Evening star., 1924-10-16

ed them. The temperature rises in
spite of the clouds towards evening.
1t is almost too warm now. In the
middle of the evening we discovered
that half of our trip was behind u.s..
Yet we had used up only one third
of our fuel supply. Once we lost
radio touch with the rest of the world
but now we have been directly in
touch with the U. S. S. Detroit, which
is giving us reports on the weather.
Everything on board the vessel is
functioning admirably, and l am glad
too, that the provisions ! made ready
are meeting with so much applause; /;
originally we intended to take with
us only the simplest sort of food, but
at the last minute we decided that We
would do ourselves a bit better, since
good "eats" keep up ones spirit amaz-
ingly. 1t is so warm right now that
l am sitting In my cabin writing in
my pajamas since it's quite too hot to
stay dressed up.
4:30 a. m.. October 14.-Relieyed at
- o'clock, and on watch till 4, mean
while the wind has gained in force
until at last the thermometer shows
II meters from the southwest, so that
we have to reckon with the drift of
33 degrees off the course. We've just
got the first news from America. By
with the S. S. President Harding We
have also obtained news of the
weather which seems to be rather un-
favorable. We must look out as we
go to the South for a storm center ly-
ing off Newfoundland and go around
it so that we can then approach the
coast with more favorable winds.
(The following entries in the diary
cover the trip as the ZR-3 approached
New York, circled ii and landed at
Lakehurst.)
We were doing 70 miles an hour as
we passed over Bridgeport, Conn,
with engines working perfectly.
There was a beautiful sunrise, and
we were thrilled with our first day
light view of America. All on board
were busy and excited making prep
arations for landing and getting the
ship in order. Steamers greeted us
with their sirens as we reached New
York. The city was, in mist, which
cleared as we circled the Statue of
Liberty as "A greeting to New York.
Then / saw the motor launch wait
ing to receive my message to the
North American Newspaper Alliance.
/ dropped the message, and as we
proceeded up Broadway and Riverside
drive we could distinctly hear the
cheers of the crowds below. All
steamers we passed gave us greeting
with flags and sirens. Rising to a
height of 10000 feet for valving off
gas we got a magnificent view of the
city.
From New York we proceeded
straight to Lakehurst. sending a
message that we expected to arrive
at 9:3O. We sighted the great hangar
at Lakehurst when We were about
15 minutes out from New York.
Our time was short to prepare for
landing and we had innumerable
things to do. AS we landed / jumped
out, as it was necessary to tighten the
ship, and so / was the first man from
the ship to set foot on American soil.
The flight was success in every
way and / thoroughly believe dem
onstrated the feasibility of safe and
pleasant transoceanic travel by Yep
pelins When we landed we had
left six tons of gasoline out of 81
with which we started Although we
met heavy winds the ship met them
all bravely. She lost only 81 per cent
of her gas which is a splendid show
ing considering the distance and the
conditions of flight The engines
functioned perfectly.
downright 1924. United States, Canada. Great
Britain, South America and Japan by North
American Newspaper Alliance.)