Speaker 1: Hey, listeners, we are soon to be appearing at New
Speaker 1: York Comic Con as part of New York Comic Con
Speaker 1: presents their evening programming. We are going to do an
Speaker 1: episode about the creation of what is usually credited as
Speaker 1: the first comic book, and we'll be talking about the
Speaker 1: man who did it and how that came to be
Speaker 1: and if you want to get in on that, we
Speaker 1: would love to see you for our live show. It
Speaker 1: is taking place on October six, from nine thirty to
Speaker 1: eleven at the Hudson Mercantile. Again that runs during New
Speaker 1: York Comic Con, and for more information on it, you
Speaker 1: can visit our website Missed in History dot com. You
Speaker 1: will click on the link this is live shows and
Speaker 1: you can get all the info and a link to
Speaker 1: order your tickets. We hope to see you there. Welcome
Speaker 1: to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how Stuff
Speaker 1: Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Speaker 1: Holly Fry and I'm Tracy B. Wilson. Tracy, did you
Speaker 1: know that the loss of the U S. S Acron
Speaker 1: was the biggest single tragedy in aviation history at the
Speaker 1: time that had happened. I did not know that level
Speaker 1: of detail. Yeah, because unless year in aviation or U. S.
Speaker 1: Navy history buff you might not know much about it.
Speaker 1: It's one of those things that kind of uh doesn't
Speaker 1: get a whole lot of attention. I think we might
Speaker 1: have mentioned it just as an aside in that episode
Speaker 1: that we did about the Hindenburg, but even so we
Speaker 1: did not get into any detail. Yeah, and even the
Speaker 1: Hindenburg disaster, which happened four years after the Acron was lost,
Speaker 1: resulted in far fewer lives lost, but probably because we
Speaker 1: have terrifying dramatic footage of the Hendenburg burning, that very
Speaker 1: tragic incident is far more commonly recalled in the public consciousness.
Speaker 1: So today we are going to talk about the USS Akron,
Speaker 1: one of two large rigid airships that were part of
Speaker 1: the U. S. Navy's five year aircraft program, which was
Speaker 1: authorized in and also just for clarity, doubts would come up,
Speaker 1: but just in case, this is not to be confused
Speaker 1: with a much smaller, privately owned air ship also called
Speaker 1: the Akron. UH. That airship, which was owned by adventurer
Speaker 1: and photographer Chester Melvin Vanaman, exploded off the coast of
Speaker 1: New Jersey in nineteen twelve, killing its owner. But that
Speaker 1: is a totally different thing. So for the one that
Speaker 1: we are talking about, and the fall of nineteen nine,
Speaker 1: construction began on the z R S four in acron, Ohio.
Speaker 1: It was eventually renamed for the city where it was built.
Speaker 1: The Good Years Zeppelin Corporation had signed a contract with
Speaker 1: the Bureau of Aeronautics in to build this ship, which
Speaker 1: was designed by Dr. Carl Arnstein to be an airborne
Speaker 1: aircraft carrier. In a week into the build, there was
Speaker 1: an official ceremony to markets beginning. So sometimes if you're
Speaker 1: looking at the historical record, there are a couple different
Speaker 1: dates that are listed as the beginning of construction, and
Speaker 1: that's why there was some preliminary work done and then
Speaker 1: a week after it they had this official ceremony uh
Speaker 1: And during that ceremony, the chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics,
Speaker 1: Rear Admiral William ama Fit, drove a golden rivet into
Speaker 1: the main ring of the ship. By the spring of
Speaker 1: one the hull was well underway and the name for
Speaker 1: the ship, which was the Acron, like we said, was
Speaker 1: announced by Ernest Lee Jankie, who was the Navy's Assistant Secretary.
Speaker 1: The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, in cooperation with the
Speaker 1: City of Akron, Ohio, actually produced a short silent film
Speaker 1: about the Acron's construction. It runs about twenty minutes and
Speaker 1: it showcases all the features and innovations of the dirigible.
