THE LINER LEVIATHAN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22109, 15 May 1935, Page 13

THE LINER LEVIATHAN

TOO COSTLY TO RUN OWNERS DARE NOT SELL America will not part with the Leviathan, the 48,000-ton liner that has already lost her owners £8,000,000. Sho cannot be run,, it is stated by the Daily Express New York correspondent, except at fantastic loss. And shfi may not be sold because the only bid' ders would be Germany or Japan. If Germany bought the vessel—and German interests are ready to snap her up at bargain rates —they would recondition her to reinforce the Bremen and Euro pa in the shipping war against France's Normandie and Britain's Queen Mary. And that would not help United States shipping at all If Japan bought the Leviathan—and the Japanese have dropped hints that they desire her—they would use her as * a troop transport. And America's policy is peace. So the Leviathan will lie at her berth in Hoboken, across the Hudson River from New York. Ironically, she will be moored opposite the offices of the United States Lines —a perpetual reminder of their greatest and costliest mistake. The correspondent adds: —"A crew of caretakers will live aboard the vessel, maintaining her boilers, engines, pumps, water system, steam system in running order at a cost of thousands of pounds a year, so that she can be recommissioned at short notice if— America goes to war. For the only use the great hulk is to the United States is as a naval auxiliary."