Globe Flight

On July 31 the American world fliers were to start on the last lap of their journey around the earth's crust. On that day the fog curled its haunches and lay down like a great gray beast from the Orkney Islands to Iceland. For two days, it did not stir. The fliers waited; all was ready. They had made the brief trip from Brough to Kirkwall easily, with a tall wind following them; in Kirkwall the engines had been tuned for the last time, final preparations had been made, even to giving each plane a carrier pigeon. The patrol of U. S. Navy vessels had reached their stations, forming a chain of safety. In Iceland, the natives of tiny villages had erected signs in English to welcome the airmen. On Aug. 2, the fog still lingered, but the three planes took the air, pointing their noses north. Almost immediately they become separated; the fog was impenetrable. Hopeless of keeping their course, and fearing a collision, two planes--those of Lieuts. Smith and Wade--wheeled and turned back toward Scotland. One, the New Orleans of Lieut. Eric Nelson, kept on. Over 500 miles of icy and puckered water, through the confusing mist-banks, the New Orleans flew like a bodiless falcon, invisible, intrepid, swift. At first Lieut. Nelson feared that the course was lost Then he sighted the Billing sley, from which he took his direction, as she was steaming in the line of flight. He followed the same procedure when he sighted the Reid and the Raleigh. At 3:40 in the afternoon he reached Iceland, the total time of the flight having been 8 hrs. and 40 min. "It was a cinch after the first two hours," said he, "but at the beginning it was nip and tuck." Meanwhile, the planes which had put back waited for another chance to attempt the most perilous flght of their journey home. On Sunday, they hopped off. The sun was shining; there was no hint of fog. Wade had trouble starting. Before the flight had been long under way, word was received on board the U. S. S. Richmond that he had been forced down by engine trouble off the Island of Suderoe, in the Faroe group. The destroyer hurried to his rescue, assisted by a British trawler. In an effort to hoist the plane on board the trawler, part of the lifting mechanism broke, cracking the propeller, demolishing the port wing. Lieut. Wade, after so much dared, so much achieved, saw his plane in ruin and relinquished the flight. Smith went on, reaching Iceland, where he and Nelson prepared for their jump to Greenland.