Evening star., 1927-08-20

no difficulty. Light-hearteoly lhey
careened through the air as some OF
their messages indicated. A feW
picked at random follow: :.
At 5:04 pm, we see ship ahead OF
us. Presumably the Maua. We VIII
go down to wave to them.
5:11 pm. Just passed the 5. 5.
Mana and dipped in salute. They
answered on the whistle. or course
we could not hear it, but we saw the
steam.
5:45 p.m.-Just saw a rum runner
on the left and had hell Of time
keeping Ike in-Bill.
5:57 p.m.-We are now about to
! have supper. viii call you again
after supper.
Cos p.m.-Please tell the gentleman
| who furnished our lunch that 1t is
fine, but we can't find the toothplcks-
Bill.
71o p.m.-Have seen no wreckage
or anything that might be either OF
the ones we are looking for
Forced Back in Race.
| Capt. Erwin took the Dallas Spirit
out last Tuesday as starter In the
| Dole race, but he was forced back to
| Oakland with torn fuselage. caused
by the ripping of the canvas border
| ing a window on the fuselage bottom.
He made repairs and put out yester-
day to fly a zig-Zag course to Homo
| lulu in quest of his unheard-from
competitors in the race.
Ships at sea rushed under forced
] draught early today to a spot approx
imately 500 nautical miles west from
| San Francisco, where the Dallas
| Spirit sent out an SOS" call after
it had gone into two successive tail
spins. Approximately 25 ships were
| steaming over the great circle route In
search of the plane.
Two Destroyers 108 Miles Away.
The United States destroyers Lavel-
| lette and Sumner were believed to be
| the vessels nearest the Dallas Spirit.
| The Lavellette and the Sumner were
| reported 108 miles east of the air.
| o'clock last night.
| The destroyers HaZelwood and
| Movers and the aircraft tender Lang
| ley were hurrying to the rescue.
The tanker Frank G.. Drum was re-
| ported go miles from the spot pro-
ceeding at full speed.
The steamer Pleidon, bound from
| Auckland, New Zealand. to San Fran
cisco, moved under forced draught to
reach the planes position at IL
| o'clock this morning, the Radio Cor
potation was notified by the captain.
The PIeidon headed for latitude
3s.16 and longitude 1880 on the es-
| innate that the plane would be In that
position when 1t went into the spin,
| basing this figure on an estimate OF
So nautical miles an hour from the
time of the last position given by the
| Dallas Spirit at GAO pm.
Believes Spin Broke Radio.
Emory Bronte, navigator OF the
plane which Ernest l.. Smith or san
| Francisco few from the Oakland mu,
nicipal airport to Hawaii. declared
that tail spin could have thrown the
radio set of the Dallas Spirit out OF
condition.
"A hundred things could have hap.
pened in a tail spin to disable the
| radio" Bronte declared, but II the
plane went into two spins consecutive
lv it looks as though they might nave
gone into the water
The pilot must have lost control or
the Ship" Bronte said, "or his con
trolls might have broken. Certainly In
a tail spin there would not be much
chance for them 10 get life raft out
for use after they hit the water.
| But the Dallas Spiflt was very
fine ship, and l am rather inclined to
think that the spins threw the radio
set out Of commission and that Capt.
Erwin pulled the ship level before it
hit the water The radio sets aboard
the planes are generally flung In, more
or less, and not securely fastened
down. A spin could easily break the
connections and disarrange the instru'
ments."
HAWAIIAN WATERS SEARCHED