Speaker 1: It features the quote huge building from which the giant
Speaker 1: airship was hatched, as well as showing all of the
Speaker 1: construction phases of this massive airship. In it, you can
Speaker 1: also see workers raising the first ring into position, a
Speaker 1: massive gas cell being placed in the frame for an
Speaker 1: inflation and buoyancy test, the nose and tail of the
Speaker 1: craft being moved into position, and the sheets that comprised
Speaker 1: its outer covering being applied to the exterior of the
Speaker 1: frame along with a number of other milestones and the
Speaker 1: Acron's construction. Yeah, they show some cool footage of like
Speaker 1: them doping that exterior, which is when they coat it
Speaker 1: with its its protective coating, and it just looks like
Speaker 1: dude spray painting. It's kind of fun to watch, um.
Speaker 1: And the film also mentions the water ballast that was
Speaker 1: used to keep the zeppelin steady, which was supplied by
Speaker 1: exhaust vapors that were then condensed, so it was pretty
Speaker 1: smartly designed as well. On August one, First Lady Mrs
Speaker 1: lou Henry Hoover christened the airship as it was launched,
Speaker 1: meaning that it was floating above the hangar floor, but
Speaker 1: it was still contained there in the build bay. And
Speaker 1: when the dirigible was completed, it was seven and eighty
Speaker 1: feet that's two nine long, hundred and thirty two point
Speaker 1: five feet or forty wide, and a hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: two point two ft or forty six point five ms tall.
Speaker 1: When fully inflated, its volume was six point five million
Speaker 1: cubic feet and it had been built with a sturdy,
Speaker 1: deep mainframe, and this design was actually a departure from
Speaker 1: the rain design of prior dridgibles. It was inflated with helium,
Speaker 1: and it featured eight may Back v L two engines,
Speaker 1: which were reversible and thus offered a really high degree
Speaker 1: of maneuverability for something this size. The Akron's design included
Speaker 1: a third of the interior space dedicated to a hangar
Speaker 1: which could accommodate five aircraft. We're going to talk about
Speaker 1: how those planes were launched and retrieved in just a bit.
Speaker 1: There were also two sections allocated to crew quarters, which
Speaker 1: featured a galley, mess and washroom in addition to the
Speaker 1: sleeping areas. The water that passed through the airship's engines
Speaker 1: to cool them was then used to heat the crew quarters.
Speaker 1: Yeah That hot water that they took away from the
Speaker 1: engines then got a second life as a heating implement.
Speaker 1: A month and a half after the christening, on September
Speaker 1: twenty three, the Akron had her first flight, which was
Speaker 1: conducted over Cleveland, Ohio, and before the dirigible was officially
Speaker 1: commissioned as a Navy vessel, an additional eight test flights
Speaker 1: were conducted, taking the ship farther and farther each time
Speaker 1: and testing all of the various mechanisms aboard, just shy
Speaker 1: of two years before the anniversary of the startup construction.
Speaker 1: On October, the USS Akron was commissioned after having been
Speaker 1: delivered to the Lakehurst, New Jersey, Naval Air Station, with
Speaker 1: Lieutenant Commander Charles E. Rosendaal named as the commanding officer
Speaker 1: of the new vessel. The Akron had its first official
Speaker 1: Navy voyage on November two, on a course that took
Speaker 1: it down the east coast of the United States to Washington,
Speaker 1: d C. And from that moment on it saw plenty
Speaker 1: of airtime, more than three hundred hours in flight over
Speaker 1: the course of just a few weeks. Following that, forty
Speaker 1: six of those three hours were logged on a single
Speaker 1: mission that took the Acron on a round trip to Mobile, Alabama.
