Friday, October 16, 2015

Bonnie Walter Wellman



Walt Wellman is over the ocean,
     Walt Wellman is over the sea;
Here’s hoping that bold Walter Wellman
     Will make a safe landing in E.
       Bring back,
       Bring back,
O, bring back Walt Wellman safe-lee!



Oct. 16, ‘10



Walter E. Wellman (November 3, 1858 - January 31, 1934) was an American journalist, explorer, and aëronaut, born at Mentor, Ohio, and educated in the public schools.
On December 31, 1905, Wellman announced he would make an attempt to reach the North Pole, but this time with an airship. His newspaper provided funds of USD 250,000, and he had an airship built in Paris for the Wellman Chicago Record-Herald Polar Expedition. Wellman established expedition headquarters on Dane's Island, Svalbard, in the summer of 1906. The hangar was not completed until August 1906, and the airship’s engines self-destructed when tested. Wellman rebuilt the airship in Paris that winter and attempted an aerial voyage to the North Pole in September, 1907. He made a second attempt without financial assistance in 1909, but mechanical failures forced him to turn back 60 miles (100 km.) north of Svalbard.
In the northern autumn of 1910, Wellman expanded his airship America to 345,000 cubic feet (9,760 cubic metres) and launched from Atlantic City, New Jersey on 15 October 1910. The engineer Melvin Vaniman sent one of the first aerial radio transmissions when he urged the launch boat to "come and get this goddam cat!" - the cat Kiddo who was (at first) not happy about being airborne. After 38 hours the engine failed and the airship drifted until they were rescued by the Royal Mail steamship Trent not far from Bermuda.

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