Los Angeles herald., 1910-10-19
WELLMAN IS SAFE;
ABAND0NS FLIGHT
Steamer Trent Picks Up Air Navi-
gators Off North Caro-
lima Coast
ASSOCIATED Press)

NEW YORK, Oct. 1S.-Man's first
effort to cross any ocean in an air.
ship has failed. but Walter Wellman,
five companions and a kitten, who es-
sayed the voyage, are safe.
The airship, the giant America, is
battered aerial derelict, abandoned 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, a new
worlds record for dirigibles, and, driv-
en- by the wind, had travelled probably
800 miles. Whether the distance rec
ord for dirigibles-S70 miles-also will
be broken, remains to be computed.
Picked UP by the steamer Trent
early this morning off the North Car
olina coast, Wellman and his fellow
air 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 lanes of trans
atlantic steamship travel that con-
tinuation of the voyage with the Brit
ish isles as the objective point was
hopeless.
Summoning aid by wireless, the diff
cult and dramatic transfer to the
Trent was accomplished and the Amer
lea was left to the winds.
DETAILS ARE MEAGER
For an incident without a parallel
In history the ransfer of passengers
from an airship to a steamer-meager
were the details obtainable by wire
less during the day. Wireless, at all
times more or less uncertain, was rem
dered more so by the tropical storm
which swept northward, but tonight
stations in the vicinit- of New York
picked UP from the Trent a word here
and there amplifying the earlier dis
patches
1t was learned Wellman had found it
necessary to rid the airship of the bur
den of most of it's gasoline, retaining
only enough to reach land in the event
the Trent had not come to the rescue.
When the steamer needed the calls Of
distress and drew near its aerial vis-
itor, Wellman shouted his predicament
through a nlegaphone and decided that
he would lower his lifeboat which
swung beneath the dirigible AS a
precaution the Trent lowered her life
boats, which stood by until the trans
fer was effected, and Wellman and his
crew, even down to the frightened,
suuirming kitten, were safe on board
the liner, surrounded by the excited
passengers.
EXPEDITION COSTLY
When the rescue was accomplished
two continents anxiously awaited the
fate of the dirigible and her crew and
President Taft had authorized the navy
department and the revenue cutter ser
vice to send out vessels in search for
them.
At Atlantic City Mrs. Wellman and
Mrs Vaniman, wife of Wellman's chief
engineer, were torn with anxiety, while
every wireless station on the Atlantic
coast was exerting efforts to pick up
some news of the navigators
Having been spoken by wireless in
the vicinity of Nantucket at 12:45 Sun
day afternoon, 1t was a surprise when
news came that the America had en-
countered the Trent nearly 400 miles
southwark and only 250 miles north
west of Bermuda.
Capt. 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
$35 900 for the expedition.
Captain Down also advised Sander
son & Son, New York agents for the
Royal Mail steamship packet line.
subsequently more details came in
dispatch to the Associated Press.
Further wireless messages reaching
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