The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1910-10-27
WELLMAN IS SAFE
DARING NAvIGATORS OF THE
AMERICA, IN PERIL, RES
CUED BY STEAMSHIP.
AIRCRAFT ASKS FOR HELP
Passing Mailship Trent Sends Lire
Boat to Pick Up Air Men, Who
Drop in Their Boat to Sea. While
Big Gas Bag Goes OF.

New York.-Walter Wellman and
the crew Of five men in the diriS-
ible airship America, which started
from Atlantic City, were found IN
distress and picked up at sea go
miles off the North Carolina coast by
the Royal Mail steamship Trent.
When the America was sighted
shortly before o'clock in the morn
ing, hundreds OF miles outside OF her
course. she was lowering near the
water with her crew In the gondola,
Jack Irwin. the wireless operator.
was at his post In the life boat sus-
pended below the gondola, but evil
IDENTIFY tired of calling for relief,
after having been forty-eight hours
out of touch with land or steamer,
even by the magic OF his wireless,
and had ceased to work the instru-
ments, saving the precious store in
his batteries for the last &C. q. ID.
Thus il was that the Trent, by
good fortune travelling far on the
track of other liners or coastlnG
vessels. sighted the big airship ahd
signalled her before the exhausted
and practically hopeless Wellman
and his crew knew that succor was
at hand.
Jack Irwin lost no time In respond
ing to the wireless call from OPP
orator Louis GinsDerg of the Trent
and replied that the airship was IN
distress and that the crew wished
TO abandon 1t.
Then followed the strangeSt ana
most dramatic scene ever witnessed
on the seas, that of steamship,
talking with the aid of the wireless
to an airship and trying to rescue
the crew of her sister vessel or the
air, after the fashion of taking
aboard the crew of vessel OF the
water in distress.
The Trent following at top speed
the will o. the wisp movements or
the big aerial craft tried to get
line aboard the America or get
line from her. This was found fu-
tile.
After a council aboard the air
ship, the crew resolved upon the last
resort and took their places in the
life boat. Capt Downs OF the Trent
ordeiei one of his life boats over the
side and with men straining at the
oars, the buoyant craft leaped over
the boisterous waves in pursuit OF
the tragically playful gas bag.
Finally, when the airship dippec
naly tn fra M
for the task, cut loose the lifeboat,
which dropped safely to the waves.
Irwin and Engineer Loud were
slightly injured by the trailing equi-
librator, the supposed safeguard de-
yised by Wellman, but the undoins
of the airship.
Released from the weight OF the
lifeboat and It's crew, the giant air
ship shot upward and was driven
away by the wind, perhaps to keep
ahoat for days or weeks, or to end
its unhappy and expensive career by
a dive into the sea.
The men who sailed In the airship
and who were rescued by the Trent.
were:
Walter Wellman, head Of the ex-
petition Melvin Vaniman, engineer;
j. Murray Simon, navigator ana
pilot; j. X. Irwin, wireless operator;
Albert Louis Loud, first assistant en-
gincer. and John ALBERT, second as
gistant engineer. A cat, taken along
as a mascot, was also rescued and
was mentioned by Capt. Downs In
his first message as among the lives
saved