Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-05-17


started lust before sunset yesterda!
from Trepasscy, y. T., on the frs
attempt ever made by man to cross
the Atlantic ocean through the air
had ut 4 O'Clock this morning, wash
81 t,iie. covered 700 nautica
miles, more than half the distance
of the longest and most difficult leg
of the transatlantic flight.
Making Excellent Time
Messages sent by the "Columbuses
of the air" from plane to plane anc
TO the destroyerS that lined the L..
35O-mile route to the Azores, the enc
of the first lap, were intercepted by
the Cape Race, n. T., radio station
rclayed to the American naval radio
station at Bar Harbor, Nc, ano
thence sent to the Navy Department
These messages showed the thret
planes to be making excellent time
and indicatd that all was going well
Going S5 Miles an Hour
During the first 700 miles of fight
the planes averaged approximately
SIS miles an hour. Navy officials esti-
mated that should this average be
northumberland it was believed 1T
could be with daylight spreading
over the -Atlantic-the planes
would reach their immediate objec-
tive, Ponta Delgada, Azores, about
8 a. M, Washington time, more than
three hours earlier than the time set
by the most optimistic.
Shortly after o'clock this morn
ing the Bar Harbor station sent the
following message to the Navy De-
partment:
Last heard of seaplanes al S.21
and signals getting weaker. How
ever, freak work may avail itself
early in morning and probabilities
are we may hear the seaplanes un-
til a. m"
The following cablegram from
the U. S. S. Melville transatlantic
flight station ship at Ponta Delgada,
Azores. was received at the Navy
Department at 4.30 o'clock this
morning:
Passed 18th Ship
THE NC-4 passed station ship No.
IA at 1906. NJ. P. (4.06 Washing
ton time)."
The fourteenth station ship is the
L. S. s. Cowell, located more than
$50 miles distant from Trepassey
bay.
Communication no longer was pos
sible by way of Atlantic coast radio
stations and messages regarding the
progress of the seaplanes were be-
ing relayed to the Azores and from
there cabled to the Navy Depart
ment over a special cable. =
Cryptic radiograms from the sea-
plane division on its way to Europe,
picked out of the air by the radio
station at Bar Harbor, Me-. indicat-
ed that the planes were in the vicin-
ity of the destroyer Thatcher, sta
ton No. 9. nearly 500 miles from
Trepassey boy soon after midnight.
The three machines left Trepassey
a few minutes after s o'clock last
night and were officially reported as
passing station ship No. 6. 500 miles
out, a little more. than four hours
later. The next indication of their
progress was the intercepted mes
sages reported by Bar Harbor.
The Bar Harbor station set a new
record in catching the signals of
the planes at a distance of more
than a thousand miles. The NC-1
was calling the Thatcher in the mes
sage the Maine station overheard.
Navy officials assumed the
Thatcher was still ahead of the
group of airplanes which had passed
other destroyers in the long line
closely punched and all making
/ speed in excess of the sixty miles
rate they had expected to maintain.
If no accident interferes, it was said
| early this morning, there is every
reason 70 oYnect tho pianos will
have reached Ponte Delgada, Azores
around midday to-day. Ihe most
| difficult leg of the whole trip from
Rockaway Beach, L. l., to Plym outh,
! England. was more than one-third