LEVIATHAN TO GO

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21982, 17 June 1933, Page 14

LEVIATHAN TO GO

AMERICAN LINER’S LOSSES BLOW AT SUBSIDY SYSTEM. The Leviathan, the largest American liner, is to be withdrawn permanently from the Transatlantic service. This great ship, formerly the German Vaterland—seized during the war has been steadily losing money for some time past, becduse, it is said, of the combination of continued high operating expenses and a decline in Transatlantic travel. Even the heavy mail-carrying subsidy from the Government has failed to bridge the gap between costs and receipts and the vessel will be returned to the United States Shipping Board by its present owners, the United States Lines. Her final disposition is not known. _ The withdrawal from service of the largest vessel sailing under the United States flag is tantamount (says the Loudon Daily Telegraph) to an admission that the policy under which American shipping has been operated since the war is a failure. It is another and very large nail in tha coffin of the subsidy system, the ultimate collapse of which is believed to be inevitable. Built in 1914 as Germany s largest liner, the .Vaterland—as she was then called—was caught by the war at New York, and there she lay idle until America became a combatant in April, 1917, when she was seized. , T ■ . After the war the renamed Leviathan was reconditioned as a luxury liner, at fabulous cost, and in order to make nm on paper “ the largest ship m the world, certain open spaces were decked over, bringing her gross tonnage up to , as against the Majesties 56,621 tons. Actually, however, the British ship has always been the larger of the pair, her displacement —the true test of size—being 64.000 tons to the Leviathan s W.IUU. From the first the American giant failed to pay her way, handicapped as she was, in common with all Amcriean-flag ships, by operating charges, including labour, which arc abnormally high compared with foreign standards. Moreover, her speed of 23 knots was too low to attract the many passengers who prefer fast ocean travel. As the ship is 19 years old, she is long past her prime, and no doubt she will soon be broken up.