SENATOR TO GO ON TRIAL TRIP OF THE LEVIATHAN TO 'KEEP A CHECK'
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On June 13, 1923, Senator Duncan U. Fletcher* (D-Florida) said he will go "on the trial trip of the Leviathan** and make a report as ranking minority member of the Senate committee on commerce."
The Senator said the purpose of the trial trip is in regard to the "reconditioning of the vessel" and that the trip is to be financed by the contractors.
*Duncan Upshaw Fletcher (1859-1936) was born in Americus, Georgia & graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1880. DUF served as Mayor of Jacksonville, FL & in the FL House of Representatives before serving in the US Senate, 1909-1936. He was the longest serving Senator in Florida's history.
**USS Leviathan was originally the German warship Vaterland, captured & commissioned by the US Navy in July 1917. The ship carried troops to France in 1918.
She had 14 decks & 3 giant smoke stacks & in her day was the biggest ship in the world, also one of the fastest at 22 knots.
During the Spanish Flu epidemic many passengers contracted the disease including FDR. The ship was scrapped in 1938.
SOURCES
"Fletcher to Go On Leviathan to Keep a Check," The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., June 13, 1923, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov
"Ship of Death: The Tragic Tale of the USS Leviathan," by Catherine Arnold, The History Reader, www.thehistoryreader.com/
