Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-23

sengers, many Of the latter Navy officers and
men returning home for assignment.
After she cleared the islands nothing further
was heard of her Not body not . particle
of wreckage ever was found. She carried one
of the most powerful wireless outfits IN the
Navy. He'd she run into storm or been
mined or torpedoed, as many suggested, 10
seems almost impossible she could have sunk
without some sort of o being flashed Yet
there was no distress call Of any kind. After
the war the Germans denied all knowledge OF
her fate, apparently shattering the mine and
torpedo theories. Was 1t q meteorite that erased
her from, the face of the Atlantic.
ON December 10, 1928, the French airship
Dixmude left her hangar at Cuers bound
for q cruise to the north coast Of Africa, under
the command of Lieut.. du PleSsis de Grenadan.
She carried q crew Of SO. Gales sprang up
when she arrived over Africa. She was unable
TO land, due to lack Of ground crews and
hangar accommodations.
The Dtxmude, formerly the German zeppe-
lin Nordstern, was last heard by wireless on
he night Of December a. when southwest Of
Houggourt, Algeria, she flashed the statement
she was returning to Cuers. The following
night persons IN Sicily reported seeing two
great balls Of IRE slowly descend into the
MediterTanean-'like q pair Of balloons
on fire."
Two days later Sicilian fishermen, raising
their nets on Cape San Marco, found q French
naval of1cer's body. 1t was Lieut.. du Plessis.
Next day they found an empty gasoline tank.
later identified as belonging TO the Dtxmude:
q mass Of tangled wires believed to be part
Of the airship's radio, and several burned frag-
ments Of rubberized balloon cloth and scorched
human flesh. Nothing more was recovered.
The Dixmude was recorded as having been
destroyed by lightning. That guess may have
been wrong 1t may have been q meteorite.
ON December IA, 1928, the Danish training
ship Kobenhavn, owned by the Eastern
Asiatic Co and manned by sailors and cadets to
the number Of so, sailed from Montevideo ON an
0,OOO-mile voyage to Melbourne. She was .
trim, five-masted bark, with q steel huh, an
auxiliary power plant and . modern, powerful
wireless.
From the time she cleared Montevideo no can
was picked up from her. She sailed silently,
mysteriously, into oblivion. In June of hast
year her owners sent the steamship Mexico on
q search for the lost vessel The Mexico
cOmbed the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans,
visiting Tristan de Cunha and the treacherOuS
AvOcet Rock, on whose hidden reefs lie the
bones Of many gallant ships. Not . trace
Of the KObenhavn was found. A storm could
have wrecked her; q rock might have ripped out
her bottom. But why were there no distress
signals2 Perhaps Q falling star" sent her,
crushed and shapeless, to the bottom in the
wink Of an eye.
An interesting theory on the fate Of the
KObenhavn has recently been advanced by
waterfront seers In Copenhagen, who ascr1be
the disappearance Of the training ship to the
fact that some Of the - cadets aboard had
captured an AlbatroSs before the ship cleared
for South America. They draw q close
parallel between this modern ship and the one
which figured in COleridges 'Tatme Of tl1e
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