AIRSHIP LOST.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20539, 14 February 1935, Page 1

AIRSHIP LOST.

Great U.S. Craft In Sea. ALL BUT TWO SAVED. DIRIGIBLE BREAKS UP AND FALLS INTO OCEAN. United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. SAN FRANCISCO, February 12. The United States navy dirigible, Macon, sister-ship of the ill-fated Akron, plunged from foggy skies to the ocean 110 miles south of San Francisco late on Tuesday. The navy, responding to her S.O.S. calls, performed heroic rescues, picking up Commander Herbert V. Wiley and other survivors. An explosion is believed to have torn the Macon apart. Navy men said that, after her wireless had told of “ a bad casualty ” in the air, a red rocket shot into the dark sky when the Macon struck, seventeen miles off Point Sur, and nearby navy ships sped to the rescue. A later message from the destroyer Concord told of Commander Wiley and Lieutenant-Commander Jesse Kenworth, the executive officer of the airship. being rescued, along with nine others. They were in the first of the rescuing lifeboats which reached the Concord. Commander Wiley was a survivor of the Akron disaster. The Macon left Sunnyvale in the afternoon ,to join in the naval manoeuvres in the Pacific. Many vessels were in the vicinity, including the cruiser Memphis, and the battleships Pennsylvania and Tennessee. So sudden was the disaster that the Macon rocked and plunged swiftly towards the ocean. Commander Wiley flashed his first S.O.S. at 5.15 p.m. (Eastern standard time). U.S.S. Memphis reported picking up seven lifeboats with survivors, and U.S.S. Pennsj*lvania then reported that the survivors were located and assistance was no longer needed. The Macon sank after she fell. The Navy rescued eighty-one or eightv-three as darkness added to a heavy cloak of fog. The sudden disaster was possibly due to an explosion or disabled gear which sent the ship into a plunge from 2500 feet. It was believed possible that the two men not accounted for had remained aboard, but the Navy announced that the ship had sunk.” The cruiser Richmond picked up 64, the Concord 11 and the Cincinnati 6. The Macon’s crew was calm in the face of disaster, and aided the rescuers by giving the position of the wreck in a quick S.O.S. and then shooting a rocket. Apparently the ship remained afloat for only a short time. As the rescue ships neared the wreckage, burning spots of calcium were sighted. The ships effected the rescue by the aid of searchlights. Some of the Macon’s crew were found in the water or clinging to the wreckage. Beyond Hope of Salvage. A Washington message states that the Macon sank apparently beyond all hope of salvage. A revised Navy estimate declared that eighty-one were rescued and two were missing. A w’ide search was ordered for them. According to the best unofficial information,the bag burst in many places, and there was a terrific explosion. Despite the dropping of all possible ballast, the airship sank rapidly. Mr Carl Vinson (chairman of the House of Representatives Naval Affairs Committee) thought that the loss of the Macon might possibly spell the death-knell of the United States Navy’s experiments with lighter-than-air craft. Of course, more details must be known and an investigation made. The mishap came as the House Committee was considering tackling again the question of whether the Navy should build more lighter-than-air ships. Commander’s Report. Commander Wiley reported that, while off Point Sur, the course being north, all engines at standard speed of 63 knots, altitude 1250 feet and air squally, about 5.18, the casualty occurred in a storm. “ I thought the elevator control had j carried away," he said. “ The ship took a bow-up inclination and rose | rapidly. I ordered all ballast and ' fuel slip-tanks to be dropped aft of midships and received prompt word that No. 1 gas cell, under the fins, w’as gone, that the stern was crumbling, and finally that No. 2 had gone. “ I tried to land the ship near the cruisers off Point Sur. but I could not see the surface until shortly before landing. The ship landed stern first with no way on at 5.45. “ All hands took to the rubber boats and watched the ship finally sink. Discipline was excellent. All hands had the alarm in time to don lifejackets.” The naval dirigible Macon, sister ship of the Akron, which was wrecked in April, 1933, made her maiden flight on April 21, 1933, at Akron. Ohio, and had a test cruise of nearly thirteen hours on April 23. The Macon made

several short cruises in the east after going into commission. The airship, with Commander A. H. Dresel in charge and seventy-three persons aboard, started on October 12 from Lakehurst, New Jersej l -, and reached her new base at Sunnyvale, California, on October 15, after an uneventful flight. There she participated in the Pacific Fleet manoeuvres. Loss of the Akron. The Akron was forced down into the sea and destro\ r ed half an hour after midnight on April 4, 1933. The ship had run into a violent thunderstorm while cruising off the New Jersey coast sixty miles south of New York Harbour. Of the seventy-six men aboard, four succeeded in keeping afloat until rescued an hour later by the German tanker Phoebus, and* one of these died later. Among those lost were Commander F. M’Cord, captain of the Akron; Rear-Admiral W. Moffett, Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics: Commander F. T. Berry, head of the Naval Air Station at Lakehurst. A Naval Court of Inquiry found that the Akron was in excellent condition, fully and properly manned and equipped, and that its final destruction was caused by a down current of wind of such magnitude that the lower fin struck the water before the descent could be checked. While searching for survivors in the teeth of a forty-five-mile gale on April 4, the Navy non-rigid blimp J 3 was ! wrecked, three of the crew being lost I and five rescued. Both the Akron and the Macon were I built by the Goodvear-Zeppelin Corjporalion of Akron, Ohio, the Akron at a cost of 5,375.000 dollars, the Macon at 2,450,000 dollars.' The Akron’s dimensions were: Length, 785 ft; greatest diameter, 132.9 ft: height over all, 146.5 ft; carried 6.500,000 cubic feet of helium: gross lift. 403,0001 b; had eight engines, with a total of 4480 h.p.; a maximum speed of eightv-four m.p.h.: cruising range of 10,580 miles. The Macon differed little from her sister ship. Airship Wrecks. 1919, U.S.A., CB, at Baltimore, 75 killed. 1919, British, NSII, in North Sea, 7 killed. 1921, British, R3B, in Humber, 43 killed. 1922, U.S.A., Roma, in Virginia, 34 killed. 1923, French, Dixmude, in Sicilv 54 killed. 1924, Japanese, S 3, no details. 1925, U.S.A., Shenandoah, in Ohio 14 killed. 1928, Italian, Italia, in Arctic, 7 killed. 1930, British, RlOl, at Beauvais, 48 killed. 1933, U.S.A., Akron, off New Jersey, 74 killed. 1933, U.S.A., J 3, off New Jersey, 3 killed. 1933, French, E 9, at Guerande.