GRAFF ZEPPELIN

Hokitika Guardian, 7 October 1929, Page 7

GRAFF ZEPPELIN

TRIP ACROSS PACIFIC. CALIFORNIA’S GREAT ItECErTiON. SAN FRANCISCO, August 29. A milium cheering people occupying the 23 inils ot San Francisco accorded an overwhelming reception to the Graf /veppelin as it came m sight of land after its epochal trip across the Pacific from .japan, and the lusty Americans marvelled at the ainaxing feat of the g.ant of the air as it swept majestically over the Golden Gate after completing one of the greatest flights in history. The white whale of the sky sailed over Sail Francisco Bay only 63 hours and 17 minutes after departing from ivasamigaura airport, near Tokio, travelling more than 5000 miles of the Padiic Ocean in about the same time it takes a train to reach Sail Francisco from Chicago. Jt was the first time such a trip had ever been made—the first time the Pacific had been erased by any ship o' the air in a single non-stop bight. The huge liner, in reaching San Francisco, completed the third leg of her epochal round the Avorld flight, and San Francisco went wild as the silver grey hull of the Graf hovered over the city just before sunset in one of the most spectacular sights at the end of the beautiful day, with the sky a delightful blue. Every roof and open space was crowded with sightseers, and traffic came to a spontaneous halt as virtually the whole population rushed to welcome the airship. The sheer beauty of the mammoth ship—now silver, and now bronze—lit against the sunset sky—the sheer audacity of her gallent commander, Dr. tliigo von Eekener, her passengers and crew—thrilled the city as it has rarely been thrilled before, and thousands of eyes followed the craft as she circled the boundaries of the expansive bay and disappeared in the twilight bound for her next port of call, Los Angeles.' The first persons on the American continent to sight the great Zeppelin were Mr and Mrs G. W. Jaehne, of the lighthouse at Point Reyes, north and west of San Francisco. In the log of the lighthouse they made a Brief entry —brief but historic. Jr read : “Airship Grat Zeppelin sighted August 25th, 1929, 5.45 p.m.” At 6. 02 p.m., watchers on the distant Farallone Islands, 27 miles outside the Golden G'ftte, wirelessed that they, too, had sighted the mighty airship. A few minutes later watchers atop the city’s highest skyscrapers also saw the silver marvel. AEROPLANES LIKE GNATS. At 6. 25 the Graf was entering the Golden Gate, tjie rays of the setting sun burnishing her silver sides. Scores of aeroplane were hurtling through the skies, welcoming the visitor to San Francisco. From the moment the Graf entered the Golden Gate, until she pushed her nose seaward once more, the population of San Francisco Bay district stood with heads thrown back, gazing toward the sky—watching the majestic flight of the dirigible. It was a unique spectacle to see the scores of aeroplanes swarming over, under, and aside the Graf as it manoeuvred over the San Francisco Bay, and fast army aeroplanes and other aeroplanes appearing as more gnats compared with the nearly thousandfeet length of the Zeppelin. Newspaper men went aloft a hundred miles out over the ocean looking for the Zeppelin and sent- radio messages which were broadcast over the country describing the incidents of the arrival and progress of the dirigible over San Francisco Bay out on the the ocean. The airship arrived at Los Angeles about 2.29 the next morning, but had to wait until clayliht to avoid any possible mishap incident to the speci-ally-prepared mast. This task was performed by a small army of marines and others detailed by the United States Government. LADY HAY’S HONOUR. “Hallo everybody! I’m so glad to be back in America again,*’ were the first words of Lady Grace Drummond Hay, only woman passenger of the Graf Zeppelin, as she stepped f.rom the cabin of the big ship when it was secured to the mooring mast in Los Angeles Mines Field. Looking as fresh and well as though sue had just issued from the doorway of her London home for a morning call, Lady Hay was one of the first of the nineteen passengers to be transported from the ship to the administration building of the Mines Field airport, where she complied with the. formality of having her luggage inspected, and after passing a barrage of .photographers made a brief radio address. “I .believe the most beautiful thing I have seen on the trip was the setting of the sun last night over the Golden Gate, and its rising this morning over Los Angeles,’ the English noblewoman sa id. . Lady Hay, a seasoned traveller, having made tne/trip across the Atlantic in the craft last year, was loud in her praises of the present globe-circling voyage. She compared the iucouvem ence of last year’s transatlantic voyage with the comforts she had thus far enjoyed on the present trip. PASSENGERS’ VIEWS. Stating in effect that fife present flights of the Graf Zeppelin was olio of the most enjoyable air vova<ros he had ever made, Sir Hubert Wilkins, Aus-

tralian aviator and explorer, shared the applause of the lucky few who were gathered in front of the administration building with Dr. Hugo Eekener, commander of the ciraft. Loud cheers greeted 'the arrival of both men as they were taken to Customs headquarters.

