The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-10-19

IS1AASS 4CCO4Q lot QIIlSlDlcS, o " lAiACoB
also will be broken, remains to be
computed.
Picked up by the steamship Trent
off the North Carolina coast, We1lman
and his fellow air navigators are due
IN New York at noon. They left their
craft only because she was in distress
and blown so far from the lane of
transatlantic steamship travel that a
continuation of the voyage, with the
British Isles as the objective. point, was
hopeless. So. summoning aid by wire
less, the difficult and dramatic trans
fer to the Trent was accomplished and
the America was left to the fate of the
winds
For an incident without parallel in
history-the transfer of passengers
from an airship to steamship
meager were the details obtainable by
wireless during the day Wireless, at
rendered more so by the tropical storm
which swept northward, but last
night wireless stations in the vicinity
of New York picked UP from the
Trent a word here and a word there,
am plifying on the earlier dispatches.
1t was learned that Wellman had
found it necessary to rid the aIrship of
the burden of most of its gasoline, re-
tanning only enough to reach land in
the event the Trent had not come to
the rescue. When the steamship heed
ed the calls of distress and drew near
its aerial sister, Wellman shouted his
predicament through a megaphone and
decided that he would lower his life
boat, which hung from the dirigible's
belly. AS a precaution, the Trent low
cred her life boats, which stood by
until the transfer was effected and
Wellman and his crew, even down to
the frightened squirming kitten, were
safe on board the liner surrounded by
the excited passengers.
Watched by Two Continents.
The rescue was accommodated a a
| time when two continents anxiously
| awaited the fate of the dirigible and
her crew, feeling that had become
so acute here that President Taft had
authorized the navy department and
the revenue cutter service to send out
vessels in search of the missing air
ship. which, prior to the rescue, was
last in communication by wireless with
the Marconi stations at Siasconsett,
Nantucket.
| At Atlantic City, Mrs. WelIman and
Mrs. Melvin Vaniman, wife of Well
| mans chief engineer, were torn with
anxiety, while every wireless station
on the Atlantic coast was exerting eff
forts to pick up some news of the
navigators.
Having been spoken by wireless,
presumably in the vicinity of Nan
tucket, at 12;45 p. m, on Sunday, it
came that the America had encoun-
tered the Trent homeward bound
from Bermuda, in a longitude and lati-
tude nearly 400 miles southwark and
only $50 miles northwest of Bermuda.
Thrilling must have been the expert
ences of the Americas commander and
crew as they were thus swept out OF
their course.
Captain Down of the Trent flashed
the first news of the rescue in a mes
sage to the New York Times, which
with the Chicago Record-Herald and
the London Daily Telegraph, contrib
uted $4,000 for the purpose of the
expedition.
Captain Down also advised Sander
son & Son, New York agents for the
Royal Mail Steamship Packet line
Subsequently, more details came in g
dispatch to the Associated Press.
Lost One Motor
Further wireless messages reaching
New York say that one of the Ameri-
cas- motors had broken, which made
more serious the predicament created
when all the gasoline that could be
spared was cast into the sea. It alsC
, is probable that the craft had suffer.
ed severely from the Jerking of it:
great rat-like tail or equilibrator
which served the triple purpose O.
elongated gasoline tank, balance and
wireless ground" Wellman ha6
flashed by wireless to Siasconsett tina
this immense appendage, battered b!
the waves, had caused trouble and
HneCeSSlIdL1nR shutting OH the
motors at times. Buffeted as the Graf
was by the wind it is likely that the
l equilibrator caused greater trouble il
the Americas unwilling southwark
l journey.
: The America is. or was, 22s fee
: long and So feet in diameter, with
lifting capacity of 23,650 pounds The
5 envelope alone weighed two tons
There were three gasoline engine,
: aboard, two of from 80 to 90 horse
power for the propellers and the
smaller the operation of a donkey en-
CINE. Taken as whole, the craft wa.
/ practically the same in which Well.
: man made his two starts for the NORTH
: Pole in 1907 and 1909, respectively
Neither of these attempts was sue
ceSSful. Both were made from Spitz
2 bergen
The first trip was abandoned wher
the America was driven toward jag.
7 ged cliff; the second was given up be
cause of the breaking of a long trail
rope, stored with provisions. not un
similar to the equilibrator of the triI
: just ended.
Mr.. WelIman is 50 years old and
!, was born in Mentor, o. AS journal
1 list and explorer, he became interested
: in ba1Iooning and has had great faitl
in the possibilities of exploration ant
voyaging by dfrigible.
Nearly Described a Circle.
New York, Oct. 19.-Aeronauts point
d | ed out today that the America, the play
e thing of the wind, nearly described
e circle in her course. The total dis
4 lance covered was about 1000 miles
n which is one-third the distance across
= the Atlantic which Wellman essayet
Il to cover. The circling course brough
T the America $50 miles off Cape Hat
d teras but had the thousand miles GOV
a cred been made in direct course aloni
: the transatlantic steamer lane, it woul,
;. have carried the airship about 200 mile
= eastward of the banks of Newfound
n land.
d There is the greatest possibility tina
: the America relieved of the weight O
& the crew and lifeboat may be wafte'
It across to Europe. though this is regard