Speaker 1: And the Akron really proved itself repeatedly. Um you will
Speaker 1: see a lot of discussions of it as being plagued
Speaker 1: by problems, and it had problems. We're going to talk
Speaker 1: about those in a minute, but it also did some
Speaker 1: pretty impressive things. On January nine of ninety two, the
Speaker 1: Zeppelin took part in a search exercise that showed its
Speaker 1: endurance and its capabilities as a search vessel. The goal
Speaker 1: was for the Akron to locate a group of destroyers
Speaker 1: that were on route to Guantanamo Bay and then follow, observe,
Speaker 1: and report their activities. Due to the inclement weather i'm
Speaker 1: January tenth, the crew of the Akron wasn't able to
Speaker 1: sight the destroyers initially, although the destroyers did report spotting
Speaker 1: the dirigible, but the airship kept looking for the destroyers
Speaker 1: and eventually was able to spot and report on two
Speaker 1: groups of ships on the eleventh, which made the scouting
Speaker 1: mission a success. Yeah. This was to be clear when
Speaker 1: we say it's an exercise, this is like a planned thing.
Speaker 1: There were no enemies that they were citing. This was
Speaker 1: all sort of training. And coming up, we're going to
Speaker 1: talk about an accident that the Akron had in one
Speaker 1: but first we're going to pause, have a little sponsor break.
Speaker 1: So the following month after where we left off, on February,
Speaker 1: the Acron was damaged in an accident. It was being
Speaker 1: moved out of its hangar when a wind gust blew
Speaker 1: the tail off its moorings and the back end of
Speaker 1: the airship was then thrust downward and it impacted on
Speaker 1: the ground. Repairs to the damage, which was mostly concentrated
Speaker 1: around the lower fin, took two months. After this restoration
Speaker 1: was complete, its first voyage took place on Ape and
Speaker 1: this was a smooth nine hour flight. And soon after
Speaker 1: there was this really unique technology tested. The Acron tested
Speaker 1: what they called a spy basket on its next flight,
Speaker 1: and this spy basket was just as it sounds. This
Speaker 1: small addition that hung from the bottom of the airship
Speaker 1: was space for a man to sit in uh and
Speaker 1: observe the ground below. And the intent was that the
Speaker 1: ship itself could stay within cloud cover for the most part,
Speaker 1: while the basket could hang just below the clouds. This
Speaker 1: test did not go well. It really did not go well,
Speaker 1: and it's kind of it's not surprising to me that
Speaker 1: it did not go well. The spy basket swung back
Speaker 1: and forth really wildly, and it was considered to be
Speaker 1: way too unstable for practical use. Fortunately, though, the test
Speaker 1: was conducted with a sandbag in the spy seat and
Speaker 1: not an actual person, so no one was harmed or
Speaker 1: just traumatized by the test. No additional work was done
Speaker 1: to try to make it viable either. They were like,
Speaker 1: this is not gonna work, and they abandoned it immediately. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're about to talk about an interesting mechanism that kind
Speaker 1: of ties into this, and I will explain. So we
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier that the Akron was intended to be an
Speaker 1: aircraft carrier, and the first time that function was tested
Speaker 1: was on May third of nWo and in that flight,
Speaker 1: which was conducted on the eastern seaboard along the New
Speaker 1: Jersey coastline, pilots used the Acrons so called trapeze installation,
Speaker 1: which was a method for docking aircraft with the dirigible
Speaker 1: in flight. And this kind of followed up on that
Speaker 1: spy basket idea because planes that were cooked on were
Speaker 1: still hanging under the airship initially, and those guys could
Speaker 1: also cite the ground, so that kind of replaced that
Speaker 1: whole idea. There's actually some footage of some of these
Speaker 1: types of connections and they give a sense of just
Speaker 1: how precise and skilled the pilots of the planes had
Speaker 1: to be. There was a rod assembly on the lower
Speaker 1: side of the akron and that was the trapeeze that
Speaker 1: had another rod across the bottom with a very slight
Speaker 1: downward bend in the middle, and so for a plane
Speaker 1: to dock it had to have uh what looked like
Speaker 1: an inverted basket of rods, also a fix to the
Speaker 1: top of it. So imagine like on top of the
Speaker 1: cockpit there's this whole other little assembly and at the
Speaker 1: apex of that inverted metal basket was a hook. So
Speaker 1: the pilot would have to carefully align his plane so
Speaker 1: that that hook would catch on to that trapeeze mechanism.
