HOW I WON IT.

CAPT. ALCOCK'S STORY.

NEWFOUNDLAND TO IRELAND.

UNDER 16 HOURS.

ALL-BRITISH TRIUMPH.

The Atlantic has been crossed in direct flight and The Daily Mail ś10,000 prize has been won.

Captain John Alcock, D.S.C. (pilot), and Lieut. Arthur Whitten Brown (navigator), flying a Vickers Vimy Rolls- Royce twin-engine aeroplane, left St. John's (Newfoundland) at 5.13 p.m. summer time on Saturday and landed in Ireland at 9.40 a.m. yesterday. They crossed the Newfoundland coast at 5.28 p.m. and the Irish coast at 9.25 a.m., thus accomplishing the coast-to-coast flight of 1,880 miles over the sea in 15hrs. 57min.

This glorious achievement places the honour of the first direct non-stop flight in British hands and wins for a British machine, engine, pilot, and navigator The Daily Mail £10,000 prize.

Greater glory attaches to the flight for the reason that it was accomplished under bad weather conditions. Fog and drizzling rain obscured vision to such an extent that at times the machine was discovered to be flying upside down and once only 10ft from the water.

The world will acclaim the cool courage and flying skill of Alcock and the wonderful navigation of Brown which alone could bring the machine to its landing on the west coast of Ireland after such a perilous passage of the trackless waste.

The landing was made in a bog close to the great Marconi wireless station at Clifden, in Galway. At this point the airmen were only 10 miles out of the course they had planned and some 60 miles from the town of Galway, where they had intended to alight. Lieut. Brown's first words were: "That's the best way to cross the Atlantic."

As soon as they landed the Marconi staff rushed to their assistance, happily finding them little the worse for the bad landing. Provision having been made for the safety of the machine, the pilot and navigator breakfasted. They then despatched to The Daily Mail the following message:-

Vickers Vimy - Rolls Aeroplane landed Clifden 8.10 (Greenwich Mean Time) from St John's.    ALCOCK.

The message was telephoned immediately to Capt. Alcock's mother in Fallowfield, Manchester; to Lieut. Brown's relatives at Cherlton-cum-Hardy, and to his fianc‚e, Miss Kennedy, at Ealing. All expressed great happiness at the safe arrival of the airmen.

MESSAGE FROM THE KING.

The King received the news as he was leaving Church service at Windsor, and through General Sykes, Controller of Civil Aviation, he at once sent the following message of congratulations to Capt. Alcock and Lieut. Brown:-

"The King was delighted to receive your welcome announcement that Capt. Alcock and Lieut. Brown have safely landed in Ireland after their Transatlantic flight. His Majesty wishes you to communicate at once with these officers and to convey to them the King's warmest congratulations on the success of their splendid achievement."

The news made a wonderful impression on London. At first there was some incredulity. The rapidity with which the flight had been accomplished seemed beyond belief; but the publication of the news in special editions of the Sunday newspapers soon allayed all such feeling, and the talk of the crowds everywhere testified to the pleasure of the people that the men were safe and the honour secure in British hands.

[ . . . ]

THE PILOT'S STORY

By CAPTAIN J. ALCOCK, D.S.C.

CLIFDEN, Sunday Night.

We have had a terrible journey.

The wonder is we are here at all. We scarcely saw the sun or the moon or the stars. For hours we saw none of them. The fog was very dense, and at times we had to descend to within 300 feet of the sea.

For four hours the machine was covered in a sheet of ice caused by frozen sleet; at another time the sleet was so dense that my speed indicator did not work, and for a few seconds it was very alarming.

We looped the loop, I do believe, and did a very steep spiral. We did some very comic "stunts", for I have had no sense of horizon.

The winds were favourable all the way: north-west and at times south-west. We said in Newfoundland we would do the trip in 16 hours, but we never thought we should. An hour and a half before we saw land we had no certain idea where we were, but we believed we were at Galway or thereabouts. Our delight in seeing Eashal Island and Turbot Island (5 miles west of Clifden) was great. People did not know who we were when we landed, and thought we were scouts on the look-out for the "Vimy".

We encountered no unforeseen conditions. We did not suffer from cold or exhaustion except when looking over the side; then the sleet chewed bits out of our faces. We drank coffee and ale and ate sandwiches and chocolate.

The flight has shown that the Atlantic flight is practicable, but think it should be done not with an aeroplane or seaplane, but with a flying boat. We had plenty of reserve fuel left, using only two-thirds of our supply.

The only thing that upset me was to see the machine at the end get damaged. From above, the bog looked like a lovely field, but the machine sank into it up to the axle and fell over on to her nose.

[ . . . ]

8 SANDWICHES BETWEEN THEM

"We ate meat sandwiches. I ate three and Brown five. I drank four cups of coffee and so did Brown. We fed spasmodically - 3 or 4 times - just when we felt we wanted to. We ate chocolates too. I was not hungry, but frightfully thirsty. We shared the last cup of coffee. We did not suffer from cold. Our suits kept us warm.

"The cockpit was very cosy indeed, but when we peered over the side sleet and ice chewed bits out of our faces.

"For a time we spoke to one another by means of communication telephones, but they broke down and we had to discard them after 4 hours. After that we had to shout."

Lieut. Brown said: "Most of our conversation consisted of tapping one another on the shoulder and going through the motion of drinking. We knew our own jobs."

Asked for the lessons of the flight Capt. Alcock replied, "It has shown that flying the Atlantic is a practicable job, but I think it should be done with a flying-boat, not a seaplane or an aeroplane."

"We know now," said Lieut. Brown, "exactly the type of machine that manufacturers must make for commercial purposes."

From our own correspondent.

CLIFDEN, Sunday.

On landing Lieut. Brown said to Capt. Alcock: "What do you think of that for fancy navigating?"

"Very good," was the reply, and they both shook hands.