Show f. f Padding the Figures I R SIGHT RIGHT IGHT at th the time when Better Business Bureaus are being organized in m many ny with the object object- of putting a stop to and misleading advertising g the I News News' Bureau Buea calls attention to th the I act that there must be n need ed for their 1 ies tes when Uncle Sam himself in the wide- wide pre pread d publicity publicity- of his shipping board exhibits total disregard of the truth in adver advertising ising he Leviathan as the biggest ship in the world c The TI facts are are these A few years before he he- war the Hamburg-American Hamburg line d deter deter- ter- ter rained to bring out three three ships ships in successive sears ears all to b be bigger than any ships afloat nd each to be a little larger than its The f first of the three the I Imperator now w the entered the service in The now the Leviathan little larger came out in 1914 while the hird and largest the Bismarck now the scheduled to come out in f as not fully completed when the wa war wat began ian At the end of the the- war the Imperator and anti andle ie le Bismarck came into the hands lf bf f tIle the commission and were sold to tone to the ne and White lines and renamed respect- respect r ely fely y and nd Majestic Th The Vader- Vader md ind which was ii in New York at the outbreak ak f the war var was vs seized by the United States when we entered the war wan an and ani fter her damaged engines were repair repaired repaired- d' d was c christened the Leviathan and and used as a an n o The M Majestic jestic is feet long which is 9 9 9 feet longer th than n the the- Leviathan whose who's is 6 feet The Leviathan is 1003 et wide which is is' is 24 inches wider than i lC Majestic Both are identical in depth i 32 2 feet Computing the gross tonnage of let lC- two under exactly the same same rule for foyd's registry the he Majestic is 2269 t tons ns er measuring tons against r for ris s f r the Leviathan But ut somebody connected with the the ship- ship ng ng board perhaps some advertising agent m d the i idea id that the tonnage of the t I could be padded by by- beating the le les This was n not so v very rY difficult JL For For should be e understood that th jh gross 1 I F j 2 J I i I 7 1 i 4 7 7 a of or of a sh ship h s to 1 80 do with fhe weight of the ship or of her cargo It is simply the cubic contents of the ship expressed in so so- called rolled tons of tOO cubic feet Thus a ship of gross tons ions is a a. ship whose total cubic capacity is cubic feet A modern modera passenger liner is is a complicated affair affair af af- af- af fair so the question at once arises what shall shan be included when measuring the cubic c contents contents con con- tents Both Bolli the tile Majestic and nd the tile Leviathan have double bottoms It is not the practise to include in include in- in clude dude th the space between bottoms in computing gross tonnage But large oil fuel tanks have b been en placed in this space In the Leviathan and her heV cubic area added added- to her gross tonnage Both ships have ilave in glassed-in promenade decks Their cubic area has been added to the Leviathans Leviathan's tonnage but hut not in inthe in th the Maje Majetic's tics tic's Then the cubic area of the various air spaces is counted on the Majestic and has been incorporated in the tonnage of the Leviathan so that she i is now officially certified to have a gross tonnage of tons Of course cou se i if IQ the owners of the Ma Majestic jestic cared to resort to the same petty tricks her tonnage on the same basis vo would ld be raised to tons No privately owned ship under any ny flag can indulge in such nonsense for gross tonnage has a direct r relation tion to taxation tax tax- so something ething with which government nt 1 owned ship is not concerned 1 f |