A 'Growing Leviathan

It was announced by Chairman Albert D. Lasker of the Shipping Board that the Leviathan (formerly Vaterland) will leave New York for Southampton and Cherbourg on July 4. Not only will she make her first trip since receiving the $10,000,000 alterations which have equipped her for passenger service; she will go forth now as the largest vessel ever afloat. Hitherto the Majestic, a British ship (formerly the Bismarck) was the largest vessel, with a registered tonnage of 56,551 and a length of 915.5 feet. The Shipping Board announces, however, that on account of alterations on the Leviathan--chiefly because of changing her from a coal burner to an oil burner--her tonnage is now 59,956, an increase of 5,674 tons over her previous rating. The Shipping Board also adds that the Leviathan is 950.7 feet long--which would mean that somehow she had grown 43 feet longer than her former length of 907.6 feet. The Leviathan will soon leave Newport News, where she is being reconditioned and go to Boston for dry-docking and taking aboard tons of steward's supplies, bedding, dishes, furniture, etc. There will follow in June a trial trip to Guantanamo to test her new oil engines and train her personnel of 1,500 men.