TOLL OF ADVENTURE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22751, 11 December 1935, Page 5

TOLL OF ADVENTURE

AIR, WATER, AND LAND SOME FAMOUS FIGURES * DEATH AS GRIM CLIMAX. On the roll of men who have lived adventurously and have fallen victims to their own adventure must be inscribed (a write:: in the New Zealand Herald says) the name of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith. If a place were set a,part for those who staked their lives' and lost on a venture that called for an alliance between wind, machine and circumstance, it would cor.tain such notable names as Ulm, Post, Segrave, Amundsen and Parry Thomas, all of whom lived dangerously so that civilisation might progress. The fai:e which overtook Mr C. T. P. Ulm was the same as that which has befallen Lis friend and former flying .partner. Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, inasmuch as both-men were at the time engaged on long-distance flights. In the monoplane Star. of Australia Charles Ulm, with Mr G. Littlejohn and Mr L. Shilling, set out from Oakland, California, on December 4 last year for Honolulu, on the first stage of a flight that was to bring them to Auckland and then on to Sydney. After sending a few S.O.S. messages they were never heard of again, and a few months later the court gave leave to presume their deaths. ROUND-THE-WORLD RECORD. The American airman Mr Wiley Post, who achieved fame as a round-the-world flyer, was' killed when his aeroplane crashed in Alaska on August 15. With him at the time was the famous comedian Mr Will Rogers, who also met his death. The two men were making a holiday flisrht together. Mr Post, who waa of almost pure American Indian.blood, not only flew round the world, but also' made a number of, notable attempts at flying in the stratosphere. In 1931 Mr Post conceived "the idea offlying round the world, and, with'Mr : Harold Gatty as navigator, set out from New York on June 23 of that year in the monoplane Winnie Mae. He crossed the Atlantic to England in the record time of 16hr 12min, then,flew via Berlin, Moscow, Irkutsk and Alaska back to NewYork. A distance of 16,500 miles was covered in 8 days 16 hours. Sir Henry Segrave, although an airman in the Great War, came into prominence as a-racing motorist and land speed record breaker. After winning Continental motor events he had built for him a special car with which, in 1926, he covered a mile at the then extraordinary speed of 156 miles an hour. In the followiijg year, at Daytona Beach, Florida, he made a record of 203.792 miles an hour, and in February, 1930, in the car Golden Arrow,, achieved a speed of more than 231 miles an hour. MOTOR-BOAT FATALITY.

Turning his attention to motor boat racing, Sir Henry attempted tb beat the American record of 92 miles an hour. His craft was the Miss England, which he took to Miami, Florida, but he only achieved 88 miles an hour. Then, on June 13, 1930, in the Mies England 11, while making a trial run on Lake Windermere, he met his death. Travelling at terrific speed, the craft plunged beneath the water and reappeared on the surface with a great rent in the hull. Sir Henry suffered internal injuries, and died a few hours later. ,-The boat, however, had attained a maximum speed of over 101 miles an hour. Mr J. G. Parry Thomas was another racing motorist of international fame who gave his life when trying to recapture the world's record for the flying mile. On Pendine Sands, Wales, in 1927, he was killed while travelling at nearly 180 miles an hour. His 400 horse-power car, Babs, skidded for a quarter of a mile, turned two or three somersaults, and burst into flames. Death was instantaneous. Pieces of the wrecked car were found a quarter of a mile away. PURPOSE OF ENDEAVOURS. Mr Parry Thomas was chief designer to a prominent motor manufacturing firm, and had several speed records to his credit. The car in which he was driving at the time of his death was an assembly of his own. Motor racing, in his opinion, was a ready means of improving the touring- car used by the. public, and all his work was directed to such improvement. Cantain Roald Amundsen, the veteran Norwegian polar explorer, might be grouped in a different category from those hitherto mentioned, but a link is provided in that he went to his death in an aeroplane. His end was a valiant one, for he died when on a mission ot rescue. The Italian airship Italia, under General Nobile, had flown across the North Pole, and on the return journey to Spitzbergen, on May 25, 1928, all trace of her was lost.- The crew were located on the ice off North-East Land on June 20, but in the meantime Amundsen had set out to search in a seaplane. Amundsen never returned, and in the following September the crew of a fisning smack found a seaplane float believed to have been part of his machine. His death was presumed and caused international mournina.