@User Name: I'm right with you. Do you know the story of how they found the Macon wreckage? I met Marie Wiley Ross at Hangar One several years back. Amazing lady.
Yes. Seems that a piece of the Macon got caught in a fisherman's net and was put on display at a local eatery where Marie, the daughter of the Macon's commander recognized it from her memories as a child. Pretty crazy story!
It would have been the experience of a lifetime to go for a flight in the Macon: Space for 100 people. Sleeping berths. A large mess room. A galley. Observation platforms at nose and tail. An aft hangar. And a cavern of girders, cables, and catwalks allowing access to almost everything. The giant helium bags were made of gelatin-latex. (I'm sure that could be improved on, today!)
Another great place to have been was on the Norge when it flew over the North Pole (about 1925). A seemingly dry account of that exploit in Polar Aviation certainly caught my imagination. Some years ago I was standing on the summit of a mountain on the northern end of Ellesmere Island. The sky was blue and the light reflecting off the vast ice pack from the midnight sun was absolutely brilliant. Sure would love to have had an airship right then! It definitely made the story of the Norge come alive.
Another great video, Lady Grace Drummond Hay's account of the Graf Zeppelin's 'Round the World flight in 1929...
Wow, that was fascinating! The first 1:40 answered a whole lot of technical questions. The rest was an engaging study in humanity, history, drama, and politics. I like the way we were left to conclude what we will. We didn't need Dan Rather to explain what it meant. ;-)
Nice website, User, thanks for sharing that! I'm a huge Akron fan. I've been scuba diving off New Jersey, looking for Akron wreckage right where author Clive Cussler claims that his dive team found it (LORAN coordinates published). There's nothing there, I had 80-foot visibility, the depth is 105 feet as prescribed. I met him & talked to him on the phone about it and he admitted that the visibility was very poor when his divers "thought" they found engines and a galley stove. Hogwash, there's nothing but flat sand out there. http://www.numa.net/expeditions/akron/ These days, his account reads that only side scan sonar was used and no divers went down. :P
Sounds like Clive took a big chunk of literary license. Sorry your efforts were wasted chasing specious claims. FWIW, I'd love to own a scrap of Zeppelin!
Those Hindenburg photos were great!! Thank goodness photography had become a high art by then - and therefore the golden age of airships could be so well documented.
Sounds like Clive took a big chunk of literary license. Sorry your efforts were wasted chasing specious claims.
The locals told me when Clive came into town before the "expedition", there was much fanfare and ballyhoo: we will find the Akron! But they never found any proof, and left town quietly. Nonetheless, their account was listed in the book "Shipwrecks of New Jersey" and I took the bait. But he's a great writer and has numerous other victories. He is arguably credited to have found the Hunley civil war submarine in my hometown of Charleston SC many moons ago, where I met him. http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20080823/PC1602/308239956
BTW, there are numerous other interesting shipwrecks off the Jersey shore, including U-boats and some of the ships they sank. Many local divers are using Nitrox, diving long & deep with air chisels and various tools and rape the wrecks for portholes & other booty. Kind of a shame.
Perhaps nothing as exotic as Civil War hardware, but the Florida Keys seem to have wrecks galore strewn amongst them. Don't recall which island it was, but I signed up for a group dive one day and explored a nearby wreck. The area is prone to silting, though. FWIW, Truk Lagoon sounds like a great place for wreck diving. Perhaps the chairman of the erco recreation fund could see fit to send you there.
As far as booty goes, I've got mixed feelings. Bare thin-gauge aluminum, in particular, doesn't last long in salt water. I rationalize that I'd rather have an airship rib hanging on my wall than dissolving away in the briny deep.
BTW, that Lee Spence fellow seems to have a problem common to all of us: Wishful thinking. He probably did see something, and it probably wasn't the Hunley.
The north shore of Lake Superior has some good wreck too if you don't mind 35 degree water at 100 feet. Good thing you can't stay long on regular air! :0)
Comments
It would have been the experience of a lifetime to go for a flight in the Macon: Space for 100 people. Sleeping berths. A large mess room. A galley. Observation platforms at nose and tail. An aft hangar. And a cavern of girders, cables, and catwalks allowing access to almost everything. The giant helium bags were made of gelatin-latex. (I'm sure that could be improved on, today!)
Another great place to have been was on the Norge when it flew over the North Pole (about 1925). A seemingly dry account of that exploit in Polar Aviation certainly caught my imagination. Some years ago I was standing on the summit of a mountain on the northern end of Ellesmere Island. The sky was blue and the light reflecting off the vast ice pack from the midnight sun was absolutely brilliant. Sure would love to have had an airship right then! It definitely made the story of the Norge come alive.
Thee semi-rigid airship was built in Italy. And if anyone visits Vads
Very good documentary. I watched the whole thing. Thanks for the link.
Wow, that was fascinating! The first 1:40 answered a whole lot of technical questions. The rest was an engaging study in humanity, history, drama, and politics. I like the way we were left to conclude what we will. We didn't need Dan Rather to explain what it meant. ;-)
Thanks for posting that!
Edit: Make your own Akron...illustrated!
Here is a site with some nice Hindenburg photos: http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/05/75-years-since-the-hindenburg-disaster/100292
Those Hindenburg photos were great!! Thank goodness photography had become a high art by then - and therefore the golden age of airships could be so well documented.
The locals told me when Clive came into town before the "expedition", there was much fanfare and ballyhoo: we will find the Akron! But they never found any proof, and left town quietly. Nonetheless, their account was listed in the book "Shipwrecks of New Jersey" and I took the bait. But he's a great writer and has numerous other victories. He is arguably credited to have found the Hunley civil war submarine in my hometown of Charleston SC many moons ago, where I met him. http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20080823/PC1602/308239956
BTW, there are numerous other interesting shipwrecks off the Jersey shore, including U-boats and some of the ships they sank. Many local divers are using Nitrox, diving long & deep with air chisels and various tools and rape the wrecks for portholes & other booty. Kind of a shame.
As far as booty goes, I've got mixed feelings. Bare thin-gauge aluminum, in particular, doesn't last long in salt water. I rationalize that I'd rather have an airship rib hanging on my wall than dissolving away in the briny deep.
BTW, that Lee Spence fellow seems to have a problem common to all of us: Wishful thinking. He probably did see something, and it probably wasn't the Hunley.
Gordon Lightfoot agrees.