Evening star., 1937-07-04
SEALAND|NCSF|LL
HISTORY OF FLYING
Rodgers and Crew of 4 Rode
Pacific Waves 10 Days in
Battered Ship.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

NEW YORK, Jdly 3.-The history
OF trans Oceanic flying is replete with
instances of forced landings at sea,
both in flying boats and land planes,
the outcome of which have been
marked in some cases by swift tragedy
under circumstances seemingly IA
vorable for a prompt rescue and in
others by happy ending long after
all hope had been abandoned.
Probably the most narrowing Of all
such adventures befell the late Comdr
John A. Rodgers and his crew of four
in early September, 1925, when they
were forced down by lack of fuel on
the first attempted flight from CAL
ifornia to Hawaii and rode out 10
days in their battered Navy flight
boat, the PN-9 No. /, before being
rescued by submarine and toWed
nearly 100 miles into Honolulu They
heard over their radio the grim mes
sage, AL hope is gone" long before
they were found, but could do moth
ing to revive the search because their
tranSmitter had been rendered useless
when the ship came down on the
water.
Ulm Ship Vanished.
More recently, in the same general
locality where Comdr Rodgers and
his companions experienced their
2l8 12-hour ordeal, half of it without
adequate food or water, the British
flyer Capt. Charles T. P. Ulm and
his two companions, on an attempted
flight from Oakland to Honolulu, in
December, 1885, vanished swiftly and
without trace after radioing that they
had missed their objective and broad
casting frantic pleas for help. Army
and Navy airplanes and boats by the
score went into action at once, and
there was high optimism at first that
the empty tanks of Ulm's twin-mo-
tored land plane-a craft generally
similar to Miss Earharts Lockheed
Electra-would sustain the flyers long
enough for them to be located and
saved, but the search proved fruit
less.
Ulm and his companions had
scorned suggestions in California that
they take along a collapsible rubber
hfeboat and life preservers similar
to those carried by Miss Earhart and
Capt Noonan, saying tina their ship
would float indefinitely in the event
IT came down with exhausted fuel
tanks. Another tragic sidelight on
their venture was that they kept
appealing frantically for the Army
or the Navy to turn on the beam"
IN Honolulu, their preparations for
the flight being so scanty that none
OF them knew there was no radio
beacon at their destination.
Rode Seas for Eight DAYS.
The longest known survival of
land plane after a forced descent in
the sea Was that of Stanislaus Haus-
ners Bellanca monoplane, which he
rode for eight days off the Azores be-
lore he was picked up by a British
Oil tanker in June. 1892. The plane
itself was salvaged nearly six weeks
later by an Italian steamer. and
diary was found in the cabin which
TOLD now HauSner had pieced out his
emergency rations with fish which he
caught by fashioning a hook out of
his compass needle.
The first of all the land planes to
attempt Z transoceanic fight. a Brit
Ism craft carrying Harry c. Hawker
and Mckenzie Grieve, which took
on from st. Johns, Newfoundland on
May ls. 1919, developed motor trou-
ole 1000 miles out and landed
longslde a steamer This vessel was
without radio. and all the world. with
the exception of Hawkers wife. had
given the flyers up for lost when
the boat reached port more than a
week later.
Others who came down ALONGSIDE |
enlps IN the Atlantic and were saved
include Ruth Elder and George w
Haloeman, who took off from New
ofk on October II, 1927 and were
forced down by engine trouble 35o
miles from the Azores, and Lou Reich
ers' VINO landed alongside the steam
ship President Roosevelt on Nav 13
1882. 47 miles from the Irish Coast |
on the Ireland leg of an ATTEMPTED
hight from this country to Europe
Drifted Days on seapIane.
Willy Rody, his pilot, Christian
Ioanssen and Fernando De Costa
vega drlfted for eight days off the
American Coast on their seaplane
Esa, which was forced down on
night here from Europe in September
ls3l. before Norwegian motor shin
picked them up 80 miles southwest Of
cape Race. Back in August, 1924 the
ltallan alrman, Antonion LocatelE
and three companions survived a sim.
,iar experience, which lasted for nearly
lour days when they were forced
noWn In their flying boat off the coast
ot Greenland during the United States
army Air Corps around-the-world
night. They were saved by Navv
cruiser on patrol duty in connection
with the Armys ambitious aerial
Undertaking In August, 1928, Can't
FRANK t. Courtney and three COM
panlons were rescued by a trans-At-
lantc steamer shortly after their
Dernier Wal flying boat caught fire
300 miles from the Azores on a flight
70 this country via Nova Scotia.
walter Wellman, newspaper man
hno alrshp enthusiast, was rescued
WIN tne crew OF his non-rigid dirip-
lole, America, by a steamer 800 miles
on Cape Hatteras in October. 1910
II was the first attempt to ly from
this country to Europe.