NEW ZEALAND SERVICE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21148, 4 October 1930, Page 17

NEW ZEALAND SERVICE.

BROMLEY’S NAVIGATOR. A TASMANIAN. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, September 18. Mr Harold G. Gatty, who accompanied Lieutenant Bromley as navigator and wireless operator, when he set out on his unsuccessful attempt to fly from Japan to America, across the Pacific, gained a great deal of his navigating experience in New Zealand waters. He is a Tasmanian by birth, 27 years of age, and the son of Mr J. Gatty, town clerk of Richmond, Southern Tasmania. he left school Mr Gatty went to Jervis Bay Naval College, and after completing his term there ho joined the service of the Patrick Steamship Company, of Sydney, and rose to the position of second mate. Later he went to New Zealand, and for some time he was in the service of the Union Steam Ship Company. He served on many of the company’s vessels, and it is said that he was extremely popular while in the waters of the Dominion. Severing his association with the Union Company, Mr Gatty went to the United States, and before long he accepted a position as second mate on the yacht of a millionaire. In that position he gained further wide experience. He particularly interested in the navigation of aircraft, and he was able to secure the rights of a special system of navigation for aeroplanes and airships invented by Commander AVeels, of the United States navy. The system has already been proven a great success, and it was used by Colonel Lindbergh on his remarkable transatlantic flight, and by Commander Byrd when he flew over the South Polo.