Bit Of Rope Ties Up Lusitania 8 Months.

New York Times 100 years ago today, February 25, 1913:
Jammed Telemotor and Caused Giant Liner to Twist Her Turbine Blades.
REPAIRS TO COST $500,000
With Loss of Business in the Months Needed to Make Repairs Cunard Company Will Be Out $1,000,000.
    It became known yesterday that a piece of marline, a small line of two strands twisted loosely left handed and used for binding the ends of ropes, which had dropped into the telemotor of the Lusitania's steering gear caused the trouble which will keep the Cunard liner Lusitania out of service for eight months and make it necessary to reblade three turbines at a cost of $500,000.
    The accident occurred as the liner was entering the Fishguard harbor on Monday afternoon, Dec. 30. The order was given to port the helm to avoid a steamer that was coming out. When the Quartermaster put the wheel over the steering gear failed to work. It was found that the telemotor had jammed. To avoid an accident the turbines were sent full speed astern without the usual precaution of stopping them first and then reversing them slowly.
    While the Lusitania was in Fishguard Harbor discharging her London and Continental passengers and mails the chief engineer examined the telemotor and discovered the piece of marline that had caused the trouble and removed it. On leaving Fishguard soon afterward for Liverpool it was found that the port low-pressure turbine would not move and the liner had to proceed to Liverpool under her three other turbines at reduced speed. On her arrival there the chief engineer, with James Bain, the consulting engineer of the Cunard Line, made an examination of the turbines and found that the blades of the port low-pressure turbine, which was installed in November, had all become twisted out of proper pitch and that some of the blades on the starboard low-pressure and high-pressure turbines had been damaged by the shock due to reversing them suddenly at the entrance to Fishguard Harbor.
    After a consultation it was decided to lay the Lusitania up for six weeks and make a thorough examination of the turbines. Some idea of the magnitude of the task can be gathered from the fact that it took two weeks to lift their casings. When the Lusitania and Mauretania were built the blades were fastened singly to the shaft of the turbines with a distancer between and then caulked.
    Since then an improvement has been made by casting the blades in sections and riveting them to the shaft. These sections are from 2 feet to 2 feet 6 inches long, the first section having some forty-eight blades, and the end sections, 2 feet 6 inches long, haying twelve blades. When the Mauretania had an accident to her starboard low-pressure turbine the blades were put on in sections and worked well. The Lusitania had previously had some of the blades of her two starboard turbines replaced. The only turbine undamaged since her initial trip was the port high-pressure turbine.
    At first it was thought possible to replace the twisted blades on the port low pressure turbine and straighten out those on the other turbines so that the Lusitania could sail in April. After considerable work had been done an order came to stop, and a commission of engineers, with James Bain at the head, was appointed to decide whether it would not be better, in order to avoid future trouble, to send the Lusitania back to the builders at Clydebank and strip all the blades off the three turbines and replace them with new ones put on in sections, like those which had been fitted on the Mauretania's turbine.
    The whole question was gone into by the commission, and it was finally decided to carry out the plan of putting on 1,250,000 blades and lay the liner up till the latter part of July, which would enable the job to be done thoroughly and practically equip the Lusitania with three new turbines. The port high pressure turbine, which has withstood the severe test of continuous work for five years, including the three trips across the Atlantic in eighteen days in the Liverpool dock strike in the Summer of 1911, would not be touched, it was said.
    In addition to the cost of $500,000 for the reblading of the turbines, the loss to the Cunard Company in the earnings in the passenger season will approximate the same amount. The Lusitania is a favorite ship with passengers who do not want to linger on the way across the Atlantic.