Norwich bulletin., 1921-08-25
HOW THE NEWS WAS
 RECEIVED IN WASHINGTON

Washington. Aug. 24-Expressions of deep regret were voiced by government officials without exception today over the total destruction of the giant airship ZR2 with heavy loss of American and British lives. Pride in the acquisition of the new queen of the afr and hopes of tremendous development in military and commercial aeronautics had lent special interest to the plauned-for- -trans-Atlan- tic flight of ths British-built air cruis- CT.
 Latest advices .o the navy depart ment indicated that of the seventeen members of the hand-pic1ed American crew on board during the test, only one. Quartermaster Norman o. Walker. of Commerce, Texas, had survived. Lon don despatches, however, put the Amer ican loss at r, dec airing "every Amer lean on board" was lost.
 Tt is a terrible thing" was the sad comment of Secretary Denby as he re- ceived cable despatches giving details of the catastrophe.
 NIT. Denby immediately forwarded to the British air ministry a message ex- pressing the sympathy of the navy de- partment
 "The navy department of the United States extends to the air ministry and the British navy deepest sympathy in the appalling disaster to the ZR-2." the message said. we hope our early re- ports will prove exaggerated as to loss of life"
 Not Discouraged By Disaster.
 Far from being discouraged by the disaster, naval aviation officials imme- diately prepared to seek authority for construction of a new ship of the ZR-2 tyne in the United States
 We will carry on; build and op- crate as many ZR-2s as may be au- thorlzed by congress-" Admiral William A. Moffett, chief of the naval bureau of aeronautics said tonight, "so that these brave men nay not have lost their lives In vain"
 Other aviation officers while greatly distressed declaAad that they had not lost faith In rigid airships. They point. ed out that Germany had built and suc- cessfully operated 140 ships of similar design, many of only slightly less car rying capacity, while English construc- tors had turned out IS.
 The only serious accidents recorded against these, so far as naval files in- dicate, was the wreck of an early Ger man Zeppelin over Lake Constance be- fore the war, and the smashing of the British R-54 when she ran atoul of her hangar.
 Oficial despatches tothe department did not contain any information upor which experts could base an opinion as to the cause of the disaster. The opinion was expressed, however, that il | the theory of an explosion of hygroger | gas in one or more of the fourteen com partments might be dismissed at once | Construction of these sections, and tht other precautionary measures taken iI designing the actual containers for thu | gas, It was said, rendered this possi ohity very remote.
 Struetural Weakness.
 The theory most generally expressed was that a structural waKness develop ed, similar to that reported officially b. ! American observers under date of Jul, IS, rupturing the envelope so as t bring the hot gases of the engine ex haust into contact with the hydrogen or that a buckling of structural brace might have punctured the fuel contain CTS, permitting the escaping gasoline t come Into contact with the exhaus lines
 Another possible cause of the acci dent, but considered remote, involved huckling of structural braces over o near one of the six "power-eggs'' whic carried the $50 horsepower engines.
 Accident July F.
 The report of July IS describing tn accident of the day before. pointed ou that the ship was able to stay alof more than four hours while the cre1 made an examination.
 From cause as yet undetermined, the report said, two intermediate trans verse frame and an intermediate long ltudinal frame buokled just aft of frarn seven"
 Repairs were immediately made an structural parts similar to those whic had failed were strengthened, sub sequent report said, suggesting that tn damage had been cadsed by overhead