Evening star., 1937-07-19
NAVY CONCLUDES
EARHART SEARCH
Four Vessels Sail for Home
After Securing 250,000
Miles of Ocean.
4y the Associated Press.

6y lne ASSOCIATED Press.
HONOLULU. July l9.-The mystery
OF Amelia Earhart lay locked in the
silent watery wastes of the vast
Pacific today. Four naval vessels
and the 1900 weary men who sought
her and her navigator l6 days gave
them up for dead and sailed for home
More than 250,000 square miles OF
equatorial ocean, reefs and islands
were secured by ship and plane in an
almost hopeless search for the tousle-
haired aviatriX and her companion,
Capt. Frederick j. Noonan, who
dropped from sight July 2.
Dropped on 2,57O-Mile Hop.
Somewhere near the dot which is
Rowland Island, Miss Earhart and
Noonan dropped from the skies in
their fuelless land plane on 2,570-
mile fight from Lac, New Guinea, to
the mid-Pacific sandspit.
The 39-year-old woman flyer, known
the world over for her aviation ex-
ploits, was circling the earth Just for
fun" she said, but also to blaze pos
sible new commercial routes.
The great naval hunt, which began
q few minutes after the pair were
overdue at Howland, was called off
late yesterday when Navy authorities
decided they had exhausted every
possibility of ever finding the missing
flyers.
Last Rescue Hope Lost.
The closing order crushed the last
hope of rescue held by George Palmer
Putnam, motion picture executive hus-
band Of Miss Earhart, who obtained
leave from his duties to further her
world-flight plans.
Il am deeply appreciative Of what
the Navy has DONE" the grief-stlicken
husband declared in Los Angeles.
THAT is all can say"
For several days after Miss Earhart
disappeared, Putnam kept ceaseless
vigil at Coast Guard radio head
quarters, confident the army OF
searchers would find his wife and
Noonan.
As the days passed without word Of
success he returned to Los Angeles.
Lexington Among Last.
The aircraft carrier Lexington,
with its brood of So fighting planes
and three destroyers, were the asst
searching vessels. Last week the
doughty Coast Guard cutter ItaSca,
the minesweeper Swan and the battle
ship Colorado steamed toward this
port after searching thousands of
miles by air and sea.
Beginning with the search by the
1tasca and Swan, stationed in the
vicinity of Howland to aid in the
flyers In event Of trouble. and culmi-
mated by the arrival of the Lexing-
ton, the search attained magnitude
never before seen.
BY air and sea, the search extended
for a radius of between 300 and 600
miles around Howland, l,50O miles
south OF here. Bolstered by what
some officials thought might be radio
distress signals from Miss Earhart's
flying laboratory" the search made
An ever widening circle around the
tiny island. All possible land havens
were covered. but Friday the Navy
concluded the flyers had not landed
on any Of them.
Search Continued Yesterday.
The Lexington continued sending
planes out Saturday and Sunday, how
ever.
The Lexington will return to San
Diego.
Despite the magnitude OF the search,
not a single casualty was reported.
The cost of the search was not esti-
mated, but unoficially was set at sev-
eral hundred thousand dollars.
Planes from the Lexington few
more than 10000 miles and fuel costs
for the Colorado and Lexington prob
ably ran in the tens OF thousands of
dollars.
The search was disheartening from
the beginning, due to lack Of definite
Information as to the position of Miss
Earhart's plane when it flashed its
last message, at 3:14 pm. (E. S. t.
July 2: I'VE are in the position Of
157-337. - We are now running
north and south" The flyer reported
gasoline was running low and she
could see no land"
Numerous radio messages received
In all points in the Pacific sometimes
bOlstered the hopes of the searchers.
but apparently none was authentic.