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About The Omaha morning bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 1922-1927 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 12, 1924)
Birdmen Write Letters While s Awaiting Martin World Fliers Tell Thrilling Stories of Arctic Country as Recounted to Them by Natives. Told by LOWELL THOMAS. (Copyright, 19!4.) ‘ For two weeks the fliers waited on the barren Island of Unalaska, hoping that Martin and Harvey would soon catch up with them. Here, while the "wlllie-waws” howled, the boys had an opportunity to see something of life In one of the most remote places under the American flag. Between hunting and fishing trips, waiting eagerly for radio messages from the ships that were out searching for tho lost aviators, playing tennis In the snow, attending an all night Easter service In the little Russian church at Unalaska, and protecting their planes from the gales, they wrote their first long letters home. "They said that Terra Del Fuege, Labrador and Greenland are the bleakest and most Inhospitable places ! In the world,” wrote Henry Ogden, who was flying with Leigh Wnde in the Bo#on. "But I don't see how >• they could be more forlorn than * these Aleutian Islands. Human be ings don't live up here, they merely exist. We are right on the edge of Bering sea. where the Ice drifts down Into the North Pacific from the north • ’ pole. There are no trees, and except for smoking volcanoes, there is no shelter from the winds that sweep down from the Arctic ocean. Aleutian ‘‘Wlllie-waws” Terrible. "Although we met ‘wlllie-waws’ all the way along thyoast from Seward, they were nothing compared with the ‘wlllie-waws’ here in the Aleutian Islands. I suppose they are caused by the cold winds from the Arctic ocean coming in contact with the warmer breezes of the Pacific. At • any rate, to protect themselves from them, the Inhabitants of these Islands either live In holes in the earth called ‘barraboras,’ or If they have enough money, they build houses and hold them down by means of cables thrown over the foots and anchored to the ground. "There are two villages here at Dutch Harbor on this island of Una laska. One Is called Dutch Harbor, where the wireless station and oil tanks are, and the other Is the native •<; settlement at Illilllyook, where the old Russian Greek orthodox church ‘ and Mr. Strauss' trading post are located. All whaling ships on their way to the Arctic ocean make this their headquarters. Steamers going to and from Nome, Alaska, ai d Puget sound pass this way. The coast guard cutters that protect the vast seal herds on the Prlbllof Islands, just a • little to the north of us, In Bering sea, also stop here frequently. "These Islands are volcanic In origin and on nearly every Island there Is a steaming, smoking cone, some of which rise right out of the sea like Bogosolof, which on several occasions has erupted, vanished be neath the waves, erupted and re appeared again as if by magic. "This little arm of Bering sea, where our planes are anchored, is • one of the finest land-locked harbors in the world. Mr. Strauss tells us that these Islands have seen many strange sights, but none quite so strange as when we came diving down out of the air. This, of course, Is the first time that airplanes have ever been here. But nothing strange ' seems to astonish these lackadasienl half-breed Aleuts—not even the erup tion of a volcano, the disappearance of an Island, or the arrival of white men through the air. Last night T picked up a copy of Service’s poems on our host's table, and In It read a few lines that struck me n» being rather appropriate and which run like this: "There are strange things done ‘neath the midnight sun by the men who moll for gold. There are Arctic trails that have secret tales that would make your blood run cold.” ‘‘And of all the etorles wa have heard here, the most horrible are those of how the early Russian fur traders made slaves of the Aleuts, tortured and killed the men, and car ried the women off Into the Arctic on , their whaling ships. It Is one of the blackest pages In history. Movie Man on Job. "When we arrived here at Unalas ka, we found Captain Blssell, our ad ‘ vance man, waiting for us. and also a 1’a‘he movie man from Seattle. Al though we stayed at the home of the trader, most of the time we took our *;- meals on board the coast guard cut ter, Halda, until the day that Martin and Harvey were lost, when alon»{ w.th every other vessel In these wa • ters she went up the coast to help In , the search. "About 5 the first morning after we arrived, an Aleut dashed In with the news that a ‘wlllle wnw’ had driven one of the planes from Its original mooring place and that It was adrift. Smith and Nelson raced out without stopping to awake the rest of us, and found that the ‘Bos *~S, ton' had been carried nearly across the bay. There was a big freighter , called the 'Brookdale' unloading coal at Dutch Harbor and with the aid of Borne of their tackle they towed our plane alongside, and then hoisted her clear up over the 'Brookdale' to the dock on the other side, where we could change our motor with ease. "That afternoon we built tempor ary runways on the beach so we could haul tho other planes out of the water where the wlllie-waws would not have so much chance to damage them, and where we could tie them fore and aft. We put them near the revenue cutter, so that our 'Hal da‘ friends could turn their search light on them every five minutes. Prepare for Jap Hop. “These coast guard fellows have been wonderful to us. They simply gave us their whole crew and have done everything we have suggested. Not only have we used their