The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1912-12-20
HORACE kEARNEY IS
PROBABLY LOST IN
THE PACIFIC OCEAN
CLEVER LITTLE AVIATOR WHO
THRILLED MAuRY FOUNTAINS
AT THE FAIR.
HAD PASSENGER WITH him
Portion of Hydro AeropIane Picked
Up OF the Coast by Boatmen Who
Have Been Searching for the Miss
ing Man From San Francisco.

DlopdtCuCo iAuiCdtc anu IL 10 uOW
believed that Horace Kearney, whose
clever aviation work at the fair here
in September thrilled thousands or
Maury countians, has lost his life In
the Pacific ocean. This information
will bring regret to many who saw
young Kearney fly and learned to ad-
mire the courage and quiet demeanor
of the young man. During his stay
of a week in Columbia Kearney ex-
pressed himself regarding the danger
of aviation a number of times. and
always with the idea that If he came
to his death in that manner with the
hope that it might be in such spec
tacular way as to attract attention In
| a world wide way. The dispatches
I, from Los Angeles follows:
F, LOS ANGELES, CAL, Dec. 16.-Af-
ter twenty-four hours of anxious
searching on land and sea, the first
tangible clue as to the fate of Hor-
ace Kearney, the aviator, and Chester
Lawrence, the newspaper man he
carried as a passenger, was 'ound
| late this afternoon, when boatmen
/, picked up what is believed to be one
of the end pontoons of Kearrey's
! craft in the ocean five miles south
west of Redondo. Other than this
the varied searches produced no Gefi-
mite trace of the missing men.
The finding of the pontoon, howev-
er, has given support to the theory
that Kearney's hydroplane was eth
err wrecked completely, or that it was
subjected to severe enough buffeting
of the waves to tear the pontoon off,
for one of the steel supports that fas-
tened the pontoon to the lower place
was snapped off, The pontoon was
picked up by the gasoline launch
Smiley. 1T was taken to Santa Moni-
ca where C. H. Day, the builder Of
Kearney's machine, identified it from
a telephone description as being
Kearney's.
| According to those who found the
pontoon, it was floating southwark
with wind and tide at rate of about
two miles an hour, and the theory is
that it had floated some distance from
1.-THE point where it was torn from the
plane. This supports the theory that
| is borne out from other evidence that
lKearney after rounding Point Firmin
headed straight across Santa Monica
Bay in a direct line for the Point
lDume, about forty miles distant 1t
lis believed that whatever happened
Ito Kearney's machine occurred in the
direction of Poin Dune. An eyami-
nation of the pontoon found shows
that it was violently wrenched from
the plane and it furnished mute evil
dence that Kearney and his compan-
ion must have landed in the ocean.
/ In the region.0of Point Dune and
flor miles in either direction, especial
lily to the northward, the coast is ex-
ltremely rugged and sparsely settled,
SO that it is not strange that the acct
dent to the plane was not witnessed
by any one.
4 Those familiar with aviation and
with that region believe that the fears
of last night are more than corrob-
GRATED by the finding of the pontoon.
They believe that it is now practical
ly certain that Kearney's machine
either had an accident in the air and
plunged into the ocean or that Kear-
ney was compelled to light in the wa
tier OF on the serf and was wrecked.
Little hope is held out for Kearney
and Lawrence, although there is still
some chance that they might have
gotten ashore from the wreck and are
in the wild Malibu. coast miles from
habitation or communication.
Kearney and Lawrence left East
Newport shortly after l o'clock yes
terday afternoon. Their passage OF
the beach cities of Long Beach, San
Pedro and Redondo were gala events.
Thousands tnrcnged the pleasure re-
sorts and cheered wildly at the in
trepid aviator maneuver with> his
craft. Passing Long Beach Keamey
dipped and took to the water, dash.
ing through the waves at forty miles
an hour, only to rise again, graceful.
ly, over the break water of San Pc
dro. He seemed complete master OF
his machine and it was predicted that
he would reach the Golden Gate al
San Francisco In safety.