Food and Nerve

Flying over the barren waste of the Alaska Peninsula, surrounded by a heavy fog that blotted out the desolate, treeless, uninhabited shores below, two aviators, speeding westward, crashed against a mountain side. Miraculously uninjured, they picked themselves from the wreck of their plane and started on a search for life, warmth, food. For seven days they labored across that rough, uneven country. At the end of a week they came to a trapper's cabin on the southern tip of Port Moller Bay, nearly at the end of the peninsula. From this haven they flashed back word that they were safe.

Thus ended a ten-day search for Major Frederick L. Martin and his mechanic, Staff Sergeant Alva L. Harvey. Major Martin was commander of the U. S. Army air fleet of four planes set out to circumnavigate the world (TIME, March 24).

While Major Martin and his companion were searching for civilization, the U. S. Government was pursuing an intensive search for them. The President said: "Every effort the Government can make is being made to find these gallant men." Two U. S. Coast Guard cutters ploughed the gale-lashed waters of the North Pacific day and night. At every bay and inlet a small boat was put off and a search was made of the adjoining land. At night the two ships' glaring searchlights swept the desolate coast.

Major Martin wired Major Gen. Mason M. Patrick, Chief of Army Air Service: "Crashed against mountain in fog at 12:30 o'clock. Neither hurt but ship total wreck. Our existence due to concentrated food and nerve. Arrived at a trapper's cabin, southernmost point of Port Moller's Bay, morning 7th, exhausted. Found food. Rested three days. Walked to beach. Awaiting instructions here."

Said Mrs. Frederick L. Martin, informed that her husband was safe: "I am going to ask Fred to make the greatest sacrifice he ever made in his life: I want him to promise me he will never fly again. . . . God bless the little messenger boy that delivered the telegram. He came to my sister's house where I have been staying . . . and his face was radiant with smiles. Instinctively, I knew he had brought me good news."