Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 56, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 October 1910 — WELLMAN PARTY RESCUED IN OCEAN [ARTICLE]

WELLMAN PARTY RESCUED IN OCEAN

Aviators Picked Up by Royal Mail Packet Lent Walter Wellman and his five mates who were attempting to cro : s the At lantic ocean in the di.igible La’.loon America were picked up at sea by the Royal Mail steamer Trent and landec in New "York city. " Wellman started from Atlantic dity N. J,, Saturday morning in an attempt to fly across the ocean to Europe. For the first twenty-four hours after his departure he was in touch with land by wireless on his- airship. Then for two da? s be was not heard from and fears for the safety of himself and five ma’es were kf’enly fait • ; The rescue was made ir latitude 34:4.” north, i r.gttude t-s:IS west at a point about 37-7 miles erst of Norfolk Va.. and about 250 miles northwest of Bermuda. •

The-Airerica, after a rec-rd flight for dirigibles of about seventy hours was sighted' close o the water in distress and R2s abandoned by Wellman and his < u”. of •'em sought safety aboard the Trent with the help of the dirigible’s life boat The airship America was sighted at 4:30-a.-dm and wire'ess communication between the Trent ard the airship w&s beg in, In abandoning their craft the crew of the'America lowered themselves into their life boat, which swung beneath the gas bag Wellman and hi.- cbmpanicn - then cast off in the life boat and were dftagt. Daylight was rapidly approaching when the airship and the steamer came in sigh of each other. Bywireless the America asked the steamship to follow in tne wake of the airship. The America was then drifting above the waters at a syeed of twelve miles an hour. The Trent hove to upon sighing the arrship and spent ; three hours in all maneuvering and picking up Wellman, Vanniman and, their assistant. ? A conference was held between Wellman and his companions aboard the America as to the best means of getting the, frame w - k of the airship to the- deck of the Trent. The best means,, it was decided, would te to launch the America’a life beat Much danger attended the launching and a great deal of time was consumed owing to the possibility of the life boat being upset any moment by the long eqiialibriator' of the balloon—a string of small tanks of gasolinfe hanging in links from the America and the railing in the w~ves.

After careful preparations ’he life • boat was lowered and launched- While ' the launching was under way. however the brisk wind caused the equilibrator to sway violently and to strike Operator Jack Irwin and Louis Loud, • one of the assistant engineers, as they were lowering themselves. They j were not seriously injured. Upon being free of the weight of the erew. the airship immediately shot ■ skyward as the life boat was taking J the water. The sea that was running at the time was moderate and the aeronauts had very little trouble in reaching the Trent and boarding that i steamship. * A 7:30 o’clock a. m., . three hours after the steamship had I sighted the America and within a few : minutes of 71% hours from the time the airship had left the Atlantic City beach. Wellman and his companions and life beat were hauled aboard the Trent. The balloon, now a speck in the sky, was left to the winds to founder in the Atlantic. None of the aeronauts was found to have suffered from his adventure. When the America was abandoned she still had gas enough aboard to keep her afloat at leas l twenty hours longer. The crew was glad to get 1 aboard the Trent, nevertheless, as they had begun to fear that theV would • not reach home again. Navigator. Simons of the America took several photographs of the airship from the deck of the Trent before the airship disappeared.