The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1937-05-14


There was a rush toward the
scene then, as though everyone was
drawn by an invisible magnet. Men
from the quartermaster corps who
had been standing by ran for ship.
Three trucks, four-seater airline
bus and several private cars were
driven quickly across the field.
Men jumped to the ground, tear
ing their way through the bursting
flames, and were dragged to safety.
The heat from the flaming ship
was so intense, however, that res
cue work was prevented for several
minutes.
All those minutes are nothing but
the reaction of confused impression
by those who were there. And prob
ably scores of acts of heroism will
90 unrecorded and unpraised-both
on the part of rescuers on the
ground and of the passengers.
ROsendahl Acts Quickly.
This chaos, however, did not last
long. Comdr. c. E. Rosendahl, in
charge of the naval airport, was
standing beneath the spreading sta
tons of the mooring mast. 1t did
not take long for him to galvanize
into action. A Gordon of men was
thrown around the burning mass to
keep back the crowd. Other men
were dispatched to rush through
calls for nurses and doctors and
ambulances from surrounding
towns and villages. Meanwhile the
injured were rushed to the emer-
gency hospital on the field and given
first aid for their burns.
IT was standing directly beneath
the ship when the first explosion
came" Kirkpatrick said. "All of us
in the ground crew were reaching
for the ropes and were ready to
haul her across the field. With that
first explosion-it was like huge
puff of igniting gas that sometimes
happens when you open furnace
door-we all ran back. From there
I turned and saw the fire leap out.
Another explosion came further for
ward. By that time the whole ship
was in flames. It didn't come to
the ground with crash, though. 1t
Just seemed to sink down easily,
like a floating fire balloon on the
Fourth of July. l don't even re-
member hearing any crash even
when it hit, though / suppose there
was one"
Mrs. Margaret Unger of May
wood, N. j., was one of those wait
ing to make the return voyage on
the Hindenburg.
''It was the most horrible thing
I ever saw in my life," she said,
still white and trembling from her
experience. 81 wanted to look away
but / couldn't. I didn't hear any
explosion because l was too far
away. But / saw the ship start to
sink, and then a huge burst OF
flames. It seemed to sweep over
the airship all at once, and I saw
three, maybe more, exploded out OF
the windows
Ship Out Of Control. (
Ames Camp of Lakewood, N. j.,
another witness, said the ship ZAP
peared to yaw as she dropped her
Inooring lines. 1t swung almost
full half circle and seemed to be
extremely hard to manage.
"Then came the flash and didn't
wait to see any more. l ran toward
the ship with the rest of them"
Although the Zeppelin continued
to burn for several hours and was
still smouldering at daylight, it took
only matter of seconds to render
it a skeleton of wreckage.
Late arrivals among the army OF
newspaper men, photographers and
radio men found the roads blocked
with cars and had to race back to
Newark and return by plane.
Search for bodies of the victims
continued by the light of the huge
navy field fioodlights. Work was
later postponed until daylight, part
" because the metal embers were
still too hot to allow the searchers
to make any progress.
Speculate on Cause.
There was much speculation as
to what caused the explosion. Ma
val experts offered a possible ex-
PLANTATION that it might have been
caused by the grounding lines, caus-
ing a spark which ignited "free
gas"
F. w. Won Meister, vice president
of the American Zeppelin company,
offered two theories-the first that
it had been caused by an electric
current induced by static; the Sec
ond that the gas was set off by
sparks from the exhaust when the
engine was throttled down for
landing. This he said, seemed
plausible, as the ship was valving
gas gently as she came on the
field, tossing over ballast to reduce
her altitude.
Ordinarily" he said, "she would
have been expected to be perfectly
safe the moment she dropped her
lines"
Report by ROsendahl.
Commander Rosendahl forwarded
a complete report both to the COM