however, were in A-1 condition, and up until the present time, have never been replaced.
But the work of fitting out was not all that had to be done. Men must be fed; and it seemed, from the accumulation of provisions on the dock, that we were being depended upon for the entire job of feeding the A. E. F. Truckload after truckload of stores was piled on the dock, and hoisted aboard, day after day. We soon learned that one trip with 10,000 red blooded men aboard involved the consumption of almost everything we had been piling into the ship’s storerooms and refrigerators. Besides food, there were general stores to be handled, including everything from safety pins to dishwashing machines. Every department was working overtime to get things ship-shape, and the deck force most of all.
At last it was rumored that we were about to make our maiden trip under the American flag. This was followed by a speeding up in all departments. It received final substantiation when military equipment and stores began to arrive. The time had come for a real test.
We had a chance to test our booms when a five-ton truck showed up as a part of the equipment to be loaded. The booms were of three-ton capacity and it was necessary to strengthen the lifts and rig a purchase in lieu of the single whip. It was taken aboard without mishap.
Just before leaving all boat-falls were given a final test. Every boat was rigged out and lowered to within a few feet of the water. A party of sixty-five men then clambered in and the boat was hoisted and lowered ten feet or more. This party was used for all of the boats, which were found to be in satisfactory condition. A few boats not on davits were hoisted overboard and tested for watertightness.
One morning in the fall of 1917 we slipped away. There were many conjectures as to our destination, one opinion being that we were bound for Panama for a last overhauling in dry dock. It developed that we were taking 1,500 marines to Guantanamo.
Upon our arrival in Cuba, we discharged all equipment and turned our attention to the boats once more. The boat officers were given their first lesson in the handling of the boat winches, and some of the men were given their first experience in a boat under oars.
Back again to Hoboken—more handling of stores and provisions. The Marines, although few in number, had managed to put quite a hole in our store of provisions. But the worst was yet to come. Orders sending the ship to France came, and with them 7,500 soldiers.
We had one piece of luck in getting off. While the crews of other transports had been compelled to sit and watch civilian stevedores put their stores aboard, the crew of the Leviathan were allowed to handle everything going aboard the ship themselves. There were no restrictions whatever, permission even being given to work night and day at the job. All of the equipment handled by the civilian stevedores belonging to the army. The crew handled all of the naval equipment aboard, including Liberty motors, aeroplanes and S. P. boats.
Liverpool had the honor of receiving us on our first and second voyages. Here we went into dry dock for final repairs, and here we had our first experience coaling ship in drydock. Coaling was carried on from cars running along the dock and also from small lighters or flats in the dock itself. The lighters were emptied and taken away only at certain stages of the tide. There was always a chance of the ship floating during one of these manœuvers, and the work of bringing loaded lighters into the dock and sending the emptied ones out required quick action and plenty of it. The notorious punctuality of time and tide is especially noticeable in the Liverpool drydock, and we worked at all hours of the day and night to keep in step.
The bottom of the ship was given a new coat of paint, and we left for Hoboken and more troops. On our second voyage to Liverpool our paravanes were installed, adding a little to the work, but contributing a good deal to our sense of security. Once more, for the benefit of the landsman: The paravanes, or PVs, are contrivances fitted to the bow of the ship, as a protection against mines, so constructed that they will automatically pick up the moorings of a mine and cut it adrift.
Beginning with our third trip, we worked on an express train schedule. Everything depended upon speed. Our cargoes increased at the same time. In addition to all kinds of army equipment, we frequently carried aeroplanes, boats for overseas duty, and on one trip a large mooring buoy. In order to load them on board, additional changes had to be made in the rigging, purchases and guys of the booms. Even the weather decks were utilized for the transportation of cargo for the naval forces overseas.
At the present writing the good old ship is still on the job—bringing them back. The machine is running as smoothly as the ship’s engines, and instead of having a few inexperienced men in the deck force, we have an organization, built from almost nothing, that can compete with anything in the navy.