IN THE GRAF

Hokitika Guardian, 18 October 1928, Page 5

IN THE GRAF

A TERRIFYING EXPERIENCE

SHORTAGE OF WATER;

(lsy Telegraph—Press Association)

(United Service.)

(Received this clay at 12.25. p.m.) NEW YORK, Oct. 17.

"Never again for a million dollars,” said Frederick Gilfillan, an American resident of Lucerne, and a passenger on the Zeppelin, when relating his experience. He was worn and drawn as he stepped from the airship. He called first for water. “We ran out of minerals on the first day and on the next were told to go easy with the drinking water. By Saturday this was all gone so we drank washing water during the week-end, from rubber containers, , and by noon on Monday had not even that. I have been through two shipwrecks, but never was so shaken as when the stabiliser was ripped away by violent winds in a miniature hurricane.

“We were all breakfasting when the ship bumped and her nose went down dangerously near the water. The helmsman put the peak up so sharply that passengers crockery and chairs were upset. We spent most anxious hours until we sighted the American shores. It was necessary to reduce the speed, because of the damaged fin. The crew attempted to repair it, hut the fabric ripped off again. This, with a lack of sleep and frequent descents close to the water, made the remainder of the journey most unpleasant. ‘■The' airship is a long way from practical transportation over fong distances. It is no use saying we were not afraid, when the airship dipped close to the water. I never saw my native land with more joy. Hereafter I shall travel on ocean liners. I have made the longest flight a man has made in the air to date, but from a passenger’s viewpoint, the chief trouble with an airship is that it is too uncomfortable at the present stage to commend it to the average traveller.”