The Seaplane Goes Up,

Levin Daily Chronicle, 29 September 1917, Page 1

The Seaplane Goes Up,

WATCHING FOR THE U-BOATS.

Just outside the shed lay the seaplane with wings folded back along her sidos like a huge dragon-fly basking in the sun. Suddenly the stillness of the summer afternoon was broken by a loud crackling as of many squibs exploding, which seemed to come from nowhore in particular, yet to be right overhead. So startling in its unexpectedness was this burst of detonations that some by-standers jumped up and clapped their hands to their ears.

"Wireless," ejaculated a man laconically, whereupon the timid ones dropped thir hands, with a laugh that was a sort of apology for their display of nervousness. The strident call awoke the seaplane. Blue-clothed mechanics climbed up lier fore legs and began fussing about her. Under their energetic "grooming" she slowly unfolded her broad wings and hummed noisily for a second or two as her engine was switched on, then relapsed into silence again.

Being now ready for flight she was rolled down the beach on a small carriage, and rushed into the water, where she lay with tail dipping to the wash of the sea. Pilot and observer now came out, fitting on their cumbersome helmets as they walked, and "climbed aboard."

Meanwhile mechanics continued their attention to the machine. Some pulled round her in a small boat, others clambered on her floats or up and down her body, oiling here, and testing there, until everything was satisfactorily "tuned up." Then they jumped ashore. With a rasping buzz that changed quiely into a vociferous drone, her propeller began to revolve so rapidly that one could see nothing of it except a circular patch of twirling haze between the upper planes. Gradually the pilot "wore her round," lurching heavily on one float, uutil she headed towards the outward channel. Then he "let her rip," and off she slid seaward, making a tremendous row as she buzzed her way along. Once well clear of the shore, a tilt of the planes sent her leaping into the air.

So fast did she move that within a few minutes she had become a mere speck disappearing far out at sea to the watclers on the beach. Prom her 'passenger" seat ships on the surface seemed the size of cockle-boats. But to these the observer gave little heed. He knew what they were and why they were there. All his attention was concentrated upon "spotting" what might be moving under the water rather than on it. Occasionally he "phoned" to the pilot, and down dropped the seaplane so that the observer could make a closer investigation of something. Or she banked around in a wide spiral for a similar purpose. Every now and again a message flashed out from her. Thus sho went on swooping down, darting upward, circling to right or left for all the world like a swallow "hawking" for flies over a pond until she had left the land many long miles behind her. At last she turned and began "hawking" her way back again. By this time another gigantic dragonfly of her own Species was droning its outward way above the waves. Our seaplane passed it with just the slightest '' nod'' of recognition as she splashed down upon the water and "taxied" rapidly back towards shore, there to fold her wings again and rest. —'JACKSTAFF,' in the 'Daily Mail.'