Walter Wellman, a failed ‘America’ expedition, and another historical footnote for Atlantic City.
Wellman's 'America'
Walter Wellman dreamed on a big scale, an early 20th century trailblazer with his eye on the skies.
After failing in three attempts to become the first person to fly over the North Pole in an airship, the Ohio native remained undeterred. The 51-year-old Wellman set his sights on a new goal a continent away. He came to Atlantic City in 1910 with a lofty ambition: to become the first person to fly across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe in a dirigible.
The pace of aviation developments accelerated quickly after the Wright Brothers’ first successful flight in December 1903. While that trip was measured in feet, Wellman prepared for a journey that would cover more than 3,000 miles over the world’s second-biggest ocean. It would be a voyage comparable to those of Christopher Columbus and other early explorers of the New World.
Fittingly, Wellman’s airship was named America, a symbol of the nation’s and his can-do spirit. The dirigible was nearly 200 feet long and encompassed 345,000 cubic feet when inflated.
“To people who saw her for the first time, she seemed mysterious,” Wellman said, “unlike anything else that was ever known for sailing upon the seas or running upon the land.”
In the summer of 1910, Wellman received a warm welcome in Atlantic City for his impending expedition as he took up residence in the Chalfonte Hotel. A huge balloon house for the America was constructed for $12,000 by the Aero Club of Atlantic City. Visitors could pay a fee to see the airship before its departure. Wellman and his crew spent most of the summer getting the craft ready for the flight, which was expected to last six to 10 days. An air of skepticism began to build as summer gave way to fall and the America remained in Atlantic City. Some people wondered if Wellman would ever take off. Murray Simon, the crew’s British navigator, wrote about the naysayers in his logbook.
“We will make those blooming critics eat their words,” he vowed. “They have been hammering us for the last month ... telling us we should never leave sight of land ... and that all the men engaged to work the ship have cold feet.” On Oct. 15, the critics were silenced when the America went airborne with Wellman, Simon and four other crewmembers, including a wireless radio operator. Also onboard was a cat named Kiddo. Getting the ship ready for departure was no small task. It took an estimated 100 men to guide the America to the ocean’s edge, where was it attached to the motor yacht and towed out to the open waters. With a sense of awe and humility, Wellman described the scene in his 1911 book The Aerial Age.
“We were half a dozen human pigmies astride a great machine weighing a total of about 26,000 pounds — 13 tons of steel, silk, rubber, gasoline, engines, provisions — a thousand things welded together in a modern lighter-than-air aerial craft.”
Despite the high hopes of the crew, the voyage didn’t go as planned. A combination of Mother Nature (high winds and heavy fog) and manmade problems (overheating engine, expanding and contracting hydrogen) made the flight perilous as the airship went off course. The airship traveled as far north as New Hampshire before winding its way south again. By Oct. 17, Simon, the navigator, calculated the America was back to its starting point off the coast of Atlantic City. In the early hours of Oct. 18, Wellman decided to terminate the voyage near Bermuda. After establishing contact with the Royal Mail Steamship SS Trent through a Morse Code message, the America’s crew and Kiddo lowered themselves into the Atlantic and aboard a 27-foot lifeboat. The Trent rescued the crew as the America plunged into the ocean never to be seen again.
Despite its failure to reach Europe, the flight of the America was not in vain. The first wireless messages between an airship and a station on shore were sent from the America, proving the reliability of this communication before the advent of air-traffic controllers. The America also managed to set a record for length of flight (72 hours) and distance (1,008 miles).
With a mix of pride and humor, Simon summed up the crew’s feelings in the final entry of his logbook.
“We are defeated in our attempt to reach Europe but we are not discredited,” he said. “We have gathered a vast amount of useful knowledge, which will help largely in the solution to big problems relating to the navigation of the air. And we also saved the cat!” (Photo: Library of Congress)
In conjunction with the celebration of the centennial anniversary of airshows, the Atlantic City Free Public Library — an official sponsor of the 2010 Atlantic City Air Show “Thunder Over the Boardwalk” on Aug. 25 — is co-sponsoring an exhibit called “Flying Fearless” — celebrating the 100-year anniversary of air shows in the state of New Jersey.
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1. James Bond said... on Apr 27, 2011 at 04:58PM
“Hi All,
The strange thing about this aborted trans Atlantic flight was that even though they never got close to crossing, the entire crew were hailed as heroes by the public.
If you like airships and are in the mood for a Helium sniffing laugh try my Gasbags site: www.hybridblimp.net for the worlds only lighter than air comedy web site.
Regards JB (www.hybridairship.net)”