The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1919-05-29
HAWKER'S STORY OF
BATTLE FOR LIFE
Australian Altman Tells of Escape
From Ocean Death.
GRIEVE HAS SHORT ACCOUNT
Navigator Says Strong Northerly Gale
Drove Them 200 Miles Out of Their
Course When They Had Cow
cred About I 900 Miles.

London, May 27.-"We had very diff
ficult ground to rise from on the other
side. To get in the air at all we had
to run diagonally across the course"
said Hawker in describing his disas-
ter.
"Once we got away we climbed very
well, but when about ten minutes up
we passed from fair, clear weather
into the fog off the Newfoundland
banks. We got well over this, how
over, and, OF course, at once lost sight
of the seas. The sky was quite clear
for the first four hours, when the Wis
Utility became very bad. Heavy cloud
banks were encountered and eventual
ly we flew into heavy storm with
rain squalls. At this time we were
flying well above the clouds at a
height of about $4,000 feet
Trouble Five Hours Out.
about five and half hours out,
owing to the choking of the filter, the
Temperatures of the water cooling our
engines started to rise, but after com
Ing down several thousand feet we
overcame this difficulty. Everything
went well for another few hours,
when once again the circulation sys-
tenn became choked and the tempera-
ture of the water rose to the boiling
point. We of course realized that I'M
til the pipe was cleared we could not
rise much higher without using a lot
of motor power.
"When we We're about twelve and a
half hours on our way the circulation
system was still giving us trouble and
we realized we could not go on using
up our motor power.
Change Course.
"Then it was that we reached the
fateful decision to play for safety.
We changed course and began to fly
diagonally across the main shipping
route for about two and half hours
when, to our great relief, we sighted
the Danish steamship, which proved
to be the tramp Mary.
1--WE at once sent up our very light
distress signals. These were an
severed promptly and then we flew on
about two miles and landed in the
water ahead of the steamship
Sea Very Rough.
"The sea was exceedingly rough
and, despite the utmost efforts of the
Danish crew, it was one and one-half
hours before they succeeded in taking
US off. 1t was only at much risk TO
themselves, in fact, that they eventu-
ally succeeded in launching a small
boat owing TO the heavy gale from the
northeast which was raging.
ut was found impossible to salvage
the machine, which, however, is most
probably still afloat somewhere in
mid-Atlantic.
altogether before being picked up.
we had been fourteen and half hours
out from Newfoundland. We We're
picked up at $50 u. IN. on Monday
Greenwich time.
From Captain Duhn of the Mary
and his Danish crew we received the
greatest kindness on our journey
home. The ship carried no wireless
and it was not until we arrived off the
Butt of Lewis that we were able to
communicate with the authorities.
"Off Loeb Eribol we were met by
the destroyer WoOlston and conveyed
to Scapa Flow, where we had splen-
did welcome home from Admiral Free
mantle and the men of the grand
fleet"
What GreVe Said.
"When a few hundred miles out a
strong northerly gale drove us stead
lily out of our course" Navigator
Grieve said, ut was not always pos
sble, owing to the pressure of the
dense masses of clouds, to take our
bearings, and l calculate that at the
time we determined to cut across the
shipping route we were about 200
miles out of our course. Up to this
change of direction we had covered
about 1000 miles of the journey to the
Irish coast"