AIRSHIP WRECKED

Te Puke Times, Volume II, Issue II, 12 September 1913, Page 3

AIRSHIP WRECKED

A ZEPPELIN LOST Berlin, September 10. The naval airship LI, which was caught by a sudden gale during the naval manoeuvres off Cuxhaven to-day, and was hurled into the sea and wrecked 18 miles to tho north of Heligoland, was engaged in a scouting (light. Thirteen men were drowned, including Captain Metzing, the commander of the naval airship division, - and Captain • Mannc, the airship's pilot, and also several members of the Naval Commission supervising the airship's trials. Che airship was manoeuvring two aeroplanes when an approaching squall was sighted. The two aeroplanes quickly descended to below the level of the storm, while the airship made a great effort to avoid the hurricane. Her steering gear, however, was unequal to coping with the situation. The whirlwind struck the airship, and the envelope was largely deflated owing to the fact that

it lacked the ordinary resisting power, the ballast having been thrown out. ■ • • • ; This destroyed the airship's equilibrium. A wireless message for help wm sent "off." When the airship Was beaten down to the, waves eighteen of thegas cells burst.Most of the crew, with the commander, were in the front car, which sank rapidly. The men in the after car were able to don salving suits, but all in the cabins were drowned like rats in a trap. The survivors sprang overboard and swam until picked up. Torpedo boats received the wireless messages and went at full speed to the rescue. The airship will be salved, and her valuable equipment will be US3.I for a vessel of}i similar design. News of the disaster was telephoned to the Kaiser at Salzcbruenn. The . Emperor was greatly distressed by the message. The wrecked airship was the holder of the world's record for duration of (light.