Evening star., 1924-05-12
MARTIN DESCRIBES
r PREVIOUS ACCIDENT
Tells of Mishap After Leaving
Seward, in Letter Made
Public by Wife.
FOUND OIL EXHAUSTED
Major and Companion Spent Bad
: Night in Ship.
By the Associe ted Press

Ten just d snort Wnlle De1ore ne
dropped from sight, and sent from
kanatak. tells in epic terms the ex-
periences of the American aviators
who are endeavoring to give the
world a new conquest in mechanic
and transportation.
An optimistic tone characterizes
the letter. which reads:
Our experience was one with the
greatest possibilities of disaster. but
none of the experiences we actually
underwent was the least bit danger
ous-uncomfortable, yes: but not re-
curing the overcoming of obstacles
well nigh insurmountable
Flight From Seward.
We four left Seward at 1910 am.
April 15 after getting many weather
reports all along the line as we were
pretty we'll fed up on the flying con-
day, the only good day we had en-
loyed for a flight. Nelson was lead
ing, as | have been giving them all
chance at it He held direct on the
lovely. "s
The water never looked danger
"usly rough and the mountains at
me shore were like glistening white
W passed through Shelf
hoH Strait. just off the northeast
shore of Afognak Island; thence up
me midchannel of the strait, half
way between Kodiak Island and the
Nlaskan Peninsula. l could check the
FeadinS of my instruments occa-
*Ionally. At 2:20 1 wrote Harvey a
note to pass me up a sandwich.
finished eating it when Harvey raised
up ana looked at the instrument
board. thing he had never done
before.
Found No Oil Pressure.
Harvey noticed that we had no
oil pressure. We were then flying at
an altitude of 1000 feet, about three
miles off Cape Igvak, at the west
side of Portage Bay. throttled
down and. using the engine as little
as possible. glided to the lee side of
the cape, where the water was fairly
smooth, TAXED down the beach to a
holnt where we could expect to reach
III, bottom with our anchor and 100
feet of line, came to within 200 feet
of shore and dropped anchor.
Harvey looked at the engine and
found hole in the crank case you
,ould stick your fist in The left
side of the fuselage was smeared with
oil. l don't know how long this had
heen going on. This happened at
$40 pm, and as ] was sure the 9TH
crs saw US, I expected them to re-
turn in about three hours. or as
soon as they could get gas at CHG
mix, 100 miles away.
AT SIS this hope was abandoned.
We knew we were on the worst part
of the coast of Alaska for high winds
and in the home OF the woolles'
which did not make US feel very COM
Portable, although it had been won
derful day and gave promise of
wonderful night. 1t was showing
when we landed and showed inter
nittently for an hour just in our
Immediate vicinity.
Saw Storm Brewing.
"At 8 o'clock there seemed to be a
storm brewing in the southwest and
Harvey suggested we work ourselves
as near shore as we could, pulling
on the anchor line and throwing out
the ten pound anchor we had aboard,
get twice the length of the anchor
line toward the shore and wade the
rest of the distance. By 50 doing we
could save our lives, but would
doubtless cause the ship to be SO
damaged as to ruin our chances OF
completing the trip
I'VE had our baggage all ready to
do this when l made a careful survey
of the sky and could see no indica-
lions. although 1t might blow at any
time l told Harvey l did not want
him to do anything he did not think
wise, but l was going to stay on the
ship and try to save 1t he salo,
without any hesitancy, am going
to stay with you So we put every
thing back, crawled in our cockpits
and made ourselves as comfortable as
possible for the night.
Had Wonderful Night.
"The moon came out and the clouds
disappeared. The moonlight on the
water and the snow in the mountains
watch wepg TcS' $50 to ESQ. It was deathiy
quiet, except for six little butter
balls which played and spooned on
The water in the moonlight. 1 sort
pf resented the fact that thew were
so happy so isolated from mankind,
and l was SO lonesome.
AT 1915 Harvey stirred around
and said l could go to sleep, as he
could not. 1 slept until 2:10 am,
when l awakened cold and stiff. My
legs are too long to stretch out in
those cockpits. After this we cat
mapped a little until 4, when Harvey
pulled the cockpit covers over him
and went to sleep. The moon went
down at this time; it had been most
faithful and had been on the job all
night long, SO it was entitled to a
rest.
Saw Wisp of Smoke.
AT 4:55 am. saw a wisp of smoke
on the horizon to the southeast
which 1 was afraid to believe came
from boat. The field glasses were
behind Harvey and 1 did not wish to
awaken him until 1 was sure. In a
few minutes l was sure and there
seemed to be two. I awakened Har-
Ney, who was pleased to hear the
news. With the glasses you could
see the smoke was coming from two
boats, but the boats were still out
of sight. When they came into view
l saw they were destroyers, but /
was nonpulussed, as 1 did not know
we had any destroyers in these
waters and I was quite sure no
Japanese deStroyers would be in
these waters.
when the leading boat was well
abreast of us and about three or four
miles away I fired a white rocket
two more at minute intervals. The
leading destroyer, the Cory, slowed
down and finally hove to, but after
a short wait started on. The second
one. the Hull, had slowed down about
two miles astern. AS the Cory start
ed to move on 1 fired three red rock
cts. The Hull came into the east
side of the bay, then cruised to the
Tar end and dropped anchor, remain
ing I'll there re. until n7tn, O'Clock. when she
ing her carefully, as we could not
understand why she did not come
over to us, and we had used all OF
our Very pistol ammunition. The
HUI finally turned in our direction
and about half a mile away she
dropped anchor and sent launch to
us with the executive officer and
towed us astern. We went aboard
and the captain of the Hull, Lieut.
Commander Hilliard, gave US some
around to hear our story"
Maj. Martin closed his letter by re-
counting the arrival of the coast
guard cutter Algonquin with spare
engine and parts, and said:
This is one of the windiest places
in the world and l will heaye a sigh