Speaker 1: Once the plane had hooked onto the trapeeze and settled
Speaker 1: to the bottom of the bend, mechanisms would drop into
Speaker 1: place to keep the plane's hooks centered there, and then
Speaker 1: the plane and the isilet could be drawn up into
Speaker 1: the akron's internal hangar. Uh. This has been described in
Speaker 1: some writings as like better than any amusement ride on Earth.
Speaker 1: To me, it seems slightly terrifying, but you're minding to
Speaker 1: be very uh well, and I'm wondering. I'm wondering what
Speaker 1: all signaling and what not they had to make connections
Speaker 1: just because um. Earlier this year, I toured the Midway
Speaker 1: and listened to pilots talk about landing on an aircraft
Speaker 1: carrier on the ocean. Yeah, which is also kind of
Speaker 1: a white knuckle experience. But like there there are definitely
Speaker 1: things that you have in your field division to align
Speaker 1: with in instruments. So I'm very curious. Yeah, since that
Speaker 1: was usually sort of centered underneath the the airship, like
Speaker 1: they could align a little bit just by centering. But
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it looks so sort of casual and relaxed.
Speaker 1: When you watch the footage, they just seem like they
Speaker 1: zip up, they're very it's smooth, and they just latch on.
Speaker 1: But I can't imagine that there weren't some clunkers they
Speaker 1: at some way, but these were also incredibly well trained pilots,
Speaker 1: and the two pilots that performed that maneuver in the
Speaker 1: May third test were Lieutenant Daniel W. Harrigan and Lieutenant
Speaker 1: Howard L. Young. They first did the demonstration with an
Speaker 1: end to Y Dash one biplane trainer and then with
Speaker 1: a Curtis x F nine c DASH one sparrowhawk, and
Speaker 1: these tests went really well, and they actually performed them
Speaker 1: again the next day for members of the House Committee
Speaker 1: for Naval Affairs who watched all of these proceedings and
Speaker 1: how well this whole thing worked from a vantage point
Speaker 1: as passengers on the Akron. On May eighth, the Akron
Speaker 1: took flight again, this time traveling down the East Coast
Speaker 1: to Georgia and then cutting west to California. The ultimate
Speaker 1: destination for the Akron was Sunnyvale, California, but a stop
Speaker 1: was planned at Camp Kearney in San Diego County, and
Speaker 1: this stop was a tricky undertaking. The crew a Camp
Speaker 1: Kearney had not brought in a dirigible like the Acron before,
Speaker 1: and the specialized moorings that were used at the Navy
Speaker 1: base in Lakers, New Jersey were not on hand, and
Speaker 1: to further complicate the landing, the craft was lighter than
Speaker 1: normal because it had burned so much fuel on this
Speaker 1: cross country trip, and because the heat from the sun
Speaker 1: had warmed it, the gases inside had expanded to be
Speaker 1: less dense, so it just wasn't as easy to control
Speaker 1: as it normally would be. Those two factors led to
Speaker 1: a loss of control of the ship, and to prevent
Speaker 1: it from hitting the ground nose first, the mooring cable
Speaker 1: had to be cut. This did prevent a crash, but
Speaker 1: it also resulted in a tragedy. Four of the men
Speaker 1: who were holding lines to the ship didn't let go,
Speaker 1: and one of them fell from a height of fifteen
Speaker 1: feet which is four point six meters, and broken arm.
