(2 of 2)
Until the incident of the burst valve, chief topic of conversation on the Conte di Savoid was her $1,000,000 worth of Sperry gyroscopes, installed to keep the ship from rolling. To spite a lifeboat load of admirals, engineers, and college technicians who crossed on the Conte di Savoia to observe their gyro-stabilizers' action, seas remained resolutely calm, and the gyros had no fair test. One day, to show what they could do, the stabilizers were purposely reversed, rocked the ship 10°. Apart from stability, speed is the great feature of the Conte di Savoia. She and the Rex were built by the Italian Line to cut two days off the run from Manhattan to Genoa, which the Rex is now regularly doing.
Admitting frankly that their gyroscopes do not stop seasickly pitching, Sperry engineers assert: "There is just one available practical procedure for stopping pitching and that is to change the course of the ship," tacking her back & forth about 20°. With an unstabilized ship, tacking against a heavy sea would increase the roll. With gyros correcting her roll and tacking correcting her pitch a ship need not slow down in heavy weather. By her greater speed she will more than regain, according to Sperry tests, the time and distance she loses by tacking, estimated at about 15%. To make this clear to landlubbers. Sperry salts compare "stabilized tacking" to speeding over 115 mi. of boulevard instead of choosing to bump slowly over 100 mi. of cobblestones.