The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-10-19
Storm Drives Aerial Vessel Out of Path of, Steam
 CTS and It Is Disabled
BIC AIRSHIP IS LEFT
 TO FLOAT AWAY 0R SINK
Are Taken Off Without a Mishnp and Even a Kitten Is
 Rescued

New York, October 1S-Mans first at- tempt to cross any ocean in an airship has failed, but Walter Wellman, five companions and a kitten, who essayed the voyage, are safe The airship--the giant America-is battered aerial dere- lict, abandoned at sea, perhaps still in the air. perhaps sunk beneath the waves with her costly equipment. When de- serted she had been in the air probably 72 hours, a new worlds record for dirigi- bles, and, driven by the wind, had trav- eled doubtless 800 miles. Whether the distance record for dirigibles-S70 miles also will be broken, remains to be com- puted.
 Picked up by the steamship Trent early this morning off the North Carolina coast We1lman and his fellow air navigators are due in New York at noon tomorrow. They left their craft because she was in distress and blown so far from the lane of steamers travel that a continuation of the voyage to the British Isles as the objective point was helpless. So, sum- moning aid by wireless, the difficult and dramatic transfer was accomplished and the America was left to the fate of the winds.
 For an incident without parallel in his tory-the transfer of passengers from an airship to steamship-meagre were the details obtainable by wireless during the day. Wireless communication, at all times more or less uncertain, was made more so by the tropical storm which swept northward, but tonight wireless stations in the vicinity of New York picked up from the Trent word here and a word there, simplifying on the earlier dis patches.
 Gasoline Thrown Away
 It was learned that Wellman had found 1t necessary to rid the airship of the bur den of most of its gasoline, retaining only enough to reach land in the event the Trent had not come to his rescue.
 When the steamship needed the calls of distress and drew nearer its aerial sister, Wellman shouted his predicament through a megaphone and decided that he would tower his lifeboat. which swung from the dirgible. As a precaution the Trent lowered her lifeboats, 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.
 The rescue was accomplished at a time when two continents anxiously awaited the fate of the drigible 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 or the missing airship, which, prior to the rescue, was last in communication by wireless with the Marconi station at Siasconset, Nantucket.
 At Atlantic City Mrs. Welman and Mrs. Melvin Vaniman wife of Wellman' s chief engineer, were torn with anxiety, while every wireless station on the Att lantic was exerting every effort to pick up news of the navigators.
 Having been spoken by wireless, pre- sumably in the vicinity of Nantucket, at 11:45 D. n1. on Sunday, it was surprise when the news came that the America had encountered the Trent, homeward bound from Bermuda, in a longitude and latitude nearly 400 miles southward and only 25O miles northwest of Bermuda. Thrilling must have been the experiences of the Americas commander as they were thus swept out of their course.
 First News of Rescue
 Captain Down of the Trent flashed the first news of the rescue In a message to the New York Times, which, with the Chicago Record-Herald and the London Daily Telegraph, contributed sS5.000 for the proposed expedition Captain Down wired Sanderson & Son, New York agents of the New York steamship packet line. Subsequently more details came in dis patch to the Associated Press. Further
 
 tonight say that one of the America s motorsl had been broken, which made more serious the predicament created when all the gasoline that could be spared was cast into the sea It is also thought that probably the craft had suffered se- verely from the jerking of its great rat like tail or equilberator, which served the purpose of an elongated gasoline tank, balance and wireless ground" Wellman had flashed by wireless to Siasconset that this immense appendage, battered by the waves, has caused trouble and anx- iety, necessitating shutting off the motors at times. <..l
 Buffeted as the craft was by the winds, 1t Is likely that the equilibrator caused greater trouble in the Americas unwill- Ing southward journey.
 Size of Airship
 The America is or was 228 feet long and 52 feet in diameter, with lift ing capacity of 23.650 pounds. The en- velope alone weighed two tons. There were three gasoline engines aboard two of from 80 to 90 horsepower fol the propellers and the smaller or don key engine. Taken as whole, thu craft was practically the same in whicf Wellman made his two starts for tho north pole in 1907 and 1909 respect. lively. Neither of these attempts wal successful. Both were made from Spitz bergen.
 The first trip was abandoned wher , the America was driven toward jag ged cliff, the second was given up be cause of the breaking up of lont trail rope, stored with provisions, no unsimilar to the equilibator of the tril just ended.
 MT. Wellman is 52 years old and wa born in Mentor, Ohio. As journalis and explorer he became interested il ballooning and has had great faith il the possibilities of exploration and voy aging by dirigibles.
 Mrs. Wellman and Mrs. Vaniman overjoyed that their husbands are safe but disappointed that the<goal was no reAcheds hurried from Atlantic Cit. to NewiYork tonight ready to meet tn returning voyagers with the arrival o the Trent tpmorrow.
 News of the Rescue
 Washington, October 18.-News o .,f <Io <~r I- 1{v,I<~