FLYING-BOAT DOWN IN ATLANTIC

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 101, 23 January 1939, Page 5

FLYING-BOAT DOWN IN ATLANTIC

Tanker Picks Up 10 Of 13

Aboard

CLUNG TO LIFEBELTS IN TURBULENT SEAS

By Telegraph.—Press 'Assn.—Copyright.

(Received January 23, 1.30 a.m.)

NEW YORK, January 22.

Searching the turbulent seas by searchlight, the Standard Oil tanker Esso Baytown, shortly before midnight, picked up 10 survivors of the 13 aboard the Imperial Airways flying-boat Cavalier, which made a forced landing on the sea midway between New York and Bermuda. They had clung to rubber lifebelts for 10 hours. The other three weakened and are believed to have been drowned.

The survivors indicate that the plane sank 10 minutes after ’landing. The master of the Esso Baytown radioed that, when the tanker reached the position indicated in the 5.0.5., voices were heard calling from the darkness to the east. A boat was launched which got the survivors aboard. They are suffering severely from exposure and shock.

The tanker made an urgent call for medical aid and the American gunboat Erie arrived at 1.0 a.m. and vainly tried for three hours to get a doctor aboard. The coastguard cutter Champlain finally succeeded in transferring her pharmacist’s mate. Those feared drowned are Mr. Noakes, the wealthy head of the New York Auction Company, Mr. Donald Miller, of Nebraska, and one of the stewards, Mr. Robert Spence. The survivors stated that they let go their hold of the lifebelts. Mr. Noakes and Mr. Miller were both travelling with their wives. The tanker is heading for port, at full speed.