The Washington times., 1929-08-20
V0N WIEGAND Tells HOW ZEP
HAS SHORTENED TINE AND SPACE

peculiar. interest. Not one
moment Of the entire trip was
anyone nervous, except, perhaps,
yesterday with its spectacular
dash over a 6.000-foot mountain
range which separated as from
the Sea of Okhotsk. Then, for
the first time. l heard the word
danger"
Beneath hs. with o wide hori-.
zon on either side, unrolled q
broad, ever-changing panorama
of more than 5000 miles from
Germany to Japan such as no
man or woman before has seen
as we did in scarcely more than
four days. / wonder If anyone
living has seen as much of re-
mote Russia and unknown ST.
IBERIA as we?
Pass Far North
We passed over miles of
forest and had our first deep
look into the mysteries of North
ern Asia. We passed within 40
miles of the Arctic Circle.
There we had a STORM. s1f-
ficient enough to engross us in
play with the elements.
We travelled in great comfort
except for the cold, which no one
seemed to mind. We felt like
explorers.
Sir Hubert Wilkins was seldom
away from his seat on the win
dowledge where he gazed out
with notebook in hand. In the
storm, and again in the hurdle
of the mountains, Lady Hav
proved the true daughter Of Eng
land.
Comdr. C. E. Rosendahl and
Lieut.. Jack C. Richardson, the
United States naval observ-
ers, missed nothing. Com
mander Fujiyoshi, of the Jap
anese navy, was ever silent,
seldom asking questions but
always alertly cbservant in the
navigation room. Leeds, the
American multimillonaire, is a
pleasant personality, and he was
a general favorite aboard.
Group CongeniaI
Joachim Rickard had all his
schoolboy thrills renewed. On
the whole, it was the most con-
GENIAL crowd of passengers that
+! have ever seen in all my graf
flights.
The weather was extraordi-
narily favorable until last night.
over the tartary straits between
Saghalien Island, the mainland
and Japan. Here we encountered
dirty squalls, clouds and rain.
After the toughest night of
the entire trip. we crossed the
narrow neck of Hokkaido Island
at Vulcan Bay and went down
the Pacific side of the Island of
Nippon.
From Berlin to Port Ayan. on
the Sea of Okhotsk, we ran
four motors. Thereafter we
used five motors.
The greater part of Saturday
the Graf flew blind-that E.
outside of wireless touch most
of the day. Therefore, we had
no knowledge of what weather
was ahead until late Saturday
night, when we got into wireless
communication with Japanese
stations. However, our con-
slant signals were received all
day Saturday when we believed
we were out of hearing.
The Soviet weather service
made commendable efforts to
assist us, but the information
reaching US in Siberia was
meager at best.
Locate u. s. Ship
The commodore was relieved
when operators picked up the
cruiser Pittsburgh, bound from
Darien, which gave us a report
of a fresh typhoon meandering
up the japanese Sea, which DR..
Eckener correctly calculated
would be past by the time we
arrived in that vicinity.
The Japanese stations, when
we contacted them. also kept
DR.. Eckeher informed, and later
gave excellent cooperation.
We knew Friday that storms
and squalls were in our path
over Siberia; Saturday we en-
countered them. They were spec
tacular but had no bad effects.