Cover of History of the U.S.S. Leviathan, cruiser and transport forces, United States Atlantic fleet Compiled from the ship's log and data gathered by the history committee — Story, Setting & Ideas

History of the U.S.S. Leviathan, cruiser and transport forces, United States Atlantic fleet Compiled from the ship's log and data gathered by the history committee — Story, Setting & Ideas

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Authors: U.S.S. Leviathan History Committee Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2019 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Leviathan (Steamship); Vaterland (Steamship); World War, 1914-1918 -- Naval operations, American Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 66,613

Reading time 290 min

Text sections 9

For History of the U.S.S. Leviathan, cruiser and transport forces, United States Atlantic fleet Compiled from the ship's log and data gathered by the history committee — Story, Setting & Ideas, the stored edition analysis reports 66,613 words, 4 hr 50 min estimated reading time, and 9 detected text sections.

The text analysis averages about 12.9 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “Leviathan (Steamship),” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #59699

A committee-compiled history of the USS Leviathan during WWI, drawn from ship logs and crew data. The narrative shifts between official reports, commendations, and technical logs, revealing how the ship's voice changes from bureaucratic precision to operational urgency.

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File: pg59699

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stoms officials in the early morning of April 6, 1917, turned over to the Shipping Board to be manned and operated, but after nearly three months’ effort on their part without the ship leaving the dock, she was finally, on July 25, 1917, turned over to the Navy Department and regularly commissioned as a Naval vessel and assigned to transport duty under the command of Vice-Admiral Albert Gleaves, U. S. Navy, Commander of the Cruiser and Transport Force, United States Atlantic Fleet.

The _Leviathan’s_ record for carrying human beings across the ocean has never been approached by any other vessel in the history of the world. Back and forth she went across the Atlantic, almost with the regularity of clockwork, passing unscathed a score of times through the war zone, though the German submarines made several attempts in force to get her. Her performance constitutes one of the greatest marine achievements of the world and it would seem that fate had designed her to fulfil a mission of retributive justice.

The Germans said it could not be done, but true to their nature, they had not figured on the ingenuity, initiative and pluck of the American sailor. When the Armistice was signed this three-funnelled colossus of the waves had made ten trips across the Atlantic as a naval transport and had landed a grand total of 110,591 American soldiers in France and England. In other words, this single ship had transported to Europe one twentieth of the total number of the American Expeditionary Force.

This tremendous achievement did not depend alone upon the great size and speed of the ship; it was accomplished also by the splendid spirit of the officers and men of the _Leviathan_ and their unfailing devotion to duty. It was due to their pride in their ship and their personal loyalty to Vice-Admiral Gleaves, their Force Commander, that kept the _Leviathan_ constantly straining to do her best, and this spirit remained with the ship after the Armistice and nowhere is it better illustrated than in the records of the 15th and 16th trips, on which she returned to the United States a total of 28,412 troops, which amounted to 2,217 more than were carried on her two best previous voyages. These two trips were made in the fastest time she had ever made, less than 37 days elapsing for the two voyages.

Thus during the war, in rushing troops to France, and after the Armistice in the great task of bringing them home again, the _Leviathan_ proved herself of greatest value to the government and her great achievement will forever remain an undying credit to the United States Navy, and the men of the Navy who manned her.

DEDICATION TO SECRETARY DANIELS

_To our leader—honored in the nation; To our friend—steadfast and true; To our shipmate—of happy memory;_

_The Bluejackets offer this dedication in gratitude and appreciation._

PREFACE BY SECRETARY DANIELS

The record of the _U.S.S. Leviathan_, queen of the troop transport fleet which made possible the successful participation of the United States in the war with Germany, is a record of consistent service and remarkable efficiency which upholds the best and noblest traditions of the United States naval service. The nation owes and gladly gives a great meed of praise to every officer and man, regular and reserve alike, who shared in the hardships, the dangers and the successes of the _Leviathan’s_ great wartime service.

The potential strength of the 98,000 fighting men the _Leviathan_ carried to the shores of France can never be estimated. We know that when the night was blackest, when the fortunes of the world hung in the balance and the eyes of all nations were turned toward the western continent, that the great _Leviathan_ with her tremendous troop-carrying capacity was ready and that, trip after trip, without failures or accidents, the great transport plowed her way across the Atlantic, scornful alike of the submarine’s stilettos of the sea and the wrath of the elements, carrying to the shores of our nearly exhausted allies those inestimably precious cargoes of men who turned the tide and saved the day.

