Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-01-19
RUNAWAY A|RSH|P ! ]
RETURNS IN SAFETY
AF TER ROUGH TRIP
Shenandoah'S Nose Torn
Away With Mooring Gear
but She Weathers Seventy
Mile Wind yiz

LAKEHURST, n. j., Jan. 11.--By
the Associated Press).-The Shenan-
doah, largest airship in the world,
poked her nose into her hangar at
the naval air station at 4:24 o'clock
this morning after competing the
most remarkable flight a ship of her
type ever made. She was buffeted by
a wind that blew at Y miles an hour
at times.
This gale twisted the giant craft
from her towering mooring mast at
6:52 o'clock last night and swept her
up the Atlantic coast to Staten Is
land, New York City, where Captain
Anton Heinen, in command when
she broke away, turned her nose in
to the teeth of the storm and
Unanswered her back to her home
port.
Not a man in her crew of % was
injured. They took 1t as q joke.
The ship herself lay in her hangar
like naughty school boy whose
truancy had brought him ill-luck, her
nose was battered and she was some
what scratched. A hasty inspection
showed that her front castells, or
pas bags, had collapsed when she
was torn away by the wind; the COW
ering of her upper fin had been
stripped off and wrapped around the
rudder, making the craft eXceeding-
ly difficult to steer, while there was
sligi Damage to her outer covering,
'he material being rent nearly up to
Ter nose,
Best Ship of Her Type
Captain Heinen, who had seen the
Shenandoah built, and who had tried
out more than 100 other aircraft on
their maiden voyages, said after he
had landed that without doubt the
navy craft was the strongest con-
structed ship of her type ever made.
II do not believe any other ship
in which l have flown would have
success sfully gone through the gale
she did last night he said. There
is mot a bit of doubt but what she
will successfully complete her polar
region flight planned for next month.
We will not likely experience such q
terrific storm as was raging along
the Atlantic coast yesterday. If we
do we can easily enough run arouna
it.
1--WE had the ship under perfect
central within five minutes after the
nose cap was torn off. We rose SOC
feet and continued moving at that
eleI alton until we reached the coast
lear Summit, N. j., when we went
up to about 1900 feet.
1.-THE flying conditions were I'M
favorable, as it was raining hard.
However, when we reached New
York the weather cleared and we
found we had reached the port side
of the storm. We headed out over
Staten Island and thenceforth nosed
the ship against a 25-mile wind and
flew to Perth Amboy.
Merely Rode With Wind
From there we drifted to a point
over Keyport and then nosed the
reached Freehold. From there to
Lakehurst we rode with the wind"
When the craft broke loose last
night there was a furore of excite
ment at the station. She had been
moored to the 165-foot mast which
was built in the shape of the Eiffel
lOWGL III L lIlS, anu was Undergoing
a ten-day test of her actions in such
a position in preparation for flight
to the North Pole. Eight minutes
more and she would have been fast.
to the mast exactly four days.
Captain f. r. McCrary, comman-
dant of the station, and Commander
r. D. Weyerbacher, who designed
her, had just descended from aboard
the ship, by way of the mast, and
gone to dinner. Suddenly there
came crash. Officers and enlisted
men rushed from barracks in va
rious degrees of uniforms just in
time to see the Shenandoah lurch
from side to side, then gradually
ascend, sending down a shower of
fragments of her torn-out rigging.
Help Impossible
Help was impossible. At that
time the wind was blowing from the
southeast at about sixty or sixty-fve
miles an hour. There was some
consolation in the fact that the gale
would carry the craft inland instead
Of eastward to the sea.
There was rush to the top OF
the mast to determine if possible
what damage had been done. There
it was found that the metal nose
cap into which converged the crafts
entire framework had been torn
away and left dangling on the mast.
The radio set on the Shenandoah
had been out of working order DUR
ing the day and no word came for
an hour. Telephone and telegraph
wires about Lakehurst had been
blown down by the storm and off,
GERS could get no information as to
the ships whereabouts.
Then after an hour's anxious
waiting there came through the air 4
this message: sf%
Everything all right. We will
ride out the storm"
DOUBT AS TO POLAR FLIGHT
DISPELLED BY INCIDENT
WASHINGTON, Jan. 17.-Naval
ctlcers who have had doubts about
using the great dirigible Shenan-
doah for the projected polar flight
appeared to be completely converted
today by the performance of the big
ship in riding out last nights gale
after being torn from her mooring
mast at Lakehurst.
Secretary DENLY telegraphed his
congratulations to the crew of the
Shenandoah who brought her back
in safety. Mrs. DENLY sent her
CALCULATIONS.
The secretary also issued a formal
statement outlining what was known
so far at the navy department of
the incident. He concluded with a
paragraph disclosing the determina-
ton Of the navy department to get
the Shenandoah ready promptly for
the polar expedition she is to make
this summer.
From all our information" Mr..
Dpnhv ca lid Hit mar ha a ccn,rtoI rrri4II