The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-10-20
ADVENTURE is
SUCCESS EVEN
# FLIGHT FAILS
T ha t, in Wellman'i
Creed, Always Is
Worth While.
AIR NAVIGATOR
TELLS HIS STORY
He and Crew Of Ill-Fated Amer
ica Stand Ready to Make An
other Flight in Effort to
Reach Europe When Solu-
ton of Airship Problems
Has Been Reached.
BY WALTER wELLA1AN.
Copyright, 1910, by New York Times.


by WALTER wELLAIAN.
Copyright, 1910, by New York Times
ALI Rights Reserved)
New York, October 19.-We were
a happy half-dozen that foggy Satur-
day morning when we set sail from
Atlantic City. Our month of aroluous
work, day and night. preparing great
airship for her voyage was at last
finished. We had struggled against
many difficulties and delays and had
endured many misunderstanding,
criticism and suspicious. But now we
were to have our chance. We six were
perched high in the air In a great
ship, wonderful combination of chem
istry and mechanics. steel SILK, cotton,
gasolene, engine. machinery, strange
devices of all sorts cunningly devised
to give man conquest of the elements.
Finally on the Way.
For this calm hour the public had
tmpatiently and we, patiently, waited.
The weather conditions making it pos
sible to launch the great ship had come.
We were on the way, stealing almost
noiselesly out of the thick pail which
lay heavily over the Atlantic Ocean.
We We're oft on a voyage, the end OF
which no man could foresee. That we
hoped to reach the far side of the
ocean Is true. but we had no great
degree OF confidence. We knew and
and said that we We're engaged in a
great scientific experiment and " de-
terlnined that whatever might be the
outcome of that experiment. the whole
should constitute an adventure worth
the while.
For, in my creed, an adventure which
stirs the hearts of men and causes the
blood to run faster and takes the minds
OF the people away from the hurndrumr
oread-winning and ,noney-making at
fairs of every day life, is always worth
while.
/ We realized, perhaps better than any
| one else. the fragile character of the
| ship in which we were travelling. We
/ realized. too, more keenly than any
one else could possibly do, the fact
! that it would be better, considered
alone from the standpoint of prudence.
| to have one or more trials OF the craft
before cutting loose from the shord
| and verlturing far out over the depths.
/. \ trial trip had, of course, been a part
| of our original plan And such trial
! trips we should have had II the cir
cumstances had admitted But they did
not. With the season so far advanced
and the stormy November fastening on.
to stop for a trial would probably have
meant no voyage Whatever this year.
And then what would have happened
We should have been accused OF being
posseurs and worse. No There was
nothing for it under the circumstances
which existed. but to venture forth
without previous trial, saving only
the two voyages which the America
had made in the past over the Polar
ocean, and to stake our all. lives In
Icluded, upon the single cast cf the die.
That we did. all six of us, with open
eyes and cool calculation of the
chances.
Wanted Their Adventure.
The philosophy of all of this. of
adventure, n matter what it's outcome
and the criticism which might follow.
having it with an untested ship, to
the more prudent method OF prelini-
nary trial trips. to be inevitably fol-
lowed by criticism because there was
no adventure at all.
And for that matter. when it comes
to question of prudence, the whole
thing was outside the realm of that
noun. Adventures and prudence ara
not twins. And SO we were off; and
we We're happy. Regardless of what the
I fates might have In store for US, we
| exulted over the fact that at last
| we were sailing the air. That alone
was joy. There was strange fas-
| cinaton in this moving through space
I nigh above the billows and the feel
lnS Oh ueutHCe .Ol5 Tie dil0 Ol
the fates which filled our hearts On
the technical and scientific side there
was keen content also in the fact that
we were able, through the Marconi
| Instruments and happy Jack Irwin'a
skill, to maintain communication with
our friends on shore. 1t was some-s
thing to have been the first in the
worlds history thus to communicate
| from ship of the air travelling over
/ = y. tr tba Iay, 1uh l.,, fnr
down under the horizon.
troubles Begin.
1t is true this first day, Saturday,
the 18th of October. our troubles soon
I, began to come down upon us. The
weather was good. ,-se wind fair but
| for some reason the motors did not
| work right. Though months had been
( spent by the best procurable mechanics
! In their preparation and trials. now
! that they were wanted to give good
| account OF themselves they faltered
| and balked.
Motors. like men, are strange crea-
!, lures One can feel quite sure or that.
and within few hours after our great
I ship, lifting her twelve tons in the
Eair and dragging two tons more in tina
water underneath her, had stolen SIS
lently out from the worlds greatest
popular resort. Atlantic City, into tho
| foggy space to the eastward, we knew
| that the better OF our two large driv-
| Ing engines was virtually out OF CONS
| mission, and that we should be able ia
! get little work out OF It, But ons
1 good engine remained, and with thai
we should go on 1t. too, proved coy
ana uncertain, and from o'clock iu
the morning until & In the evening Of
| this first day we had a motor running
no more than two or three hanrA
which was not an suspicious sign CON.
I sidared from the mechanical point oil