AIRMAN TELLS STORY OF DR HUGO ECKENER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19134, 29 July 1930, Page 5

AIRMAN TELLS STORY OF DR HUGO ECKENER.

HIS EARLY AMBITION WAS TO BE SEA-CAPTAIN.

The following impressions of Dr. Hugo Eckener, commander of the Graf Zeppelin, were written by a well-known German flyer, Johannes Vollert. In 1914 I eaw Dr. Hugo Eckener for the first time. It was at tl'.e Hamburg flying field, where the great Zeppelin hangar was still standing. Dr. Eckener was then the right-hand man of the old Count Zeppelin, who died four years later, leaving us Germans a. rich heritage from which we now again may derive nourishment. A few months alter his death came the dark November day—the 9tli—which drove all our hopes into the grave. We had to give up our aeroplanes and Zeppelins to our enemies. We were not *llo\ved to build new ones. The French. Control Commission took pains to make a most exact inspection. In October, 1924, I saw Dr. Eckener again in Hamburg, this, time ns the commander of the present Los Angeles, high up over the ruins of the once so proud Zeppelin hangar—the ZeppelinHalle —where I had met Mm for the first time ten years before. We flew together for a long time and exchanged the beet wishes and greetings. We wished him and Hans von Schiller a perfect trip to America —the new home of the Los Angeles. Nearly two years later—in July, 1926—1 met Eckener again in Hamburg, on the occasion of a memorial day for t-lie aviators that had fallen in the World War. That evening he delivered a long lecture on the subject of iiis first trans-oceanic flight with the Los Angeles. Never Hasty—Never Nervous. A short time ,1a ter came the final emancipation and liberation of German airship and aeroplane construction from the chains of slavery. In those days I came to know one of Dr. Eokener’e beet schoolday friends from his native town, Flensburg, a man with whom he had passed the first two decades of his life. He was an apothecary from Holeten named Ebsen. “From the very first day I came to know Dr. Eckener he was always the dearest friend I had/’ said Ebsen. “A quarrel was something that never came between us. Everything he did at the time was already mature and well considered. He was never self-pushing, never hasty; also never nervous or wrought up. “The chemistry lesson was the favourite of both of us. After school hours or during vacation he was always with his friend, old Captain John Petersen, who was in port a good deal with his Rio Bravo. “There he received the basic ideas and all the fundamentals of his profession. The old Captain taught Eckener how to splice cable, how to tie knots, how to row, sail and navigate a boat, etc. He taught him the compass and the lore of the stars. He learned also about the wind and weather. When the old captain wasn’t in port, when he was wandering over the ocean, Eckener sat on the beach and waited, wondering if lie wouldn’t come back from the eea to-day. Watching Gull Fights. ‘Tor a long time he would watch the flight of the blue and white gulls that sailed up and down the beach. Already in those davs Eckener knew exactly when the weather would change or when it would stay calm. Ho could tell beforehand if a storm was coming and whether it would vent its fury over Flensburg or at sea. “If John Petersen went for a short trip he took Eckener and myself along, and Hugo Eckener was tho pilot, lie was already a full-fledged steersmanpilot while still a schoolboy. “On the long summer evenings we would sail with our old captain in our sailboat along the shore, receiving new instruction. It all went very peacefully, even though we learned diligently. Often the sailors had dance music on beard and played beautiful songs on the seamen’s piano—the harmonica. Then v?e were our natural selves on board and played with John Petersen’s dog, which was part of the ship’s crew. “ T’m going to be a sailor and a captain, too,’ Eckener would say. ‘That’s certain, as certain as that I just came from the Rio Bravo, as certain as I’m standing here in the harbour of Flensburg, John Petersen will always take me with him. He told me so. And I gave him my word to become a captain, to take a lot of people around the world. That’s a better life than a king’s. What do you think?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ “ I Love to Use Every Hour.” “Eckencr’iS father had a tobacco shop, where Hugo was never to be found. He had deckled to be a seaman, but he continued studying chemistry with me for a few years. In 1906 and 1907 lie finally went over to the study of airsJiip construction, when he heard of the plans of Count Zeppelin.” I myself came to know Eckener personally and more intimately when we lived together in a hotel in Leipzig for a few days in 192(5. He had business at the time at the Leuna Works there, in connection with the new Blau-gas (the fuel used by the Graf Zeppelin). He is a genial old gentleman who loves to use every hour of life to the fvll. His amusements are chiefly in the field of science, which lias been a good thing for the flying world. He says:— “I love to use every hour in life—that is, to work, whether it be mental or physical work. One lost hour means a great deal and - can never be recovered.” Eekener’s brother-in-law owns the Flensburg newspaper, and a few years after the war, Eckener worked with him as a newspaper man. He then wrote a good deal about Zeppelins before he returned to» Friedrichsliafen.— (A.A.N.S. Copyright.)