GIANT LINER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 69, 22 March 1934, Page 26

GIANT LINER.

LEVIATHAN'S PLIGHT. LAID UP AT NEW YORK. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SAN" FRANCISCO, February 23. Discussion of possible subsidies to revive American shipping found the giant Leviathan, whose annual jnail revenues once approximated 700,000 dollars, abandoned at a Hoboken pier in New York harbour. The pride of the Hamburg-American Line, confiscated by the United States during the World War and later sold to the United States lines, was retired from service in May, 1933. Its name was changed from Vatcrland to Leviathan when the vessel was seized. The Leviathan was withdrawn from the north Atlantic because the tremendous cost of each voyage was not balanced by revenue,

At its pier the Leviathan is guarded by a skeleton crew of less than twenty. On each of the sixteen ocean trips a year during the prosperous days the Leviathan was estimated to.have carried 9300 sacks of mail. The revenue from, each voyage approximated £8720, and totalled £139,400 a year.

It was estimated that the Vaterland cost the German owners £4,000,000 or more to build. When it was taken over by the United States and used to transport troops to France an additional £2,000,000 was used to condition it.

The New York "Evening Post" in a series of articles which have been appearing daily, has characterised the withdrawal of the Leviathan and other American ships from merchant service as a plot to wreck the American Merchant Marine.

The owners of the Leviathan have retorted that the great vessel has not been abandoned, but may return to service when required.