El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-03-22
RODE IN AIR
CRAFT WITH
WELLMbN
Maj. Henry B. Jersey Says
Idea Was All Right, but
the Ship a Failure.
A ZEPPELIN SHIP
WOULD HAVE DONE 1T

~ ITH Walter Wellman on two
wv Of his attempts to balloon
to the north pole, Mai. H. B.
Hersey Friday pursued the prosaic
task of examining the weather and
wind measuring Instruments IN the FL
PasO weather office as if igalOOs, penn
mican and artificial horizons were Of
another world.
Mai. Jersey was scientific observer
and executive officer for the famous
Wellman expedition to the north pole,
which got no further north than eight
miles off shore from Danes island,
Spitzbergen, which is only 400 miles
inside Of the arctic circle. But il was
neither Wellman'S nor Jerseys fault
that they did not go sailing over the
seas of ice and land on the north pole
for a pivot. Both were anxious to
reach the pole to the extent of risking
their lives IN the alrShlp America
which Wellman had built in Paris and
in which he made three attempts to
get TO the pole ahead Of Peary- The
fault was in the mechanism Of this air
craft with the patriotic name. 1t re-
fused TO ply a true course, insisting
on travelling in circles like a lame
duck after il had gone five miles off
shore from Danes island with Well
man. Hersey and the three men Of the
turate air man who lost his life at
Atlantic City when his airship ex-
ploded.
Tells Of WeIIman Trip.
Maj. Hersey stopped the examina-
ton Of wind and weather records at
the local storm shop long enough to
run back over the events which Oc-
CURED prior to and during the famous
attempt OF the Washington newspaper
men TO get to the pole ahead Of any
white man. When Wellman started
his scheme for getting to the north
pole Ma" Hersey. who has been with
a bureau, asked permission to go along
His request was granted and he went
to Paris to learn ballOOniug from the
ground up He did it so thoroughly
and in such an American manner that
he holds the record for the largest
number Of flights in given time. He
also cOoperated in coping the Gordon
Bennett trophy for balloon flights in
Paris by flying over the English chan
mel, over Windsor castle and landing
in Scotland with another American
baIlOOnist. who was forced to take
Maj. Hersey on at the last minute,
after he had been prevented from US
ing French officer as his assistant
because Of the rules Of the Aero club
OF France.
Built station For WeHman.
While Wellman was in France su-
perintending the construction OF the
America" in which he and Jersey
were to risk their lives, Hersey went
to TrOmsae, Norway, where he OBJ
tanned q steamer. stocked II with lun-
Der supplies and food for the expedi-
tiOn. and sailed away to Danes island.
in the Spitzbergen group. where the
headquarters were established The
steamer was then sent back TO Norway
for Wellman and the aircraft While
WeIlman was on his way, Hersey built
a house as big as a church, measuring
20OX35 for the airship, a blacksmith
and machine shop and a gas making
plant. which required so tons OF sui
nh ri cir NJ ha
ings and filings. A dog team was to
and supplies sufficient to last the
crew Of five and the dog team six
months.
Airship Wrong
Everything was all right but the
airship," Maj. Hersey says The pro-
peller got mixed in its dates and start
ed the airship to going in a circle like
a winged duck. The first flight was
made in August, 1907. although a test
flight was made earlier in the year.
Wellman skipped a year and tried it
again, but after the failure, I saw that
the expedition could not be a success.
If we had had a Zeppelin airship we
could have made the trip to the pole
without any great trouble. But our
ship was defective in construction and
Wellman proved this beyond a doubt
when he tried II a third time
Nal Hersey made a flight Of 40
miles from St Louis to Canada in 1907,
breaking the record for continued
flight. He was a major in the Rough
Riders during the Spanish-American
war