Speaker 1: Three others held on. Initially, apprentice seamen cm Cowart was
Speaker 1: able to cling to the line and not lose his grip,
Speaker 1: and after a wild ride of about an hour, he
Speaker 1: was pulled onto the akron. Yeah, there was allegedly an
Speaker 1: attempt or a thought for a while that they were
Speaker 1: going to land just him on the ground, but then
Speaker 1: they realized they were not confident that they could do
Speaker 1: it without like slamming him into the ground, so he
Speaker 1: ended up being pulled aboard. Two other men were not
Speaker 1: so lucky. Aviation Carpenter's mate, third Class Robert H. Edsel,
Speaker 1: and apprentice Seaman Nigel M. Hinton both died after they
Speaker 1: lost their grips on the lines that they held and
Speaker 1: they fell to their deaths, and when interviewed a few
Speaker 1: days later, Cowart, who was the man who had survived,
Speaker 1: said quote, I just hung on. I saw the other
Speaker 1: fellows fall and it didn't make me feel any too good,
Speaker 1: but there was nothing I could do about it except
Speaker 1: to hang on tighter. The Acron continued its missions, though
Speaker 1: it stayed on the West coast for several weeks, It
Speaker 1: traveled north to the Canadian border and participated in scouting
Speaker 1: fleet exercises similar to the one that we mentioned earlier,
Speaker 1: when it searched for destroyers that were headed to Guantanamo Bay.
Speaker 1: The Acron once again performed admirably in these exercises. In June,
Speaker 1: the airship left California to head back to lake Hurst,
Speaker 1: and that journey took four days from June eleven to
Speaker 1: June fifteenth, two before the Acron was able to get home,
Speaker 1: and that was in part because it encountered several incidents
Speaker 1: of just really bad weather along the way, and when
Speaker 1: the Akron finally docked in New Jersey, the seventy nine
Speaker 1: main crew was exhausted from the journey. When they're described
Speaker 1: as coming down the gang point, they just all sound
Speaker 1: like they were completely depleted. And the next several weeks
Speaker 1: brought a welcome respite from flights as the airship underwent
Speaker 1: maintenance and repairs. In July, the Akron was once again
Speaker 1: air ready and assisted in a rescue mission when the
Speaker 1: yacht Curlew went missing. This had been part of a
Speaker 1: six d and twenty eight mile which is a thousand
Speaker 1: and eleven kilometer race from Montauk to Bermuda, when the
Speaker 1: boat and the six people on it were lost during
Speaker 1: some bad weather. All the other twenty five yachts made
Speaker 1: it through, but contact with the Curlew had been lost.
Speaker 1: The Akron was ordered to fly in circles along the
Speaker 1: course from the Curlew's last known location and to try
Speaker 1: to report results back to naval operations. It was eventually
Speaker 1: found off the coast of Nantucket. Yeah, but that yacht
Speaker 1: search had caused a little bit of a pause in
Speaker 1: the Acron's training missions. But we're gonna get right back
Speaker 1: into that after we first take a quick break to
Speaker 1: hear from one of the sponsors that keep stuff you
Speaker 1: missed in history class going. So the focus of the
Speaker 1: Akron's efforts at that point rescue missions for yachts aside
Speaker 1: was continued experimentation and development of the trapeeze system. They
Speaker 1: really wanted to primarily just drill the pilots so that
Speaker 1: they would be extremely good at this uh and the
Speaker 1: man in charge of these ongoing trapeze experiments, as appointed
Speaker 1: by Rear Admiral Moffatt, was Commander alger Herman Dressel, and
Speaker 1: under Dressel's leadership, the AKRON continued to advance its trapeeze work,
Speaker 1: eventually achieving the ability to manage a full load of
Speaker 1: Curtis F nine C two sparrowhawks on August two. There
Speaker 1: was a new pro problem, though, due to a timing
Speaker 1: accident and the relay of orders because the command was
Speaker 1: given to early, the dirigibles fin hit a beam in
Speaker 1: the hangar as it was being taken off its moorings.