While severe, the storm encountered by the Graf in mid-ocean could not be regarded as serious for the craft, Sir Hubert said. The ship travelled soqu.etly that a person'hardly realised he was travelling, he said, in making a comparison of lighter-than-air -craft with heavier-tlmn-air transporation. The fact that for twelve hours the Zeppelin travelled blindly in a low fog, only occasionally rising above it to use the sextant, called forth the admiration of the explorer. For long distant living the dirigible undoubtedly is superior to an aeroplane in respect to both safety and comfort, he Aaiid. Enjpined in conversation by winjor C. C. Mosely, vice- president of the Curtiss Flying Service, Sir Hubert commended the manner in which the Zeppelin had been handled during its rouml-theworld tour. “It was one of the most harmonious, peaceful, and beautiful trips I ever had the pleasure of making,’ declared Commander R. Kusaka, representative of the Japanese Navy. “Aside from the beauty of the trip of so many miles over the Pacific Ocean, the harmony and peace among the passengers and all of us were wonderful. It does not seem that nations can get together so beautifully as passengers on a Zeppelin. “I want to say, too, that the conquest of the air over the Pacific Ocean by the great Zeppelin is a fine testimonial to the genius of the Germans who built the ship. “The thing that impressed me greatly, however, was how the Pacific lias oeen narrowed between the United States and Japan. We are only three days apart now, and I hope it brings the two countries together as well in a friendly and peaceful relation and understanding between each other. 1 have nothing ibut praise for Commander Eekener and his brave officers and men, who guided us safely through the uncharted air lanes of the vast Pacific Ocean from Tokio to the United States.” Baron Heinz voji Perekman, who boarded the ship at Friedrichshafen, liked the trip over the wild wastes of Siberia more than looking down at the waves of the Pacific Ocean. “The leg of the voyage. we have just completed was not near as interesting to me as the one over Siberia,” said the Baron, “Sailing over the ocean in weather like we had, one misses the wonderful and beautiful panorama of mountains, valleys, streams, and lakes one sees when the ship is traversing the air over land. However, it was a wonderful trip.” REFUELLING MISHAPS. One mishap—quickly detected by Captain E. H. Lehmann, of the Graf s complement of officers—marred the refuelling operations, which were pushed at top speed at Los Angeies throughout the day to enable the Graf to speed on its way back to Germany before the September gales on the Atlantic. Captain Lehmann was in the ward room of the big forward cabin section when he noticed gasoline seeping through the ceiling fabric. He sensed the danger at ome and shouted lo a group of the crew on the ground to jump into the cabin. Then orders, given in German, were heard coming tnick and fast. It transpiied that a screw cap on a gas tank in the framework of the dirigible had worked loose by vibration, probably little by little during the long hop from across the Pacific. This permitted a thin stream of fluid to drop, down to the compartment, work through the ceiling and reach the floor. Some of it had moved on forward from the ward room. Men rushed up to the cat-walk, reached the tank, and quickly closed the loosened vent, while others removed evidence of the leakage froint lie ward room. The Graf carried a relatively small amount of high-test gasoline, which is used to bring the ship to the ground and in low altitude manoeuvring, as i responds more quickly than does the natural as fuel. Some leakages of hydrogen, the lifting gas for the dirigible, which is fed through a pipe at the nose, were also reported. There was no threat ol danger in this, however, since the freed hydrogen was immediately dissipated in the atmosphere. Six hundred thousand feet of natural gas (not gasoline) from California’s wells and pyrofax gas company mixed at the base of the mooring mast, was forced into the Zeppelin tailks through a flexible 12-inch pipe during the day. The job ordinarily would have taken twenty-four hours, but orders Avere orders, and so the refuelling crews, augmented by marines anti sailors, accomplished it in about eight hours. One mndrecl and fi\'e thousand cubic feet of hydrogen also Avas supplied. This amount Avas necessary to replace the lifting gas valvod olf during the Asiatic and Pacific flights and for that lost through normal leakage of fabric.