The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1919-07-07

, ing OF the hlinp.
SOFTLY, GENTLY SHE
SETTLES TO EARTH
! Then the great arship began to de-
. scend toward the earth after a fight
of more than $500 miles. Her de-
scent was unlike that of airplanes. She
settled softly. easily. as II she found
the air cushion like a fat man cas-
ing himself into a deeply cushioned
had gathered by the time the R-34
made her landing. Vociferous cheers
greeted her as trailing anchor guys
touched American soil the first they
had touched since the fight from
Scotland started just los hours and
> minutes before.
Within an almost incredibly brief
! lime the R-34 was moored securediy
! 10 wire ropes which were fastened to
concrete anchors buried twenty feet
/ beneath the ground. Hundreds of
American doughboys. thoroughly
drilled beforehand. accomplished the
anchor.i Of the blimp with smooth
| ness viii N brought warm praise from
| General Edward VI. Maitland of the
! British air t1rces. the official observer
| for the Britt IA government
! Both Officer and crew of the r. "a
seemed might glad to feel firm
| ground beneath their feet once more
! and to stretct their legs elsewhere
than on the crtmp ped l2-inch runway
running from and 10 end OF the hiimp,
They were sorely tired and very
! happy body of men. Few had had
more than five or six hours sleep
| throughout the voyage and some
such as Lieute 1ant ]. y, Spotter the
blimp's enginee7, had been obliged TO
get along upon considerably less
| Like true Rrl lsAers tho hl!np's Of
/ ficers' most pres ding desire YVES to he
| led to bath di 'ectly the work in
cident to the landi ~ was atfcmp IIsh-
| ed Refreshed ny q h4th some OF the
officers consented IT, srs8k briefly of
the history making vol age. Major g..
Herbert Scott, commander Of the an
ship said:
ENJOYABLE AND
| SUCCESSFUL ..oYAGE
| The voyage was a very ~1joyaoie
| and most successful one. The total
mileage was 1900 (correct) miles, and
we covered that distance in 1oS
hours and twelve minutes. The
lthunderstorms and squalls which we
encountered on the way across caused
tie delay. We Will leave for home on
Tuesday morning about an hour be-
fore daybreak, probably about 8 or
4 o'clock l do not expect the return
"trip to take more than seventy hours,
There was a crew of thirty men
Iaboard. and not one of them suffered
iany kind of illness, We were all in
fine shape when we landed. But We
had only gasoline enough to last three
or four hours more and you can see
we were very fortunate.
Six nours after we had left East
Fortune, Scotland. a stowaway was
ts
Bailantine and he lives in Cromwell
England Al one time he was a men,
Der of our crew, but when we COM
pleted arrangements for this trip il
was decided not to take him on board
for various reasons which l do not
now wish to disclose.
: when the stowaway was discover
ed of course we did not wish TO drop
him off, so we put him TO work and he
did his share Of the work on the voy-
tage. He will not make the return
, trip, but will remain here and in, the
near future / expect he will be court
martialed, but / do not think he will
be subject TO any severe punishment
, The only change in the crew or
. the way back Will be the addition OF
{ Lieutenant Commander W. A Hens.
, ley of the L, S Naval Air service
who will take the place of Comman-
E der Zachary Lansdowne.
, Weather conditions were unfavor-
able for the flight almost from the
Istart from East Fortune last Wednes-
day morning at 1:42 A. NJ. Green
: witch time.
BEAUTIFUL MOUNTAINS
OF BONNIE SCOTLAND
/, Passing over Scotland, where the
r hills rise to q height of more than
/ 5000 feet the air was full of "bumbs'
: | III L. 80. a l.