Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-19
WOMAN PASSENGER.
ENJOYED CRUISE.
Praises Work of Zeppelin
Officers and Crew in
Forced Landing.

The only woman PASSENGER on board
the Graf Zeppelin. Mrs Mary Pierce. of
200 Park avenue. New YORK. tells in the
BY MRS. MARY PIERCE,
AS Told to Leland Stove.
By Cable to The Star
CUERS- NEAR TOU-
LON, France, May 1--we had q
wonderful trip on the Graf Zeppelin,
and here. about 8 o'clock last night we
landed where We had least expected to
arrive. Our ship. with one engine still
turning, descended as gently as possible
down the airfield of the French airport
base Of Cuers-Pierrefeu under Comdr.
Hugo Eckeners remarkably skillful
plotting, and was taken into the gigan-
tic hangar which once housed the ILL
fated Dixmude.
Thanks to the generous help OF sew
eral hundred French soldiers and
civilians. our great air liner came to
rest without single scratch. We are
all grateful, We passengers, as well as
DR.. Eckener and his crew.
I am sure we all regret very much
that engine trouble prevented our reach
ing New York, and when that became
impossible, we all hoped with equal
fervor that we would be able to regain
Friedrichshafen. There is so much
to be happy over that I suppose you
shouldn't be very regretful but I could
not help wishing that we could have
flown back to Friedrichshafen In the
Graf Zeppelin.
1t Is such beautiful ship. Not one
Of us was seasick at any moment. even
when we were bouncing around over the
Rhone Valley. And despite the fact
that had never been up in any kind
Of aircraft before. found the Zeppelin
the most comfortable means of travel
imaginable. Like all the other paSsen-
gers. am anxious to go in 1t again.
Officers and Crew Cool.
At the beginning I think 1t should
be said that we had some exciting
moments, but there was nothing like
panic, and none badly lost his head,
certainly all the officers and crew were
marvelously cool and efficient. Before
the example set by DR.. Eckener. Capt.
Lehman, Won Schiller and the rest,
we soon felt there was no need Of wor-
rying about ourselves. We were only
afraid that we might land at some
point where the ship would be dam
aged, and that would have been a
shame.
You ask when the real excitement
began. Well, when our fourth engine
remember, was little after o'clock
yesterday afternoon. Then we knew
1t looked rather bad.
DR.. Eckener came into the salon and
said. we are going to try to make a
landing. We have only one engine left
and we'll have to land as soon as pos
sible"
Then he explained that It would be
difficult and somewhat dangerous, but
we must take every precaution. DR..
Eckener said that when the Zeppelin
landed the ship was bound to sustain
some damage. He ordered us, when the
ship approached the ground, to go into
the salon and stay there, as part Of the
front cabin might be broken away.
Then he went back into the control
room.
A little later became so anxious to
see what the officers were doing that I
walked into the control room and sat
down beside Lieut.. Comdr. Vincent
Clarke beside window. was afraid
they would tell me to leave, but they
didn't. 1t was most exciting there and
I wouldn't have missed it.
You could hear all the orders and
see everything Both DR.. Eckener and
his officers and crew were marvellous.
There were very serious faces in that
room.
Every order was carried out at once.
DR.. Eckener stood before the control.
He seemed to see everything at one
time and to give six orders at once.
He was perfectly calm, but very, very
grave.
It was when we were trying to make
landing. Four engines had gone, and
we had every reason to believe that
the others would 60 soon. We were
only making IS miles an hour then
and the wind was terribly strong.
Every few minutes DR.. Eckener would
give new orders by telephone to the men
In the engine cabins on both sides
and in back. The orders were all in
German. but we could make some sense
out of them.
Roads Filled With Autos.
I was sitting beside Lieut.. Comdr.
Vincent Clarke, and could see beauti-
fully. Far below and to one side the
the road was clogged with automobiles,
which by this time were trying to fol-
low us. Autos filled with scores of
French troops from Valence or some
where near there were racing to get
under us and help pull us down, but
the wind made 1t impossible. We could
not get low enough. and were continue
ally blown of toward the coast and
the south.
Now and then we dropped messages.
including newspaper dispatches, but I
Judge that they were all blown into
fields or onto the sides of mountains.
The officers and crew were fighting a
great battle to try to get us down. Hav-
ing failed in the Rhone Valley, we went
eastward into another Valley think
they call it the Drome. It was even
worse there, because the wind was much
stronger.
Comdr Clark kept saying: I'VE are
too high. we are too high. I wish they
would 60 lower" His idea was that
there should be less wind nearer the
ground, but DR.. Eckener and the Yep
pelin crew knew what they were doing.
Every time we went lower We got caught
high up into attitudes.
When you are in position like that
you sort of trust in the knowlt dge and
skill Of the men handling the ship and
they were truly wonderful. II We had
landed there the airShip would surely
have been destroyed. and If there had
been-well, an explosion don't sup
pose We wculd be here.
I remember how while We were be-
ing buffeted around there, Mr.. Nichol-
son was walking about and saving:
why don't they land now" Then
he would say: "Oh no, I'm not nervous,
I'm just thinking OF my family"
Only Few Got Nervous.
But I think only one or two people
got nervous, and you could not blame
them. I remember when DR.. Eckener
warned U.S. we would have to try to
land and the ship might be damaged.
Mr.. Nathan got very excited and said:
Give me q parachute, I want to
jump" He was excited for while. but
it didn't last long. Even SO. he was too
highly strung to stay at Tuulon last
night. He took taxi right away for
~. a