Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 154, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 June 1910 — Couht Zeppelin’s Big Airship Wrecked In German Forest. [ARTICLE]

Couht Zeppelin’s Big Airship Wrecked In German Forest.

Dusseldorf,\ Germany, June 28. After battling nearly all day against gales of wind and avalanches of rain in a brave effort'‘tb show that the genius qf man had conquered the realms of air, Count Zeppelin’s passenger airship Deutschland, the highest developed of all the aeronaut’s models, lies tonight on top of the teptoburgian Forest, pierced with pine tree stems, a mass of deflated silk and twisted aluminum. The thirty-three persons aboad after the wild contest with the storm, escaped uninjured, climbing down a rope ladder from the wreck on the pine tops. Herr Colesman, general manager of the new airship company; Chief Engineer Duerr, of the Zeppelin company, and Capt. Kannenberg, who personally had charge of the Grew of ten, and t twenty newspaper men sailed from Dusseldorf at 8:30 o’clock this morning for a three hours’ excursion. The objective point Was Dortmund, about thirty-five miles from Dusseldorf, but a high head wind prevailed, and an effort was made to reach Munster, a garrison town, so that a landing might be made on the parade ground by the aid of the soldiers, it was realized that it would require a large number of them to hold the vast contrivance of silk and metal againki. the wind. It was dangerous to attempt a land ing in an open field because of the storm, as the metal was likely to pound to pieces. In the high wind one of the motors refused to work and tlie other two were —not powerful enough to make any progress in the gale. The airship drifted, swaying in the violent gusts, sometimes leaning to an angle of forty degrees, and all the while the enginemen were at work repairing the disabled mtoor. When this was done all four screws were driven at their full power, under which, in normay conditions, the airship was capable of attaining a speed of forty miles an hour. But the helmsman was unable to keep his course, and.the great craft swung about at the mercy of the winds. Colesmann did not dare to turn the ship around for fear of overturning, and he decided to drift in the• gale, which was blowing at the rate of fifty miles an hour toward Osnabruck, which also is a garrison station. If he missed that, he would continue on to Senne.

Suddenly he preceived a whirlwind coming, and ascended to a height of nearly 4,000 feet to avoid the worst of it. With the whirlwind came an avalanche of rain. After half an hour the Deutschland came down to permit 61 observation and it was seen that the Touteburgian forest lay below. The forward motor again stopped and Colesmann sent five of the correspondents to the aft gondola to ballast the craft. The Deutschland sank rapidly, having lost much gas in the high altitudes, and dragged along the top of the dense forest. A heavy branch of a tree broke through the floor of the cabin amidships, throwing two of the guests to the floor. : ■ Other branches ripped the gas compartments and the w'hole great structure settled down thirty or forty feet from the ground. The district governor and his wife, with first aid to the injured material, arrived at the scene within half an hour by special train. A company of infantry was sent from Osnabruck and picketed the wreckage. The disaster occurred at 5:30 in the evening. The exact extent of the damage to the wrecked air craft could not be ascertained tonight. Those in authority who were on board declined to discuss the future of the passenger service which was thought to have been established regularly.