"NEVER AGAIN."

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 247, 18 October 1928, Page 7

"NEVER AGAIN."

ATLANTIC FLIGHT.

'American Tells Of Fears And Scares On Zeppelin.

MANY DISCOMFORTS.

(United Service.)

(Received 12 noon.)

NEW YORK, October 17.

"Never again for a million dollars!" Thus Mr. Frederick Gilfillan, the American who has been marooned for twelve years in Europe through being twice shipwrecked and refusing to again step aboard ship and who crossed to his native land in the LZI27, on his experiences.

Mr. Gilfillan was worn and drawn as he stepped from the airship. He called first for water. They ran out of minerals on the first day, he said, and next day were told to go easy on the drinking water.

"By Saturday this was all gone and ■we drank the washing water. We were dining in the week-end from rubber containers and by noon on Monday had not even that. I have been through two shipwrecks but was never so shaken as when the stabiliser ripped away iu violent winds at Bermuda in a miniature hurricane.

"We were all breakfasting when the ship bumped and her nose went down dangerously near the water. The helmsman put the peak up so sharply that the passengers, crockery and chairs were upset."

They spent very anxious hours until they sighted American shores. It was necessary to reduce speed because of the damaged fin, which the crew attempted to repair, but the fabric ripped off again.

This, with the lack of sleep and frequent descents close to the water, made the remainder of the journey most unpleasant. The airship,, he said, is a long way from practical transportation over long distances.

"There is no use saying we were not afraid when the airship dipped close to the water,"* he added. "I never saw my native land with more joy. Hereafter I shall travel on ocean liners. I have made the longest flight that man has made in the air to date but from the passengers' viewpoint the chief trouble j>{ the airship is that it is too uncomfortable in its present stage to commend itto the average traveller."