The Monmouth inquirer., 1924-01-24
SHENANDOAH FIT
FOR POLAR TRIP
Great Navy Dirigible, Torn From
Her Mast by Gale, Rides
Out Storm.
NIGHT FULL OF PERIL
Descends at Lakehurst. New Jersey,
After . Wild Runaway Trip
Ground Crew Of 800 Hauls the
Great Craft to Hangar.

Ground Crew OF SUI r1auts tne
Great Craft to Hangar.
Lakehurst, N. 1.-THE naval dirigi-
BILE Shenandoah. torn from its moor
ings by sizzling sou-easter at 6:52
D. m. wednesday and blown sixty
miles to the north shore before It
even could head into the wind was
back at the naval air station at Lake
hurst, N. j., at 2:15 o'clock In the
morning. 1t weathered gale which
reached a velocity of seventy miles
an hour and survived a test as severe
as any it is likely to face until 1t
starts on its trip to the North Pole
next summer. Not man was injured
and the ship was kept under control.
The ship was brought to the ground
at the hangar door at $3.50 a. M
Thursday.
The huge dirigible. with two officers
and nineteen aboard, was blown as
far as Newark before 1t gave evil
dence Of strength to buck the wind,
though even before then Its officers
had radioed their confidence that they
would ride out the storm. 1t was ,: IL
when the airship was sighted above
Newark. and for two hours it fought
bitterly to make Roadway against the
gale. At 1870 it had safely crossed
the Kill Won Kull and was heading
homeward across Staten Island.
For an hour the airship battled with
the wind above Staten Island. 1t was
at an altitude estimated at not more
than $50 feet. The clouds had broken
up and scattered. The moon was shin
ing. Village after village turned out
to watch the fight the seaman Of the
air were making against the gale.
Just at midnight the wireless opera
tor at the army air station at Mitchell
Field picked up the following mes
sage from the Shenandoah:
AT South Amboy. Making good
four miles an hour to the south.
"PEARCE."
By 1870 it was obvious that the
men were winning. The wind was
dying and the dirigible had cleared
the shores of Staten Island. crossed
the Lower Bay and was heading south
by west for the landing field at Lake
hurst, where flood lights still blazed
and all hands were on duty watching
for the searchlight of the airship.
The crew on board-one of three
who have been alternating at watches
since Saturday, when the airship
started a seven-day test at the moor
ing mast in preparation for its Arctic
voyage-was the least experienced of
those who have been handling the
big vessel.
The commander of the ship was at
mess. His own picked crew would
have gone on duty with him in an
hour and eight minutes. Captain An
ton Heinen, consulting engineer at
the station and an authority on lighter
than air craft, was aboard the Shen-
andoah. with Commander M. R.
Pearce and crew Of twenty.
The officers had recognized that the
crisis was passed even before watch
ers in Newark picked up the airship
and realized the plucky light 1t was
making. At clio p. m. the following
indomitable message from Commander
Pearce was picked up at Mitchell
Field:
"All o. K Will ride out storm. We
think we are over New Brunswick.
Holding our own. Verify position and
send us weather information"
From s:1S until after 10 o'clock the
Shenandoah lowered over Newark
The pilot succeeded in turning the
great ship in spite OF the gale, and at
10 p. m. was bucking a wind of about
fifty miles an hour.
BY midnight the terrific gale which
had torn the Shenandoah loose from
her moorings had abated. The wind
had lowered from velocity which
had reached rs miles an hour to
something like 20 miles. The rain
had ceased and the sky had cleared.
AS soon as the Shenandoah returned
to Lakehurst, three hundred enlisted
men reached up into II air for her
ropes and hauled her safely into her
hangar.