Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1919-05-15

of the fight to Trepassey, n. F., where
the NC-1 and the NC-3 are awaiting him.
Considering it unwise, however. to risk
a night landing in unfamiliar waters, he
decided to wait until tomorrow morn
ing. He plans to start at dawn.
The aviators went on board the United
States naval supply ship Baltimore for
the night. Members of the aviation base
on the Baltimore at once began over
hauling the seaplanes.
| 1t was just after two o'clock when the
! NC-4 was sighted crossing the Camper
| down wireless station. Word was
| flashed to this city and the news spread
quickly. but before the majority of the
| she was resting on the surface Of the
| harbor. The whirrng of her engines as
she came down drew crowds to hills,
| roof tops and wharves.
| Striking the water with splash Of
! spray the NC-4 slackened her speed and
as 1t passed the northern end of Georges
Island 1t was barely moving. A launch
from the Baltimore took the plane in
| tow and in few minutes it was made
fast to the stern of the supply ship.
| The tired avators clambered aboard
| the Baltimore and were congratulated
| by Captain Cluverius and his staff.
While they were being made comfortable
| in the quarters of the officers mess
mechanics in charge of Ensign O'Connor
| jumped to the NC-4 and proceeded to look
it over carefully. They found that the
engines had stood the trip well and
needed but slight repairs The propel-
| lers were removed and placed on the
deck Of the Baltimore, where they were
taken apart. inspected, oiled and reas-
sembled.
II took the time at Chatham Bar"
Lieutenant-Commande Read said. You
know it is sort of jumping off place.
1t was 9:16 O'Clock eastern time, when
we left the bar. We rose from the water
nine minutes before, but circled around
for nine minutes testing our engines. Our
Official time of arrival in Halifax was
5:07. Greenwich mean time. in passing
the Baltimore and 5:11 when we landed
upon the water which would be seven
and eleven minutes past two, respectively
Halifax time. So the elapsed time from
Chatham to the u. S. S. Baltimore In
Halifax harbor was just three hours and
hfty-one minutes.
II have not worked out our exact
mileage yet, but it was very close to 3(
miles. AS yet ] have not had chance
to figure out our exact speed, but l took
1t twice during the trip and once it was
81 miles an hour and another time S5.
have flown at much higher rate OF
speed, but this is the best l have done ir
the NC-4 type Of hydroairplane.
Most of the way we had WIND
that was slightly off the port quarter
at height averaging between 500 ant
1000 feet. We kept this low altitude
because the winds above would not
hal nj ~
wind was almost astern, just a bit tc
the west of southwest, and it was OF
great assistance.
''The trip was made absolutely with
out incident. We picked up each de
stroyer on time, although, because Of
the strong wind astern which / hac
not calculated on, we passed tie frs
one n little before we had expected
However / remedied this with respec
to the others There were five of them
"One noteworthy event of the jour
ney was that we received a radio de
, spatch from Acting Secretary Roose
|, velt at Washington. The message wa
one of congratulation and good wishes
The point is that we replied to thu
message and received an answer IL
return within three minutes after th'
: sending of the initial radio communi
cation. This occurred just off Cap
Sable. about 20 niles to the south,
think.
1T had been intended to make onl.
; a brief stop at Halifax and continu
our flight, reaching Trepassey this af
ternoon, by taking advantage Of tn
moonlight for night flying. This woul
have been quite possible If we ha
been able to make as early a star
4 from Chatham as we had hoped How
e ever, minor engine troubles cropped u
\ at the last moment and our departur
t was delayed by the necessity of som
3 slight repairs"