Runaway

The British airship R-33, sister ship of the famous K34 which crossed the Atlantic in 1920, repeated, last week, the feat of the U. S. airship Shenandoah, which, last year, went on an unintentional voyage (TIME, Jan. 28, 1924). The R33 was moored to the mast at Pulham airdrome in Norfolk, England, during one of the worst gales known to the windswept English coast. Under the terrific pull of a 50-mile-an-hour wind, she tore away the arm of the mooring mast. The damage inflicted was even worse than in the case of the, Shenandoah. The first of the 18 sec, tions of her duralumin framework was completely broken, the sixth badly damaged; the outer envelope was spent badly for one-sixth of the distance along the hull and hung in great folds as far aft as the letters painted on her hull. As an additional handicap, she had suspended from her cables two half-ton artillery carriages used as ballast at anchor.

When the R-33 broke loose, she plunged wildly down by the bow, then nosed up with equal violence. To on, lookers from the ground, the great ship appeared doomed. Fortunately, she had an efficient crew of 20 men on board and two days' fuel. Lieutenant Booth, , the officer in charge, had never commanded an airship before. Within two minutes after the accident, he had two engines running, the wireless in operation, and the airship in complete control. With the British gunboat Godetia to guide her, with every vessel in the North Sea alert, the airship fought a tremendous fight for 30 hours. In touch by wireless throughout this period, she sent in reports every few minutes, followed meteorological instructions carefully and even found time to thank the landing party at Rotterdam, when it was apparent that she would not have to land in Holland.

After the first shock, the crew settled down very quickly. The envelope was dented along its whole length, the bow was hanging in shreds and there was danger in the fierce wind that it would rip still further. Men went aloft in sailor style, lowered a rope ladder over the bow, gather up the loose ends of the flapping cover and bunched them , together. They made untidy balls but prevented the fabric from ripping further. In the first burst of the gale, the ship traveled stern first for many miles, rolling constantly and threatening to head down into the water while the crew worked in life belts. Even when the return journey was possible, she sailed painfully at not more than ten miles an hour over the rough sea. When the airship got home, looking like an uncomfortable inflated toy pig, a perfect landing and housing were made. The wild journey was another evidence of the wonderful airworthy qualities of these apparently fragile giants of the air.