Although the _Leviathan_ did not participate in any great naval engagement, although the battle flags never flew proudly at her mast-heads as she swept into the tempest of a modern naval engagement, her achievement in carrying across the sea more than three divisions of American soldiers entitles the gallant ship’s name to a place forever in the hall of American naval fame.

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The History of the U.S.S. Leviathan opens with a poem, “Leviathan” by Adele M. Marshall, that personifies the ship as a “mighty monarch” and a “ship of state,” invoking divine protection for the troops it carries. This lyrical beginning contrasts sharply with the foreword’s matter-of-fact declaration that the book is “the story of the Leviathan’s part in the Great World’s War.” The committee’s compilation draws on the ship’s log and firsthand data, producing a text that oscillates between poetic tributes and dry administrative records.

From Lyric to Log: The Opening Voice

The book’s first voice is not that of a naval historian but a poet. Adele M. Marshall’s verses cast the Leviathan as a near-mythical figure, “Queen of the ocean’s vast domain,” while also acknowledging the human cost: “The prayers and sobs from broken hearts / Will follow as thy course is run.” This emotional register is immediately succeeded by the foreword’s clipped, official tone, which describes the ship’s seizure from German ownership and its commissioning “as a Naval vessel.” The juxtaposition is jarring: the reader moves from a plea for safe passage to a dry recitation of administrative dates. This shift in voice—from the elevated to the bureaucratic—establishes a pattern that recurs throughout the text, as the committee interleaves personal accounts, official memos, and statistical summaries.

The Language of Performance: Target Practice Reports

One of the most distinctive features of the History is its inclusion of detailed gunnery scores and commendations. The report of the first target practice, held November 27, 1917, notes “a choppy sea with a stiff wind blowing and an overcast sky,” conditions that made it “difficult to pick up the targets.” The language here is precise and observational, avoiding drama. The resulting score—78 shots fired, 63 hits, 75.42 percent—is presented without embellishment. Yet the memo from the Gunnery Officer that follows introduces a different tone: “The Gunnery Officer is highly pleased… Such accurate firing in action would almost surely put a submarine out of action in short order.” This is the voice of command, blending praise with operational confidence. Later practices show declining percentages (70.62 and 51.66), and the text attributes the drop to “unfavorable conditions as to weather and visibility” and a “high wind and a large swell.” The committee lets the numbers speak, but the shift from commendation to explanation marks a subtle change in narrative pace—from celebration to sober assessment.

Technical Challenges and the Pace of Preparation

The section on the electric plant reveals a different kind of narrative: the slow, frustrating work of making a seized German liner ready for war. The text notes that “there were absolutely no plans of circuits nor any descriptive matter of electrical apparatus,” forcing electricians to “trace out and locate circuits” from scratch. The language here is procedural, listing dates and personnel: “On August 13, 1917, the first Navy electrician reported for duty.” The pace is deliberate, mirroring the gradual takeover of the plant from civilian to Navy hands. This section contrasts with the brisk, event-driven accounts of submarine attacks (referenced only by date in Part II) and the terse target-practice scores. The committee’s decision to include such technical detail—and to let it unfold in a step-by-step chronology—gives the reader a sense of the ship’s transformation from a static vessel to a functioning warship, a process that required not just courage but methodical labor.

Readers should pay attention to how the committee handles transitions between different types of evidence: the poem, the log entries, the memos, and the technical reports. Each brings a distinct rhythm and vocabulary, and the book’s interest lies partly in how these voices coexist without editorial smoothing. The History is not a single narrative but a collage of documents, and its shifts in pace—from the slow crawl of electrical work to the sudden urgency of a submarine alarm—are worth noting as deliberate choices by the compilers.

That afternoon, rain drummed against the window while the Leviathan’s log grew taut with coded urgency, its machinery suddenly human. The same jolt of wartime tension surfaced later, almost by chance, in The Fighting Retreat To Paris — Inside the Classic, where the retreat’s chaos carries that identical breathless precision. I set one book down and simply picked up the other, as if both shared one quiet heartbeat.