The Omaha morning bee., 1924-12-04

TOW Ii@lnE WITH tilhh@ u TVS ai"h
2ao feet It was raining to beat the
band and stiff gale was blowing IN
from the open seas. Straight across
| thousands of miles OF the Pacific
ocean great swells were rolling toward
the coast. Fully 40 or so feet high.
those cold gray waves looked TO me as
leaned over the edge of the cockpit.
Hurting themselves against the rocky
cliffs of Cape Caution. those great
rollers broke up into spume and spin
drift that shot hundreds of feet into
the air.
Through Rain, Sleet and Hal.
Rounding Calvert island, we swung
| to the right and again sought the
shelter of the inside passage. But
from then on there wasn't a clear
stretch of water all the way In to
Prince Rupert. Sometimes we were
flying through driving rain, some
times through fleecy snow, sometimes
through sheets of sleets and twice We
had to fly through squalls of hail
| The hail pelted the fuselage and
wings with a rat-ta-tat-tat like the
rattle of machine guns.
After cropping our way over Bella
Bella, Milbank sound. Aristazable
island. Estevan and Napean sounds,
Petrol and Ogden channels. and Ma.
lacca passage, at ASS In the after.
noon we reached Prince Rupert In
driving snowstorm. We came down
into a sheltered refuge from the
winds. a place entirely surrounded
by high wooded hills called Seal Cove.
Close Call for Martin.
Blinded by snow storm and with
his engine giving trouble, Major
Martin and Sergeant Harvey nearly
| ended their flight right then and
there The Seattle side slipped and
fell 80 feet. Imagine four tons OF
airplane crashing that distance into
the water, The shock broke the outer
struts on the left hand side and snap
ped the vertical wires and 1t was
indeed remarkable that no more
damage than that was done.
with an exclamation of disgust,
Harvey took the rabbits foot which
had been presented to him in Sacra-
inento and hurled 1t into the sea. He
said instead of it turning out to be
good luck charm he was sure it
was jinx. But had he known what
trouble lay just ahead, no doubt he
and Major Martin, and in fact all OF
us. would have prayed before every
totem pole in Alaska and would have
called in the local Indian medicine men
| to exert their influence with the
thunder birds and other spirits of the
far north.
Welcomed by Canadians.
"'Y6u have arrived on the worst
day In 10 years. said the representa-
tives Of the Canadian government
who We're standing in the snow await
| ing us when we came ashore from
our planes at Sea Cove. However. we
| sincerely appreciated their not des-
cribing 1t as the worst day in 40
years. Perhaps their British conser-
vation accounts for this surprising
restraint" says Lieutenant Arnold in
his diary in telling of the long jump
from Seattle to Prince Rupert.
This flight of $50 miles through
| 125 miles of fog and 275 miles of rain.
sleet, snow and hail. against strong
head winds and stiff cross gales,
had taken us eight hours and 10 min
utes. And here for the first time we
saw what splendid preliminary ar
rangements had been made for US by
the chief of air service.
"As soon as we had gotten ashore
| the Canadians regaled us with hot
tea and other beverages for which
Canada Is famous, and our first
toast was to Captain Bissell. whose
advance arrangements were perfect.
not only with regard to facilities for
mooring the planes but regarding
everything else that might come up
In Prince Rupert.
Repair Martins Cruiser.
"Our chief problem now was to get
the Seattle repaired after Its crash.
All that night Major Martin rolled
and tossed in his bed. And no wonder.
Had the ship not been so wonderfully
constructed by Donald Douglas. 1t
never would have withstood that 30
foot plung into the water without
more than a few struts and vertical
| brace wires swapping.
However. after a through inyesti-
cation our confidence in our planes
increased so per cent We discovered
to our JOY that the majors ship had
not been hopelessly strained and
could be repaired. There are big ship
yards in Prince Rupert so with the
aid of a 50-ton crane we hoisted the
four-ton Seattle up onto a dry dock.
Lucky for us, British Columbia
| is the land where the finest spruce In
the world Is grown. But we were luck
lest of all in finding a man whose
| Job during the war had been the
making of. airplane struts. He work
ed all that day. all night and part OF
the next day. carving out new struts
for the Seattle, and meanwhile we got
out some extra wires that we had
brought along. cut them to the right
lengths and fixed the Seattle up good
as new. Then we oiled the wires on
the other planes and looked the ships
over with great care before riskng
them to the perils OF the next lap
that was to take us on into Alaska.
1.-THE people OF Prince Rupert gave
us an official banquet, and although
this is new city, In a remote corner
of Canada. those who attended were
dressed as though In a Fifth avenue
or a Pail Mall club. Before we left
Seattle we had shipped all our dress
uniforms Off to Japan. We had moth
| ing with us except the heavy woolen
shirts q nd trousers. sWeaters. chamos