LITTLE HOPE OF SURVIVAL

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10286, 22 May 1919, Page 5

LITTLE HOPE OF SURVIVAL

ADMIRALTY SENDS ALL AVAILABLE AID. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. (Received May 21, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, May 20. The .Admiralty at 9 o’clock this 'evening stated that there was no news regarding Hawker, and gives an official denial to the report that Hawker reached within a hundred .miles of Ireland. .... The. report, has aroused the keenest sympathetic speculation respecting the actual fate of the aviator. It is feared that Hawker cannot have survived "Possibly he descended in mid-Atlantic, and his low-powered wireless was probably insufficient to call any ship. AN OPTIMISTIC AVLiTOII. _ Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. LONDON, May 20;*“Hdpe of rescuing Hawker arid Grieve ■ has beeu abandoned. i: • ’ 'A gale is blowing in the AtlaMtUKt*.Mr, Pickles, .the,Australian aviator, refuses to abandon hope. He thinks that Hawker may have beeu picked up by a vessel not tilted Vitlj, wireleSSj_ or may be afloat da his own ihacfiine or k lifebelt. He attributes the mishap to the exhaustion of the petrol supply owing to head winds in the last six hundred miles. The fact that Hawker, started, iu unfavourable wather, he says, proves that ho was out not for the prize but to give Britain, the honour of the first crossing. D'r. T. J. Macnamara, Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty, stated iu the House of Commons that after Hawker started all the available ships about' Ireland were ordered to sea by wireless. .BresupffihJy, a. French .station picked up a message in a fragmentary form, misconstrued it, and - re-transmitted 1 it, stating that Hawker had fallen .into the sea. The Castletown station picked up .this,, message and sent it to Queenstown. That .{was probably the. explanation of the false news. “ AN' OFFICIAL EXPLANATION. IN REFUTATION OF CRITICISM. (Received May 21, 8 p.m.) .. . LONDON, May 20 (11.55 p.m.). An official communique points ,ou* that tho chances of finding Hawker are of the remotest, owing to the area which the destroyers must scour. The communique adds that even if it had been otherwise desirable to assist ' an'enterprise-which is no sense under Government control, it would have been impossible to patrol the Atlantic, owing to the Navy’s heavy obligations. The same remark applies to future flights. • The Government warns other competitors that it is impossible for the Navy to patrol the Atlantic course. DETAILS OF STARTING CONDITIONS. The special correspondent at New found-land - ‘«of the' “Christian' Science Monitor,” writing last month, says:— Captain Penn, an. aviation expert of King«ton-on-the-Thames, England, has selected Mount Pearl, St. John's, as tho point from which Harry Hawker, the Australian pilot, and . Lieutenant-Com-mander Grieve, R.N., will start on their trans-Atlantic flight in a -Sop-with . btplane. Captain Penn is “ ac-CdnlpiiiTe'd by Captain Mason, another English' aviation export, and by Lieutenant Clements, of -the .British Air Ministry, who has been sent here by the .Ministry to study air and weather conditions. Mr Hawker is an Australian who took up aviation in the early days of flying. Ho -is the holder of a number of aerial records arid has been the winner of many competitions with Sopwith machines. Lieutenant-Commander Grieve, who willaccompany Pilot Hawker on the coming flight, was the commander of the seaplane carrier H.M.3. Campania, which was attached to the British Grand Fleet during the war. The biplane to be used is fitted with a Rolls-Royce motor of 860 horsepower, ■and when running in still air has a speed oflos miles an hour. It will carry petrol, and oil sufficient for twenty-four hours.-"! The plane is equipped, of course, with an exceedingly powerful wireless apparatus,-, with, which.-are included the necessary.,,, instruments for directional purposes. The seating arrangement Is of a new type and will put the pilot and navigator side by. side instead ,of being behind one-another. . Hawker and Grieve will wear rubber safety suits, which will keep them afloat, if necessary, for at least-.three days. As a further safeguard for the fliers the top-decking, or .back part of the plane,’ Is made in the form of a small boat, which is attachedl by a "quick release” mechanism. The “boat” will contain food and will bo equipped with the necessary signalling apparatus’ for sending out 8.0.5. calls. N.C.4 STARTS FOR. LISBON. J “ LONDON, May 20. The N.C.4 left the Azores for Lisboa at 12.40 p.ni., Greenwich time.