Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-11-11
FIRST SEA FLIGHT
OF DO-X DESCRIBED
Inventor Sees New World
Commerce to ResuIt-Trip
Like That of Train.
BY WADE WERNER,

Correspondent for the Associated Press who
made the fight aboard the DO-X from
leg Of the airplane's fight to the United
States.
CALSHOT, England, November IL
The Flying Hotel DO-X" hoisted It
self by its own bootstraps off the
Zuider Zee yesterday for a running
Jump across nearly 400 miles of North
Sea and English Channel and set itself
down here smoothly at the end of che
second stretch of its transatlantic
flight to New York
Fifteen men in her crew, 81 passen-
gers. black cat and Hans the canary
shared the first sea-going trip this So
ton giant has made since she few to
Amsterdam from Altenrhein, Switzer-
land, where she was Matched
Flight Is EpochaI One.
1t was an epochal trip, from the time
when the big ship flirted the last of
Hollands sea from its tail only to drop
back on the water for a minute, while
some minor engine repairs we're made.
Repairs made, the ship took off again
for Calshot.
Flying across the open water, the
scenery at first inspiring, quickly got
monotonous. There were miles of Eng
fish Channel to Starboard and only a
hazy outline of continental coast to
port. The passengers took to pacing
the decks as though on an ordinary
steamer.
Up forward from where the corre-
spondent sat, within bird-seed's throw
from the cage of Hans, the canary, the
American bar began to function early.
The feature Of life on the upper decks
seemed to be noise like a boiler fac
tory, and the interior of the ire
mendous wings looked like the night
mare OF sky-scraper steel worker.
Crew Is Cosmopolitan.
All in all this was an international
venture. Among the passengers, three
OF whom were women, were eight Ger
mans, six Hollanders, three Americans.
two Italians, one English woman and
one JugoslaY. In the crew were Ger
mans, SWISS and Americans, and DO-X
itself built by Germans in Switzerland
burned American gasoline in American
motors
The black cat belonged to Lady, Grace
Drummond-Hay She tied it to a port
hole to prevent hostilities with the
canary and walked the deck with the
rest of the ships company
Up forward at the dual controls were
Clarence Dutch" Schiidhauer, an
American, who used to be a destroyer
officer shipping U-boats IN the Chan
mel, and horst Merz, who piloted Ger
man seaplanes during the war.
FIoridian Is Engineer.
In the midst of the deafening racket
from the IL engines was Harvey Brew
ten, the American engineer, who sent
down word from time to time that his
IL water cooled babies" were humming
sweet as a breakfast grapefruit. Brew
ton is a Florida boy. His aide, Joe
Cody, who comes from Mount Vernon
N. Y. spent lot of time. by and large,
asking him whether he had forgotten
the red flannel underwear he had said
he was going to buy in Amsterdam.
But the big ship roared along with
less vibration than railroad train.
From the cabin portfolios the outboard
engines on either side looked like twin
silver locomotives racing along the
main line of the ship. They were half
block away from the cabin windows,
but the ships company soon got &C.
customed to their roar.
Builder Of Plane Restless.
While the Belgian coast was passing
in review, DR.. Claude Dornier the in
! ventor and builder of this big plane,
! seemed to be restless. He strolled III;
{ and down the 150-foot passenger deck
/ for a while and he chuckled at til
/ enthusiasm the spacious quarters evoked
"Oh, it's all right for a starter" he
said. But give us five or six years
| and we'll have these ships so they'll
really mean something to world COM
| merce."
Along about the halfway mark there
arose an interesting question of ethics.
Newspaper correspondents aboard were
getting sleepy, but the prospect of TAX
1 ing nap created a nice distinction:
Would they be sleeping on the Job, or
would it be just taking an hour on
for lunch? They compromise and took
a nap.
The Coast o: England rose out of
the haze ahead and the ship circled over
Southampton. The passengers could
see the crowds waiting for their first
glimpse of the biggest seaplane in the
world and soon the DO-X bounced
| down to a perfect landing In the har-
Dor at Calshot.
Leaves Thursday for Bordeaux.
The crowd poured toward the flying
boat, officials of the air ministry and
the German embassy in the lead. DR..
Dornier shook hands with all of them,
the crew jerked on their leather coats
and began grooming TO their engines.
Already they were looking forward
to the next hop to Havre, whence the
DO-X heads for Lisbon then out across
the ocean for the Azores and the United
States.
The DO-X, will be visited tomorrow
by many British notables and posi-
bly, the Prince of Wales. It probably
will leave Thursday for Bordeaux in
continuation of the cruise which has
New York as its ultimate objective.
Copyright. 1880, by Associated Press.D
|