Speaker 1: This put a stop to the trapeze training that had
Speaker 1: been underway while the Finn had to be repaired, but
Speaker 1: the last quarter of nineteen thirty two still yielded eight
Speaker 1: successful flights for the Acron, so that a little accident
Speaker 1: had happened in August and they were able to repair
Speaker 1: it pretty quickly. Training continued for the Trapeez system as
Speaker 1: well as training for the Gun and Lookout cruise, and
Speaker 1: they also worked with a formation scouting setup to test
Speaker 1: that where two planes flanked the Akron as they performed
Speaker 1: search exercises. In early nine thirty three, the Acron had
Speaker 1: a leadership change. Commander Dressel was moved to the akron
Speaker 1: sister ship, the USS, making His replacement was Commander Frank McCord.
Speaker 1: This personnel change took place on January third, ninety three,
Speaker 1: and almost immediately McCord was underway on a flight with
Speaker 1: his new command and the Akron on this This first
Speaker 1: flight under McCord traveled down the East coast to Florida,
Speaker 1: stopping in Miami Dade County at Opallaca, Florida, to refuel.
Speaker 1: This is not to be confused with the very very
Speaker 1: familiar sounding Opalaika, which is a city in Alabama. After
Speaker 1: the refuel at the Naval Reserve Aviation Base in Opelaca,
Speaker 1: the Akron proceeded to Guantanama Bay, Cuba. This mission was
Speaker 1: to inspect bases, and the crew performing those inspections was
Speaker 1: actually taxied from the Akron in flight to the basis
Speaker 1: via an into Y one biplane. Once the inspection rounds
Speaker 1: were completed, Commander McCord and his crew took the Acron
Speaker 1: back to New Jersey. Inclement weather kept the Akron grounded
Speaker 1: for several weeks at Lakehurst, but it wasn't long before
Speaker 1: the trapeze training continued. And as we mentioned when describing
Speaker 1: the trapeze mechanism, it really did require an incredibly deft
Speaker 1: hand on the part of a pilot to hook onto
Speaker 1: the airship. So it really, uh if it's see was
Speaker 1: like we're just saying over and over that they were
Speaker 1: doing a lot of training in this particular area. It's
Speaker 1: because they were. It was needed to get those pilots
Speaker 1: just so proficient that they could do it almost without
Speaker 1: having to think. When Franklin Delano Roosevelt was worn in
Speaker 1: as the thirty second President of the United States on
Speaker 1: March fourth, three, the Akron was overhead, but just a
Speaker 1: week later, on March eleventh, Acron once again left its
Speaker 1: northeast home of Lakehurst. This time the mission took the
Speaker 1: airship to Panama, stopping once again at opal Laca, Florida
Speaker 1: en route, and after that the dirigible and its crew
Speaker 1: were on course for the naval station at Balboa in
Speaker 1: the Panama Canal zone, which sits just at the south
Speaker 1: end of the canal if you're looking at it, and
Speaker 1: that's the entrance from the Pacific Ocean. And as with
Speaker 1: the Acron's mission to Cuba, the objective in this case
Speaker 1: was an inspection, this time of a possible site for
Speaker 1: an air base. Once the inspection was concluded, the Akron
Speaker 1: headed back to Opelaka. This time additional drills were conducted
Speaker 1: at the Florida base. The gun cruise got target practice,
Speaker 1: using the N two y ones as targets. As March
Speaker 1: came to a close, the Acron headed back to New
Speaker 1: Jersey from Florida, but the airship wasn't moored for long.
Speaker 1: On April third, another mission began, and this time it
Speaker 1: was intended to help calibrate radio direction finding stations along
Speaker 1: the New England coast which were used for radio triangulation.
Speaker 1: But the voyage wasn't smooth. When the Akron passed over
Speaker 1: Barneket Light in Ocean County, New Jersey that ten pm
Speaker 1: on April three. The airship was already dealing with severe weather.
