The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1910-10-19

tempt to cross an ocean in an air
ship has failed, but Walter Well
man, five companions and a kitten,
who essayed the voyage, are safe.
The airship-the giant America
the battered aerial derellct, aban-
doned at sea, perhaps still in the
air, perhaps sunk beneath the waves
with her costly equipment
When deserted she had been in
the air probably seventy-two hours,
new worlds record for dirlgi5les,
and drien by the wind had travel
ed doubtless 500 miles
Picked up by the Steamship Trent
early this morning off the north
Carolina coast, Walter Wellman and
his fellow navigators are due in
New York at noon tomorrow. They
left their craft only because she
was in distress and blown so far
from the lane of transatlantic steam
ship travel that continuation Os
the voyage with the British Isles
as the objective was hopeless. So
summoning aid by wireless, diff
cult and dramatic transfer to the
Trent was accomplished and the
America was left to the fate OF the
winds.
1t was learned that Wellman had
found it. necessary to rid the airship
OF the burden OF most of its gaso-
line retaining only enough to reach
land in the event the Trent had not
come to his rescue. When the steam
ship answered the calls of distress
| and dren near its aerial sister, Well.
man shouted his predicament
through megaphone and decided
that he would lower his lifeboat
which swung from the dirigible. AS
precaution the Trent lowered her
lifeboats, which stood by until the
transfer was effected and Wellman
and his crew, even down to the
frightened, squlrming 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 dirigible
and her crew, a feeling that had
become so acute here that Presi
dent Taft had authorized the navy
department and the revenue cutter
service to send out vessels in search
of the missing aIrship which prior to
the rescue, was last in communica-
tion by wireless with the Marconi
station at Siasconset, Nantucket.
At Atlantic City, Mrs. Wellman and
Mrs Melvin Vaniman, wife of Well
mans chief engineer, were torn
with anxiety, while every wireless
station on the Atlantic was exerting
every effort to pick up news of the
navigators.
Having been spoken by wireless,
presumably in the vicinity OF Nan
tucket, at 12:45 p. m. on Sunday, it
was surprise when the news came
that the America had encountered
the Trent, homeward bound from
Bermuda, in longitude and latitude
nearly 400 miles southwark and only
$50 miles northwest of Bermuda.
Thrilling must have been the expert T.
cnces Of the Americas commander
as they were thus swept out of
their course.
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 Tele-
graph, contributed $35,OOO for the .
proposed expedition. Captain Down
also wired Sanderson & Son. New
Yrok agents Of the New York .
Steamship Pac',nt Line. Sr'scr,ea.-
ly more details came in a dispatch .
to the Associated Press. Frr'hcr .
Wireless messages Ittt-hliS .>'"
York tonight say that one of the
Americas motors had been broken,
which made more serious the pre-
dlcament, when all the gasoloine |
that could be spared was cast into |
the sea. It is also probable that the
craft had suffered seevrely from the
Jerking OF its great ratlike tail or
equlibrator which served the pur-
pose of an elongated gasoline tank,
balance and wireless ground
The America is, or was, 22S feet
long and fify-two feet in diameter,
with lifting capacity of 23,4i0
pounds. The envelope alone weighed
two tons. There were three gaso-
line engines aboard. twoo Of from
eighty to ninety horsepower for the
propellers and the smaller or donkey
engine. Taken as a whole, the craft
was practically the same as that in