LOST IN THE CHANNEL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15650, 2 July 1914, Page 9

LOST IN THE CHANNEL

FATE OF GUSTAV HAMEL,

ENGLAND'S FOREMOST AIRMAN.

[from oto own correspondent.]

London, May 29. England's most prominent aviator, Gustav Hamol, a great favourite with the crowds at Hendon and other flying grounds, is the latest victim to the science of 4 aviation. It will be recalled that it was Hamel who flew the Bleriot monopiano Britannia from' Dover to Cologne, and afterwards at Hendon, on the occasion of the presentation of the machine to the New Zealand Government. He took Sir Joseph Ward for a flight found the aerodrome. Hamel was 25 years of age, the son of a West End medical specialist, and was educated at Westminster. He became a pupil in the Bleriot school at Pau, and was easily the loading pilot of the monoplane type in the world. Last Saturday an aerial Derby had been arranged to take place round London, and Hamel was returning from Paris to compete. As a matter of fact, the weather was bo bad that the contest was postponed during the morning. Hamel, however, left Versailles at 4.30 a.m. on Saturday morning in a new Morane-Zaulzier monoplane fitted with a 30-h.p. Gnome engine, and after a halt at Grotoy, he flew to Boulogne.

The manager of the Pavilion Imperial Hotel at Boulogne says that Mr. Ilaniel left his mechanic there and proceeded in hit monoplane to Hardelot, about ten miles distant, which he reached at about 9.30 o'clock. A strong south-westerly wind was then blowing, and there was a good deal of fog over the Channel. After a breakfast at the Restaurant des Aviateurs, he overhauled his machine. The motor was working splendidly, and everything appeared to bo in good order. " I Must Beach Hendon." Some of tho spectators tried to dissuade the airman irom ascending on account of the unfavourable weather. One said, "Are you really going to start in this weather'/" ''Of course,"' 'replied Mr. Hamel. "I have to be at Hendon this evening.'.' It was 12.30 p.m. when he took his departure. Caps and hats were waved and cheers were raised, and in a minute or two he had disappeared in a north-easterly direction. As no news of his arrival in England had been received by the evening, inquiries were made, and afterwards wireless messages were sent to the Channel steamers, requesting them to keep a sharp lookout. •

Mr. Hamel's mechanic went from Boulogne to Hardelot neit day, and talked with several people who witnessed tho ascent. Afterwards he sent out telegrams and w.as far from optimistic. Hope was buoyed up by the possibility that Hamel, finding the wind too strong, might have regained the French shore, and alighted in a lonely spot far from all means of communication. He expected to cross the Channel on Saturday in 25 minutes. An Anxious Day,

( Sunday wag an anxious day in the flying ( world, especially when it was known that an aeroplane believed to be Hamel's was I beard over Calais at 3 p.m. on Saturday. Among those conversant with the conditions 4 Channel chart will show at once how dangerous the position of an airman is if he gets at all east of Calais in making for the English coast, especially with the weather as it was on Saturday. A very strong westerly wind was blowing, and in thick weather the airman would probably not notice how this was deflecting him from his true course. Coastguards and police all round the south-east English coast have kept watch, and the Admiralty issued instructions that eorao of tho warships in Dover Harbour should make a search of the Channel. These instructions were given as a result of the initiative of Mr. Winston Churchill. Throughout Sunday night, Monday and Tuesday the warships and torpedoes patroiled from Dungeness westward away up into tho North Sea. The captain of the mail steamer Marie Henrietta, arriving at Dover cn Monday afternoon, reported that he had passed a number of the torpedo craft extended in a long line across the entrance to the North Sea. None of the mail boats arriving from the Continent had seen any trace of the missing aeroplane. Search Abandoned. \ These operations were abandoned on Tuesday afternoon, when the Admiralty made known this decision in the following communication:—"lt has been decided to suspend the searching operations i by flotillas and aircraft which have been j in progress for the last 48 hours for Mr. I Gustav Hamel. In relinquishing this qnest ! the Admiralty desire to place on record their recognition of the services rendered to British aviation by the missing airman. Ho was without question the foremost ex- | ponent in these islands of an art whoso ■ military consequence is continually increasing. His qualities of daring, skill, resource, and modesty merited the respect of thoso who pursue the profession of arms, and his loss, if this must bo accepted, is received with deep regret by tho officers and men of the naval wing of tho Royal Flying Corps." Hamel, the Man. The special correspondent of the Standard, who accompanied Hamel on the Now Zealand monoplane, Britannia, from Dover to Cologne, "vritosThere tfero two distinct sides to Gustav Hamel's personality. When on the ground off duty, so i to ispeak, he was a merry, ever mischievous boy, who loved to play pranks and perpetrate harmless practical jokes on his companions. His clear blue eyes were always dancing, and his lips were constantly parted with a Bunny smile. " But wffan he was in the air with his j i hand on tho oontrols he became transI formed into a stern, resourceful man, the (absolute master of himself and of his i machine- In all my numerous flights with 1 him I never knew him neglect his duty for one moment or forget his responsibilities. I "He was brave, too, but his bravery ' was bigger than the ordinary physical kind. Hamel always realised bis danger when flying, but he had the fins -moral courage to face and conquer.it. Although as highly strung as a woman, I do not; think he ever lost control of his nerves, 1 During that flight to Cologne, with clouds I blotting out tho earth and a cyclone reaching out for us from the sopth, until the pitching, rolling t and tossing of the little monoplane had made us both more or less seasick, Hamel fixed his eyes on the compass and drove onward with relentless determination. He had promised to go through that day, and ho meant to do so as long as we had a wing left to fly with. But no sooner was the task accomplished than the mischievous boy cropped out again."