The daily banner., 1919-05-28
EIAWKER'S TALE
CT Rescue AT SEA
(riss-(rOssed ship Path 10
Sight a Vessel.
HANDICAPPED BY CLOUDS
Failure of Circulation System Forced
the Sopwith Airmen to Abandon
Crossing.

the Sopwith Airmen to Abandon
Crossing.
London, May 2S-The correspond
ent of the Daily Mail who is travelling
with Harry G. Hawker and Lieutenant
Commander Mackenzie Grieve on their
way to this city from Inverness, Scot
land gives a detailed account of the
difficulties encountered by the two
Sopwith airmen during their unsuc-
cessful attempt to- fly across the At
lantic.
During the first four hours of the
voyage the air was freezing cold, but
the airmen were quite comfortable.
Hawker, however, was unable to steer
a good course because of the clouds,
being at times forced to go around
them.
When about 800 miles out to sea
the weather continued very bad and
clouds rose to great heights. Several
times HaWker tried to clear them, but
lost height at every attempt, and each
time the machine was started climbing
the water in the radiator boiled furi-
ously, which increased waste. At last,
however, the air plane reached
height of 1900 feet, and it was decid-
ed to stay at that level for the rest
of the trip.
1--WE had not as yet doubted being
successful in getting across" Hawker
said in describing his experience. I'VE
were at that time above most of the
clouds. The moon had risen and we
were keeping a good course, although
we had to 60 little slower and close
the throttle to keep the water from
heating up.
eve continued at this height until
we had been in the air twelve and a
half hours. Then came heavy clouds
again. They were " ry high, reaching
a level of $1,000 feet and being very
black. 1t was almost impossible to
steer through them, and each time
tried to climb the water boiled bad
ly"
Hawker then described his efforts
to find the cause Of the trouble with
tile WdIeT-COOlluS SySlcIu.
Coming down to a height Of about
5000 feet" Hawker said, 'we found
it blacker than ever and eventually
got to 1000 feet above the water be-
fore we could see to fly. We started
on our course again with the sun just
rising, but couldn't keep the tempera-
ture below the boiling point.
"Then it was we reached the fateful
decision to- play for safety. We chang
ed our course and began flying diago-
nally across the main shipping route
for about two and helf hours when
to our great relief we sighted Dan
ish steamship which proved to be the
tramp Mary.
"The wind was blowing half gale
from the northeast and we were get
ting knocked about badly when we
sighted the ship close to our port bow.
We were fairly in fog with the
clouds low and were almost on top
of her before we saw her.
"We sent up our light distress
signals. These were answered prompt
ly and then we flew on about two
miles and landed in the water ahead
of the steamship.
"We made a very good landing, al
though the sea was very high. The
machine f1oated at an even keel well
out of the water.
1--WE watched the steamship ap-
preaching and put out our own boat
and stood by in case the machine
should break up and sink, which she
began to do rapidly in the heavy sea.
The sea was running up to twelve feet
and breaking right over the machine
and US.
"Our life saving suits kept us dry
and for an hour and half we watch
ed the crew trying to launch a life
boat. The Mary was only 200 yards
away.
"After much difficulty the lifeboat
succeeded in reaching us. We board
ed the lifeboat and were pulled to the
ship by line.
"Owing to the heavy sea it was i'm
possible to save anything. When we
got to the ship we were without our
boots and caps, while Grieve also had
lost his coat. We were very sorry to
lose a lot of valuable instruments and
the mail.
climbing aboard we found that
Captain Duhn spoke very good Eng
lish. He had been afraid that we
would go down before his boat reach
ed u.s."
The aviators were picked up at
$50 A. NJ, Greenwich time, Mandoy,
May 10.