Evening star., 1933-04-07

| emphasize his experience as the ship h
conned the elevator man to reduce the
rate of rise and at about 1900 feet he
seemed to have good control and ap-
preached the flying altitude of / 800 feet
gradually and leveled off there. To de-
termine the static condition of the ship,
observed the elevator controls and
found that the ship, to maintain alti-
tude, had an inclination of "a of l. up
by the bow, superheat plus s. and ele-
vator angle down about g., air speed
5S knots, indicating the ship was in ap-
proximate trim and had $500 pounds
negative buoyancy. This amount OF
negative buoyancy was not at all un-
usual and was caused largely by the rain
water which had accumulated on the
ship. About two minutes Later the at
mosphere became exceedingly turbulent
and realized that we must be near the
storm center and caused the signal to
be sounded for landing stations in or
der to have all men available and none
In their hunks if they should be needed.
Told Of Dropping Ballast.
IS. As soon as the landing station
signal was sounded the first lieutenant,
Lieut.. Calnan, appeared and. since he
is responsible for the trim and loading
Of the ship. told him where had
dropped ballast and told him to stand
by the ballast board. The engineering
officer took his station at the engine
telegraphs I stood by the starboard
window, where could con the rudder.
The captain was at the port window
These are the usual stations for land
ing and maneuvering. A very sharp
ed IN 6xa
much more severe than any I have
ever experienced In that it was exerted
50 suddenly. :. r
I'm other words, whereas an ordinary
gust would strike the ship with the
same. force and take, say, 80 seconds
to pass, this gust seemed to exert q
maximum force in two or three sec
onds. + noted Immediately that the
lower rlIdder control rope had carried
away and reported 1t to the captain.
I unclutched this rudder control and
tried to steer with the upper rudder.
About the time this unclutching was
completed noticed that the captain
was watching the altimeters and that
the elevator man was reporting that
the ship was falling.
MY other rudder control broke at
this time and the noise made by the
sheaves carrying away In the ship in
dicated to me that the ships structure
had been damaged somewhere. By this
time the ship had taken an inclination
up by the bow of several degrees and
the captain ordered full speed on the
engines. The fall continued and I
heard the report 800 it, The angle
up by the bow increased and I could
feel that We were falling rapidly. l
could no longer steer with both rudder
girder alongside the window and looked
out to see If I could sight the water.
"stand by for . Crash"
"I inquired the altitude and the reply
was 300 feet. At the same time i
sighted the waves through the window
and gave the order Stand by for q
crash. There was no further con-
versation in the control car after this
order. The engineering officer was
trying to use his bell pulls after engine
telegraph indicator wires were carried
away. At least one of the engine cars
repeated back his signals. as heard a
number of bells indicating this. We
descended at rate judged to be
about IA feet per second, but when we
hit the water it seemed that we hut
much harded than had expected.
~. The water surged in my win
dow and submerged me and must have
carried me out the port window or
port side of the control car. I came
to the surface shortly thereafter and
started to swim toward the airship,
which I could see when the lightning
flashed. The airship, however, was
drifting away from me rapidly and at
about 500 yards distance I could see
the ship entirely on the water, broken
in two or three places, submerged about
one third Of her diameter with the bow
for o length of about 200 feet inclined
in the air at an angle OF about 80
degree.
It gave up trying to reach the ship
and. looking around, sighted lights Of
what took to be a surface vessel and
a lighthouse. I saw several men in the
water and heard their cries. None was
| close to me- I swan toward the sur
face vessel and after about 10 minutes
| found board about 8 feet square, which
! I clung to until was hauled aboard
the tanker. imagine was in the
water between 80 and so minutes and
was very cold and weak when hauled
aboard and could not stand. They put
me to bed and after about an hour I
had recovered my strength and visited
the men Of the Akron crew who were
on board. I found Copeland, chief
radio operator, unconscious and In my
! opinion he died about that time, which
I assumed to be 0230, although We gave
him artificial respiration and worked on
him until 0530.
Praises German Skipper.
"5. The steamer was the Phoebus,
Capt Carl Dolldorf The agents for
| this ship are the Standard Shipping
| Co. of 26 Broadway, New York City.
conferred with the captain and found
| that he was handling his ship in a
seamanlike manner and doing all he
could to rescue persons and that he
had no intention of leaving the scene.
Shortly after daylight the Coast Guard
destroyer Tucker (CG-2O came close
aboard and sent over pharmacist s
mate at my request for medical as
sistance Erwin, Deal and myself were
| transferred to the Tucker and the body
of Copeland was also transferred. We
were landed at the Brooklyn Navy Yard
shortly after noon and taken to the
Naval Hospital. Before we departed
about 0800, two other Coast Guard ves-
sells and the cruiser Portland were on
the scene.
"6. During the emergency there was
no noise or confusion at any time In
the control car, and all orders were
given in q low voice and carried out
efficiently. The discipline at all time.
J was perfect.
81. One survivor, Deal, reports tha
J he saw as he lay In his bunk neal
, frame 100, port side, two girders above
the port corridor at about frame Is:
bend and buckle. He also noted as HI
ran forward the control lines In tina
vicinity appeared slack but not broken