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USS Leviathan in her dazzle camouflage, 1918.
Did you know that the largest and heaviest warship of World War I was in fact a giant ocean liner?
My suggestion today is about the USS Leviathan (ID-1326), a liner-turned-troopship that while served the US Navy for just two years, has left the mark as largest ship in American service until the advent of supercarriers.
History:
Spoiler
The SS Vaterland in 1914, just before the start of the Great War.
Originally laid down for the Hamburg America Line as the SS Vaterland in 1913. The Vaterland and her sister ship Imperator were interned at the United States on the outbreak of World War I. When the United States joined the war in 1917, Vaterland was seized and commissioned as the USS Leviathan (ID-1326) in July 1917 as a troopship.
Since her class held the record of the largest ship in the world at that time, the militarization made the Leviathan the largest and heaviest warship in the world. A record that is not broken until the commission of the Yamato in 1936 (in raw displacement, she is still 3,000 tons heavier at her full displacement") and the USS Enterprise (CVN-65) (in size) in 1961. In fact, she was personally renamed “Leviathan” by President Woodrow Wilson himself in reference to her gargantuan size.
*USS Leviathan escorted by USS Downes (DD-45), 1918.
The Leviathan (right) next to her sister ship Imperator. Note the badge on the bow of Imperator and overall color due to she have not under went militarization like her sister ship.
Unlike the other interned German ocean liners that would be later pressed into service, Leviathan does not suffer any sabotage from her German crews, therefore a plan was made to convert her into a troopship. She was then armed with eight 6-inch/50-calibre Mk. VIII (152 mm) naval guns as her armament, while two Colt machine guns were added for clearing out naval mines. She would later received two “Pom-Pom” autocannons, two depth charge launches, and one Lewis machine gun to fend off submarines.
Troops on board the Leviathan.
The Leviathan’s military service is somewhat uneventful, as she was used to ferry American troops across the Atlantic. The ship’s huge size allows her to carry up to 12,000 troops on board. As the ship is relatively fast, she often sail unescorted along with other smaller but just as fast liner-turned-troopship USS Great Northern and USS Northern Pacific. Though typically she would not sail at her top speed of 26 knots (48 km/h), as in doing so she would burn between 900 - 1,000 tons of coal per day.
In total, the Leviathan transported over 119,000 American troops across the Atlantic at the end of the war, about 10% of the number of American Expeditionary forces. She would later be used to ferry American troops back to the United States in 1919.
After the war, the Leviathan was decommissioned and sold to the United States Lines on October 1919. After which the Leviathan would go on to service until 1934, when she was later sold for scrap in 1938. But due to a combination of her size and the outbreak of World War II, she was not completely broken down until 1946.
Specifications (1918):
Spoiler
General Information:
Displacement: 63,000 tons empty, 75,661 tons full loadLength: 290 meters
Beam: 30.58 meters
Draft: 11.51 meters
Depth 7.19 meters
Top speed: 26 knots (48 km/h)
Powerplant: 46 x Yarrow boilers driving four propeller shafts
Crew: 2,348
Armaments:
Main armament: 8 × 6-inch/50 Mk. VIII guns in single mounts, four on the bow, four on the sternMain armament ammunition capacity: 1,280 rounds
Rate of fire: 6 rounds per minute
Secondary armament: 2 x 37mm Pom-Pom autocannons on the third bridge midship. 2 x Colt machine guns, 1 x Lewis machine gun.
Other armament: 2 x Y-Type depth charge guns
Photos:
Sources:
Spoiler
USS ‘Leviathan’ History Committee (1919). History of the USS Leviathan. New York, NY: Brooklyn Eagle Press.
Holt, Brent I. (2009). SS Leviathan: America’s First Superliner . Classic Liners series. Stroud, Gloucestershire: The History Press. ISBN 9780752447636.
Leviathan (SP-1326)
Vaterland (Schiff, 1914) – Wikipedia
SS Vaterland (1913) - Wikipedia
The Project Gutenberg eBook of History of the U.S.S. Leviathan, by Various.
Leviathan (ID 1326)
TGOL - Vaterland/Leviathan
