that on her last trip to this country the vessel had not averaged twenty
knots. It may be that the German ship-builders had hurried too swiftly
in their strenuous efforts to produce a bigger, if not a better,
steamship than the British could turn out.

Forty-six of the _Vaterland's_ boilers showed evidence of poor handling.
They were not fitted with the proper sort of internal feed-pipes. All
these defects, defects original with the steamship, were repaired by the
Americans. In addition, evidences of minor attempts to disable the
_Vaterland_ were found, such, for instance, as holes bored in sections
of suction-pipes, the holes having been puttied and thus concealed.
Things of the sort afforded ample reason for a thorough overhaul of the
vast mass of machinery aboard the steamship. But eventually she was
ready for her test and her performance on a trial trip to southern
waters showed how skilful had been the remedial measures applied.

Aboard the _Leviathan_ as other big German liners, such as the
_Amerika_, _President Grant_, _President Lincoln_, (recently sunk by a
German torpedo while bound for this country from France), the _George
Washington_, and other vessels fitted as troop and hospital ships, and
the like, naval crews were placed, and naval officers, of course, in
command. They have proved their mettle, all. They have shown, further,
that when we get ready to take our place, after the war, among the
nations that go in heavily for things maritime, we shall not be among
the last, either in point of resourcefulness or intrepidity.

Civilian sailormen who have sailed on vessels commanded by naval
officers have been inclined to smile over the minutia of navy discipline
and have expressed doubt whether the naval men would find a certain
rigidity any more useful in a given situation than the civilian seamen