"THE AIR SHIP."

Taranaki Herald, Volume LV, Issue 13983, 14 August 1909, Page 6

"THE AIR SHIP."

SUPPOSED GERMAN STAB OHIV

SEEN NEAR STEWART ISLAND.

The excitement in regard to "the air ship" has cooled down considerably in invercargill, says the local News, and talk has returned to discussion* on mundane subjects. There is nothing to report in regard to Invercargill, and i Blufi, too, has been quiescent, although I the arrival of the Moeraki from Mel- 1 bourne raised speculation. Upon inquiry our reporter learned that neither strange lights nor "air ships" had been visible to captain, passengers, or crew during their journey across the Tasman Sea. Amongst the arrivals was the schooner Britannia, which reached Bluft from Broad Bay (or Wilson's Bay). Stewart Island, and the story she hatl to tell had some bearing on the question of the hour, in that she had seen a war ship, suppised to be German, and boasting three funnels. It appears from inquiries made that when the Britannia was about twelve miles from the Breaksea group of islands on Sunday at daybreak when the wheelman sighted a big war ship steaming towards the South Cape in a southwesterly direction as fast as it could possibly go. The wheelman <E. J. Greaves) states that the time* was 8.30. and he immediately called up the others to see the ship. Dr. Buddie, of Auckland, who was a passenger, Jackie Russell, "Billy" Wilson, and W. Bailey all came up, but Captain Dixon declined. Dr. Buddie had powerful glasses, and on looking at the vessel at once pronounced it to be German. They turned the passes on the flag, and could see easily that it was not a British flag, and they -took it to be German, although they were not quite sure what nationality it represented. The war ship was only a mile and a quarter off. She was steering about south-west, and going at full speed. They had no special reason for classing it as German, and it was not in consequence of "air ship stories, because they had heard absolutely nothing of them before leaving the island — in fact, it was not until they landed at Bluff that they heard anything about the "air ship," someone asking them jocularly if they had seen "any air ships floating about." Further and corroborative evidence was gleaned from Wilson, Dr. 'Buddie having gone north hv the express. He stated that he had been called out with the others, and he observed this war ship travelling south-west very f«»t — • bou A ?° v ! he reckoned it. They would be about ten or twelve mile from the Breaksea Islands when they sighted the vessel. She had three funnels and was pretty high out of the water. If the flag had been a British one they would have seen it clearly, because the ensign was very easy to sight. Both men said that if they had thought the matter anything special they would have been able to give fuller particulars— it was more curiosity with them than anything else —and the only unusual feature about is as far as they were w™ o *" l *?.,*? 8 that they had never seen a war ship in the neighbourhood before, and consequently they wondered what it was '"The feeling at the Bluff » that the vessel is the Encounter of the Brit«hAntralasian squadron, but t he "P 8 *? and the flag business do not. tend to Support the Idea, although it is doubtfuf whether any of the g?™» n . W *" about could summon up 20 knots As in the case of "the air ship," elucidation is awaited with interest.