SS Kyle & Old Glory

The Fokker VIIA "Old Glory", at the Old Orchard Beach airfield, the day before its attempted transatlantic flight, in September 1927 before her fate.

The Daily Mirror however, did not give up hope. The SS Kyle was chartered and under the command of Captain Ben Tavenor another search began. On September 9 the SS Kyle set sail from St. John’s and it reached the apparent position of the Old Glory’s last plea for help on September 12. After the officers on the SS Kyle did a careful study of the winds and the sea in the area - thirty miles of an east by south course were followed. Eventually an oily current headed for the east was detected and a floating object was spotted in the distance. The floating object turned out to be the half-submerged wing of an airplane approximately 34 foot in length. Boats were sent out to retrieve any debris from the aircraft and a boom was used to lift the wing onto the SS Kyle. As the wing was lifted out of the sea, the stars and strips of the Old Glory were revealed. The wing still contained tank sections full of gas. As well, retrieved, was part of the landing gear with a wheel still attached.

For several more days the SS Kyle searched for the Old Glory’s rubber raft which had not been found and which could possibly contain surviving crew members. Sadly, however, the rubber raft nor any survivors turned up. The wreckage of the Old Glory was later brought to Bay Roberts where it was carefully studied.

The SS Kyle also aided in the rescue of the sailors during the USS Pollux and USS Truxton disaster at Chambers Cove near St. Lawrence on February 18, 1942.

As published in the Beacon, Gander, NL. This column is copyrighted and must not be used without permission of the Beacon and Frank Tibbo.

Frank Tibbo has given us permission to post this column as of July 21, 2010

Dec. 10, 2009

Old Glory, It’s not a happy story but at least it’s somewhat interesting in that part of the airplane, Old Glory, is in Gander.

It all started a few years after the Wrights. Some pilots, a lot of whom were considered ‘wacky’, were actually dreaming and planning to attempt to cross the North Atlantic Ocean. Less than ten years after the Wrights’ first flight, just before the outbreak of World War I, Britain’s Lord Northcliffe, who owned the London Daily Mail newspaper had an idea that would sell newspapers. He said the Daily Mail would pay £10,000 for the first successful flight to cross the North Atlantic. In 1913, that was a fortune. Besides being a fortune, it would ensure everlasting fame for some participant. As we know, Alcock and Brown picked up the booty for their amazing flight on June 14-15, 1919.

Other newspaper barons got the idea, and prizes were offered for various North Atlantic feats. Charles Lindbergh won hotel owner Raymond Orteig’s prize of $25,000 on May 20, 1927 for the first nonstop flight from New York City to Paris.

On June 7, 1927, Clarence Chamberlain and Charles Levine flew to Germany, breaking the nonstop distance record with a total of 3,911 miles flown.

A prize that hadn’t been captured was for a flight from New York to Rome. That’s where the story of Old Glory begins.

James Dewitt Hill, an experienced pilot with more than 5,000 hours, and Lloyd Bertaud had teamed up and had begun to look for a sponsor for the long flight.

Philip Payne was the editor of William Randolph Hearst’s New York’s Daily Mirror. Payne, an avid aviation enthusiast convinced Hearst to sponsor a flight from New York to Rome as a publicity stunt in order to boost the newspaper’s circulation. Hearst agreed and bought a Fokker F.VIIA monoplane, an aircraft that had proved itself over and over.

The newspaper began publishing stories about the impending flight and public interest grew. They named the Fokker aircraft ‘Old Glory’.

Everything was done to ensure a safe flight. It had the best survival available and a radio station was installed with the call letters WRHP (for William Randolph Hearst). It also had a waterproof, wind‑powered automatic transmitter, which was designed to send out the radio call letters in Morse code, allowing ships and stations along its proposed northern route to track their progress.

On September 6, 1927, at 12:23 p.m. Old Glory lifted off the airfield at Old Orchard Beach, Maine to the cheers of more than a thousand spectators. The publicity generated by the newspaper had worked. The National Guard had to be brought in to control the crowd and telegrams poured in from all over the world. What Randolph Hearst apparently didn’t know was that Philip Payne, his editor, was going along with Hill and Bertaud for the ride.

The last time anybody saw Old Glory was 11:57 p.m.. when it flew over the steamship California approximately 350 miles east of Cape Race, Newfoundland. Reports said it appeared to be flying at an altitude of only 300 feet.

At 3:57 a.m. on September 7, an SOS message was heard followed by another a few minutes later.

The distress calls were picked up by the steamship Transylvania. Captain David Bone turned his ship in the direction from which the calls had been made. It took the ship five hours to reach the area where it was thought the aircraft was when it sent the SOS. Nothing was found.

Randolph Hearst then chartered Newfoundland’s SS Kyle to go out and search the area in the hope that the aircraft may have floated and the three men may have survived.

The SS Kyle searched for five days and on September 12, 1927, it discovered some wreckage of the aircraft. Parts of the wing, undercarriage and superstructure were hauled on board and brought ashore. The remains were returned to New York, and pieces were sold as souvenirs.

At the beginning of the column I mentioned that part of the aircraft is in Gander. Mr. Gord Peckford inherited a piece of Old Glory from his mother and on it is the inscription:

“Part of wing of aeroplane ‘Old Glory’ lost at sea in transatlantic flight from New York to Rome. Picked up by SS Kyle Sept. 12, 1927. Lat. 52 37 N ; long 39 23W B. Tavernor, Master SS Kyle”

Perhaps the SS Kyle’s most noted search and rescue mission, which attracted to her worldwide attention, was the search for the ill-fated “OLD GLORY,” the American monoplane which had departed from Maine hoping to be one of the first aircrafts to successfully cross the Atlantic. On September 7, 1927 the Old Glory took off from Old Orchard, Maine en route to Rome, Italy. The flight was sponsored by the New York Daily Mirror and there were three men aboard the aircraft, pilot - Lloyd Bertraud; aviation expert James 0. Hill; and Phillip Payne, managing editor of the Daily Mirror. On this day, the plane was spotted over different areas of Newfoundland but shortly after leaving the Newfoundland coast, the Old Glory encountered some difficulties. For a while, ships at sea received distress calls from the troubled aircraft, but then there was nothing. Many ships hastened to the area of the North Atlantic where the Old Glory’s SOS message indicated that the aircraft might be but an extensive search of the ocean 600 miles from the nearest land turned up nothing. The Daily Mirror however, did not give up hope. The SS Kyle was chartered andunder the command of Captain Ben Tavenor another search began. On September 9 the SS Kyle set sail from St. John’s and it reached the apparent position of the Old Glory’s last plea for help on September 12. After the officers on the SS Kyle did a careful study of the winds and the sea in the area - thirty miles of an east by south course were followed. Eventually an oily current headed for the east was detected and a floating object was spotted in the distance. The floating object turned out to be the half-submerged wing of an airplane approximately 34 foot in length. Boats were sent out to retrieve any debris from the aircraft and a boom was used to lift the wing onto the SS Kyle. As the wing was lifted out of the sea, the stars and strips of the Old Glory were revealed. The wing still contained tank sections full of gas. As well, retrieved, was part of the landing gear with a wheel still attached.