Evening star., 1928-10-29
ZEPPELIN BIDS u. S.
GOODBY AND HEADS
NORTH TO GERMANY Y
r~o~tinned From First Page.)

1~~~tinuod From First Page)
manned in doubt. Zero hour for the
ground crew of sailors who have been
in constant attendance on the great
ship since its arrival from Europe two
weeks ago today was first set for 5
o'clock in the afternoon and then ad-
vanced to midnight. But even then no
one seemed really to believe that the
ship would leave.
Rush Passengers Aboard.
But midnight came, and action fol-
lowed with breathless swiftness. The
passengers were bundled aboard, chat
ting feverishly and grinning with some
thing of desperation in their smiles.
The ground crew, more than 300
sailors trained to such events by fire.
quent handling of the Los Angeles,
marched to their posts and grasped
the air monster as unceremoniously as
a mother pushes a baby carriage. The
great east doors of the hangar ground
open on their track. and the night
waited into the hangar with its invita-
ton of limitless space to be traversed
by those VINO dare.
An officer barked terse command.
The great ship stirred through It's whole
seemed to heave and rise. It was like a
giant signing at the thought of activity
expected of him, activity that cannot
be postponed
Goes Out With Ease.
Out of the hangar the sailors walked
the Graf Zeppelin as though it were a
little blimp such as the two that have
hudGled under the tail of the Navy
dirigible Los Angeles since the Graf
Zeppelin came to crowd them into one
corner of the hangar.
At 80 the Graf Zeppelin was clear
Of the hangar, and so had passed one
of the most perilouS moments of any
flight. For one of the greatest dangers
is the possibility of some errant gust
of wind pushing the ship against the
hangar walls and ripping its silver
tianks against the steel bulkheads
Out in the night the Zeppelin was a
great black monster with fin of silver
down its back where the moon struck.
1t twisted toward the north and moved
ponderously, under the sailors expert
guidance, to a hollow far enough from
the hangar so that there would be no
danger of being blown against the tow
ering steel structure. And then:
weigh ship" an officer beloved.
Engines Roar in Night.
The ground crew released its many
handed hold. The Graf Zeppelin, a
giant waking from a deep sleep, lifted
it's head slowly as though shifting the
relish of the morning air, and then a
roar of five great engines split the
night. i.
Propelled by those engines, the Graf
Zeppelin shot upward toward the moon.
and circled ma jestically overhead. Once
in the air, all its sluggiShness seemed
to have vanished From an ungainly
brute such as burrowed in mud and
wallowed across the wastes in time
before man was known, it had sudden
ly become a fairy thing, light and
graceful and utterly Scornful OF the
human help which had been so need
full to it on the ground.
In a large circle it swung about
the air station that had been its tenn
porary home since its arrival from Ger
many and then headed eastward toward
the ocean it must cross to return to its
home station. 1t started into the air
at :54 this morning and at 2 1t was
nothing more than a gray blot against
the moon. And then 1t was nothing
at ALL The Graf Zeppelin, come to
America from across the seas, had
gone back whence 1t came.
During the first hour Of the flight