FLIGHT THAT FAILED.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 952, 20 October 1910, Page 5

FLIGHT THAT FAILED.

ATLANTIC BALLOON WRECKED By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. London, October 18. Mr. Wellman and the'party who were making the flight: across the Atlantio with him in the airship America have been wrecked 480 miles from land. The steamer Trent, of the West Indian Royal Mail Line, rescued the crew.. At the time of the mishap the balloon was east of Cape Hatteras, and about halfway to Bermuda, a point that would be approximately 500 miles south-west of Atlantio City, New Jersey, from which departure was taken on Saturday morning.

Mr. Simonds, of the Whit© Star liner Oceanic, is with the party as navigating officer, and the orew also : includes, besides Mr. Wellman himself, a wireless operator and two skilled ocean naviga-' tors and engineers. , ' . In oase of disastor a lifeboat, built by Saunders, of Cowes, England, was carried, suspended- from the long,-narrow steel car of the airship, and could,'by a simple mechanical device, be automatically and instantly detached, and floated in case of emergency. "This is the best lifeboat for an airship ever built," >said Mr. Simonds. "It has a big sail,--and is .fitted for wireless telegraphy.- It will be stocked with thirty days' provisions, and it has water-tight ■ compartments fore and aft, and could not •be swamped. 1 With a good sea anchor I would trust myself, to that boat in the worst Atlantio gale ever experienced." This lifeboat, equipped for . emergency, probably weighs about a ton.. The feeling amongst the officers of the liners in New York, all of whom have had many years of experience in • the North Atlantio, was recently stated to be very optimistic, and they declared that from ' a sailor's standpoint, there should be every chance of the Amerida reaching Europe.