The Waterbury Democrat., 1936-05-09

green fields, red cliffs and white houses shining in the early morn- ing sun; the pushing out to open seq with 5000 miles Of ocean and uncertain weather ahead of us; Q torrential rain squall.
 The eliminating thrill was the first sight of the American con. tinent ct 4:l2 6. m. (E.D.T) time when we sighted on our right Q long necklace like string of lights miles longthe coast of Long Island. At l:3B Q. m. we came over Long Island and cruibed along slowly while the passengers gathered in the dining salon for Q light break fast of sliced sausages, tea and cof- fee. The sleeping millions 9 thou" sand feet below seemed not 70 pc aware of our passage.
 Battery at 6 .. m.
 At exactly s Q. m. (ED.TO we reached the Battery. Dawn was just breaking. Suddenly Q pande. monium of hundreds of whistles from steamers and liners greeted us. Passengers rushed to the windows In great excitement, chattering in sev- eral languages. The lights in the promenades were turned out to give us e better view.
 At reduced speed we cruised up past the Empire State building which brought exclamations of wo1- der from Europeans aboard who had never seen New York.
 About the middle of Central Park the Hindenburg turned left toward the Hudson and flew over Ger many's other symbol of her redemer- gence on the oceans of the world the liner Bremen, which had two powerful search Lights directed upon us. Her deep-throated whistle bel- lowed. The German passengers aboard were in e fevor of patriotic excitement, waving handkerchiefs out of the open windows.
 People Are Awakened
 Obviously, the ninutes-long shrleking and believing of steamer whistles awakened tens of thou- sand because we detected signs of more activity in the streets below. Then the airship turned down the Hudson and flew directly over the Statue of Liberty toward Lakehurst as 1t grew light.
 Early Friday morning in inky darkness as black as the inside Of a black cat, the vast bulk of the Hindenburg nearly oYle-sixth of Q mile swayed and bucked gently, tor- rents of rain lashcd at the windows of the promenade decks where Q few night-owl passengers gaSed down at the spectacle of the heaving ocean 2OO0 feet below illuminated by Q spDt light in the Hindenburgs belly.
 No Fear In storm
 None of us watching the storm felt any trepidation or sense ot da1- ger, so far as could ascertain. Personally, I enjoyed 1t as the only really thrill of the voyage. You realized you were flying the Atlantic and were out here 1,600 miles from land, fighting and beating the ele- ments. The passengers already asleep wore not awakened and tho vases of roses, sweet peas and car- nations on the writing and dining tables were not overturned. In my cabin not Q drip was spilled from Q full glass of water.
 pr. Eckener told mo 1t was . really severe storm but he was pleased because 1t enabled the Hin- denburg to collect Ave tons of water in it's tanks, to replace the weight lost through consumption of tons Of oil.
 There is literally no comparison between the motion of c ship In 0 storm and Zeppelin. While going to Germany on the Bremen for this flight, we encountered storm prob- ably no moro severe. Tho liner rolled 50 heavily that I was thrown out of bed.
 Other Minor Thrills
 Other minor thrills were: Flying for hours above c vast sea of dense cottony clouds 50 white that 1t was almost impossible to gaze ct them in tho bllndingly bright sun; seeing the sharp black outline of tho Hin- denburg on the clouds surrounded by three conccntric circles of rain- bows; finding lone white bird poo miles from land which tried to fol- low us for c while. He soon gave 1t up and we left him out there alone. I'll bet he doesn't go home to roost very often.
 Some 300 miles of Sable Island, we saw several glittering icebergs and passed directly over ono about one acre in extent. Later we watched three whales spouting.
 An Idea of the speed of our pass age from mid-Europe to the United States may be gained from the fact that we had only two dinners and two iuncheons and two breakfasts aboard.
 Sense of Safety
 The sense of safety of the passen- gers was such that there was much aInusement at the evident concern of our friends ashore as evidenced by their wireless messages. Through out the voyage passengers contin- ually received wirelesges. One Btew- ufQ BHcllt tklVob VI HID vhAAAV 0AoeA sNNs~ ing them. The newspaper corre- spondents aboard wirelessed thou sands of words describing activities aboard.
 Passengers lived similarly to life aboard ship. writing hundreds of let- ters and postcards. reading, dancing, listening to Prof. Franz Wagner play the piano or Lady wilkins sing, and gazing through the standing windows (of which half dozen were always open) at the clouds or ocean below. There was thrill when VIC passed over the liner Staatendam, whistles blowing and passengers crowding the decks waving at us.
 The vastnegs and comparative emptiness of the Atlantic were em- phaslzed by the fact that passengers sighted only a half-dosen vessels