Logo
Prev
Bookmark
Rotate
Print
Next
Contents
All Pages
Related Articles
Browse Issues
Help
Search
Home
'
National Geographic : 1925 Jan
Contents
SEEING AMERICA FROM THE "SHENANDOAH" Photograph by Junius LOOKING DOWN 6,000 FEET INTO IMPERIAL VALLEY The radio is stilled a moment, while Radio Gunner George W. Almour, who, with Lieutenant Carlton D. Palmer, maintained communications, leans outside the door of the radio "shack." The Shenandoah established radio communications on the short waves with some 200 amateur stations in 39 States. It communicated also with 14 Navy, 6 Army, and 6 commercial stations, and sent and received 45,332 words during the 258 hours it was in the air (see text, page 30). "Water again, forward, quickly!" Lansdowne says, almost excited. "Standard speed," he adds. Her nose has drifted back from the mast. The drive ahead can be risked. "Standard speed, sir," Sheppard echoes. The levers click, bells jangle and repeat, as the levers fly back again. Quicker than it can be told, the men, hands on the throttles in five separate cars, like one machine, have their motors roaring at 1,200 revolutions a minute. Slowly the ship gathers headway. She seems to hesitate, as if reluctant to leave, holding her nose toward the ground. "Pull the water in her nose," Lans downe snaps. "Pulled, sir," Houghton echoes, as 550 pounds more drop in a single splash, spraying the windows of the forward car. The nose bobs upward from the re leased ballast. It is equivalent to drop ping three men. One man walking the length of the ship when the engines are not running changes her level 3 degrees, so carefully is she balanced. After she is under way they can move at will, the elevators by their resistance to the air keeping her trim. However, men cannot be dropped overboard to lighten the ship. 1\en, engines, and a certain amount of fuel and oil are not classed as "dispos able" ballast. "Two more men aft," he adds in the same breath. "How far, sir?" asks Lieutenant Mayer, as he runs up the ladder. "All the way." "A man from 105 and a man from 6o, into the tail," is shouted down the long keel tunnel. The vibration of the motors drowns the thud of their feet, as they race uphill along the narrow runway. The ship is rapidly gathering headway. Her nose is pointing upward at an angle of To degrees. "She's all right," Commander Han cock vouchsafes. "Watch your rudders," cautions Lieu tenant Rosendahl, with an eye on the B. Wood
Links
Archive
1925 Feb
1924 Dec
Navigation
Previous Page
Next Page