OCEAN SEARCH FAILS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19377, 15 July 1937, Page 5

OCEAN SEARCH FAILS

LOST AMERICAN FLYERS QUEST BY SIXTY PLANES (Elec. Tel. Copyright —United Press Assn.) MONTREAL, July 14. The 60 seaplanes released yesterday by the naval aircraft carrier Lexington 100 miles north-east of Howland Island to search for the lost American

flyers, Mrs. Amelia Earhart Putnam and Captain F. J. Noonan, returned after scouring 21,000 square miles in the search.

The machines refuelled for a flight southwards, including the vicinity of Howland Island. The conditions enabled the sea to be scanned from an altitude of 500 ft.

The coastguard cutter Itasca and the mine-sweeper Swan are searching in the vicinity of Gilbert Islands.

LAST SEEN NEAR NAURU THEORY OF OFFICERS RADIO BY MYRTLEBANK That the Bank Line motor-ship Myrtlebank, en route from Auckland to Nauru Island, was the last vessel sighted by Mrs. Amelia Earhart Putnam before her monoplane was forced down between Howland Island and Honolulu last week was the opinion expressed by officers of the steamer Pontypridd, which arrived at Auckland on Sunday afternoon from Ocean Island.

The Pontypridd, which left Ocean Island for Auckland on June 30, was about 300 miles from Nauru Island on June 2, the morning on which Mrs. Putnam left New Guinea for Howland Island. On the same afternoon the steamer heard the wireless station at Nauru Island, VKT, calling the monoplane, KH-AQQ, asking “What is your position now.” No reply was made by the monoplane.

On the next day the Pontypridd heard the motor-ship Myrtlebank asking Nauru Island if Mrs. Putnam had advised what time she sighted the ship. The Myrtlebank was then 45 miles south of Nauru Island, approximately on the course which would have been taken between New Guinea and Howland Island by the missing monoplane. The Myrtlebank left Auckland for Nauru Island on June 24.