men, but we have just about monopolized their equipment and machine shop. But \\hat has impressed us most of all has jbeen the spirit of the crew as well as the officers. The enlisted men have not been doing things because they were given orders, but Just be cause they wanted to. We have all said many times that we would give a lot If we could only have the 'Halda’ nil the way around the world with us. “We have a lot of work to do here, too, because this is going to be our last big base until we get to Japan. All of the Islands over which we are going to fly from here on are abso lutely barren, and we must leave nothing undone, because If anything goes wrong our chances will be rather slim. Although we think we have flown uhder some fairly difficult cir cumstances so far, the general opin ion of everyone whom we encounter here In the north Is that the flight from here on across the Pacific and over the Kurile islands will be the worst stage of our whole trip.” Busy Writing Letters. April 21: “A radio has just come through from Major Martin s<%ytng that the sea Is so rough up at Portage bay that so far It hasn’t been possible for him to get the motor ashore which Smith had sent up to him on the Al gonquin. So the major and Harvey are having nothing but tough luck. “The ‘Brookdale’ Is leaving for Se attle In a few days, so we are all spending our spare time In writing letters. The planes are right along side of a big pile of coal, and one of these damnable willle-waws came zipping down the mountain this morning and blew soft coal over all of them. “Although we attempted to wash the coal dust off the wings with hot water, it would freeze as fast as we could get it on, and we couldn't even rinse the soap off, so we had to give it up. We will all be mighty glad to get out of this land of the wtllie waws, or woolies, as some call them. But when we do, I suppose it will simply be a case of flying on Into the typhoon belt, then through the mon soons of India, and the simoons of Persia and Arabia. “So far this world flight hag just been one windstorm after another. Yesterday the willle-waws put on a special show for us. It had been per fectly calm for hours, when all of a sudden the wildest and woollest one we have seen came rushing down the mountains at from 50 to 75 miles an hour. After it had blown for a few minutes then another one came along from an entirely different direction. "The second one struck the water, picked up a big sheet of It. and car ried It right across the bay. A boat lying on shore happened to be In the way and went rolling end over end. There were a lot of empty1 Iron bar rels on the deck, and It scattered them In every direction. Arnold and I happened to he walking down the street when we heard a clanking and here came a big iron drum. Wo jumped out of the way amj it rolled on until it crashed into a fence. The first woolie hit a big pile of lumber on dork that had recently been tin' loaded and which they hadn't as yet had an opportunity to tie down. When the gust hit It the boards' went flying off one by one Just you would deal out a deck of cards." Les Arnold tells in his diary how ■ ‘itrmmnMiimnn'iriiLL*" 1 ..... TO-NIGHT Tomorrow Alright KEEPING WELL-An N? 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White Birch Wood From the Canadian Border * Choicest For the Fireplace That Can be Obtained Also Genuine Missouri Oak, Any Length Desired II P D I K E ^lbecro* WA (nut 0300 on the night of April 24 the boys were all sitting around In the ward room of the "Halda" when a guard came In with the news that the planes were all afloat. "We had dragged them up on the beach and thought they were safely out of the way. even at high tide. But a gale had suddenly swept In from the Arctic ocean and the waves had dashed so high up on the beach that they broke all of the planes loose from where we had lashed them dow n. That was a night we will not forget eoon. It was as dark as the nethertnoRt pit. It was snowing like the dlrkens. the wind w-as howling, and the waves were booming on the bench. Every able-bodied man went out with us to the rescue, including 130 sailors, the 10 officers from the 'Hatda,’ and the six of us. We had no lights excepting small pocket flashes and the searchlight from the cutter, which reached out into the gloom and helped ua for a moment before It, moved on to some other point. We were all rushing about wildly and wading around in the water trying to get hold of the planes before they were swept out into the bay. Some of us got in right up to our necks, in the Icy water, and work ed for (wo hours mid a half, from 10:30 until an hour after midnight. The temperuture that night was nearly down to zero. A rope fell overboard from one of the planes, and while several of us were debat ing as to whether or not It was worth while going in after It one of the crew from the ‘Haida’ Jumped overboard into the ley water, swam around until he found It, and then brought It up to us. When we got back to the trader's house that night we were so cold that we couldn't un button our clothes. "April 25—Smith has just received word from Major Martin that his plane has been repaired and that he has at last left Portage bay on his way here via Chlgnlk. With a little good luck now, for a change, he and Harvey ought to be with us within a day or bo, and then we will be off to Japan." Head tlie next installment of the thrilling story of the round-the-world flight In The Omaha Bee tomorrow. Belvidere Meeting. j The Belvldere Improvement club I will meet at 8 p. ni. Friday at Belvh dere school. Thirty-sixth and Kanp-a avenue. > Bvesting stories... 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