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Show "Pretty Fair Prophet," Says Commander Scott, as Big Blimp Reaches Homeland British" Major Writes of Now Historical Voyage of R-34 Across the Atlantic; Thrills, but No Real Adventures During Trip. BY MAJOR G. H. SCOTT. Commander of the R-34. Special Cable Dispatch to Universal Service. (Copyright, 91 9 by Universal Service.) PULHAM (100 miles northeast of London), Lon-don), July 13. X think I am a pretty fair prophet. The night we left New York I said we would take between seventy and eighty hours in crossing. "Wo actually did it in seventy-five hours, three minutes as against 10S hours on the outward journey. This is exceedingly satisfactory to me, sinco the last leg of the return was made under adverse weather and despite one broken engine. The first S00 miles of our homeward journey were the fastest. We reached a speed of seventy-two knots, which Is equivalent to eighty-two miles, but we didn't keep up this peed permanently, t shall never forget the farewell night of New York when we circled the Times towjr shortly after midnight at a height of 2000 feet. Below us lay a fairyland of lights, and we even detected thousands of white dots representing upturned faces between the lanes of light. It was the weirdest sight any of us had ever seen. The engines of our airship were too noisy for us to detect any sound of Broadway, but we bsiieved people down there were giving us farewell cheers. We had a strong wind behind us when we passed 150 minutes south of Newfound land, but as we drew eastward the wind veered around and got ahead of us, though there was no great velocity. Thereafter we had light winds from various directions the whole way across-and across-and a lut of low clouds and fog, which prevented our getting sight of any sort , for twenty-four hours in the middle part of the journey. Most of the trip across was done above the lower cloud strata; the sea was not! visible, which mad 5 it hard to estimate j drift or speed. Just before ireia nd was readied we traveled six hours at 3000 feet. All Very Cold. Ail of us were very cold, particularly after the terrific heat that prevailed in 1 New York. j , We struck Ireland at exactly the same , spot where Aicock and Brown landed Clifden. The breakdown of one of our engines in the after car was not so serious as 'might appear. Though this meant a 1 loss of one-fifth of our driving power , ! when we were 1200 miles from Kast For- j tune, it made practically no difference i because in a dirigible, only four engines I are used normally except when bi-cking ! head winds. Occasionally only three en-i en-i glnes are necessary. ! i Really compared with the dangers and j the anxiety of our outward voyage, this ; return was a pleasure jaunt and we'll i (Continued on Page 3, Column 4.) piny fi profit, SAYS COMffl (Continued from Page One.) have to rank our brains to provide the correspondents with "sensation." As far as I can remember, the most sensational sen-sational feature was when we diseoiered the cook asleep under the dining room table. No don't make a mistake, it wasn't too much of the twelfth hour rum which we took aboard on Hazelhurst field but he was sleeping for a perfectly excusable cause that is, excusable in an airship. You'll have to get the cook's own siory on that point. But incidentally I wish to thank the benefactor who stowed some rum aboard just before our departure. The members of the R-34's crew have voted to build him a monument. No, sir, we don't dare reveal the name of this benefactor who risked tho terrors of the law in dry America to quard us from the Arctic cold which we experienced when approaching Ireland. Plenty of Petrol. We have a thousand gallons of petrol left in our tanks, which is a happy contrast con-trast with the ten-living shortage while approaching Lxng Island. If we had only known what small consumption of petrol was ahead of us, we wouldn't have left any members of the crew behind. We might even have brought hack our stowaway. stow-away. To sum up the results of the round trio: It was not difficult, as we had antici- pated, though we had anxious moments during a thunderstorm over Nova Scotia and when the petrol was running low. I was consumed with anxiety all the time the R-34 was at Hazelhurst because one of New York's1 famous thunderstorms would have wrenched her seaward in a jiffy. I am convinced beyond doubt that the dirigible is the only type of transocean voyager and the R-34 Is only, a pioneer. Larger and faster craft will follow. Safety and dependable schedule in crossing cross-ing depend wholly upon petrol-carrying capacity and consistent speed of seventy or eighty knots. We all believe that the good old R-34 lias blazed the trail for ships of quadruple size which will make transatlantic air travel as common as sea travel is today-. What are my immediate plans? Sleep. Twice around the clock. |