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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