Speaker 1: Two and a half hours later, at twelve thirty am
Speaker 1: on April fourth, the Acron was swipped by a particularly
Speaker 1: powerful gust and dropped tail first into the sea. There
Speaker 1: had been a witness to the struggle the acron struggle
Speaker 1: with the wind, and that was a German ship called
Speaker 1: Phoebus that had seen lights in the air dropping down
Speaker 1: toward the Atlantic, and the crew aboard the Phoebus actually
Speaker 1: thought they were witnessing a plane crash, so Phoebus altered
Speaker 1: course to investigate. In about a half hour after the incident,
Speaker 1: they pulled the first person from the water, and that
Speaker 1: was Lieutenant Commander Henry V. Wiley, who was unconscious at
Speaker 1: the time. At this point, the crew of the Phoebus
Speaker 1: still thought they were finding the results of a plane crash.
Speaker 1: They had no idea that the Acron had been in
Speaker 1: the area. Phoebus also sent out its boat to widen
Speaker 1: the search for victims. The boat crew fished Boson's mate,
Speaker 1: second class Richard E. Deal Aviation Metalsmith's second class Moody
Speaker 1: e Irvin and Chief Radioman Robert W. Copeland out of
Speaker 1: the turbulent water. Copeland died after being transferred to the Phoebus,
Speaker 1: despite efforts to revive him. As the rescue effort continued,
Speaker 1: Lieutenant Commander Wiley regained consciousness and communicated to the crew
Speaker 1: of the German vessel, but it had been the Acron
Speaker 1: and not a plane that they saw to send into
Speaker 1: the sea. For more than five hours, Phoebus continued to
Speaker 1: search for survivors, but their efforts were for not two
Speaker 1: more men. Actually, he died in the search effort when
Speaker 1: another blimp, the non rigid J three, which also served
Speaker 1: out of the base at Lakehurst, went on a mission
Speaker 1: to search for survivors. Five men survived the unsuccessful forced
Speaker 1: landing of the J three, but there were two killed.
Speaker 1: Five and a half hours after the Acron went down,
Speaker 1: the Coastguard destroyer Tucker arrived on the scene. The Phoebus
Speaker 1: transferred the body of Chief radium In Copeland and the
Speaker 1: surviving crew of the Acron over to the Tucker and
Speaker 1: the search for any additional survivors. The destroyer Tucker was
Speaker 1: joined by the Portland, a heavy cruiser destroyers Cole McDougall
Speaker 1: and Hunt, the cutter Mojave, and two Coastguard planes, but
Speaker 1: no additional members of the crew of the Acron were found.
Speaker 1: This loss was particularly noteworthy because of the leadership staff
Speaker 1: that was on board when this accident happened. So, in
Speaker 1: addition to the regular staff, UH and Commander McCord, Rear
Speaker 1: Admiral Moffatt, his aid, Commander Henry B. Cecil, the commander
Speaker 1: of the name Will Air Station at Lakehurst, and several
Speaker 1: additional guests were also on the Acron when it went down.
Speaker 1: In total, seventies three men lost their lives when the
Speaker 1: Acron was destroyed. So for comparison, we mentioned the Hendenburg
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the show UH and the death
Speaker 1: hole in the Hindenburg disaster was thirty six, one of
Speaker 1: whom was a man who had been on the ground.
Speaker 1: Sixty two of the people aboard the Hennenburg survived, which
Speaker 1: is a far greater proportion than the three who survived
Speaker 1: the Akron. Not long after the disaster, Wiley, Richard Deal,
Speaker 1: and Moody Irvin appeared together before the public, and Wiley
Speaker 1: described to the events of April fourth this way, we
Speaker 1: were rescued by the German tanker Phoebus and are the
Speaker 1: sole survivors. Just before the accident to the Akron, I
Speaker 1: was in the control tower on the left side of
Speaker 1: the control tower. Our first indication of being near the
Speaker 1: center of the storm was when the ship shuttered violently,
Speaker 1: and per Wiley's account, the crew did not realize how
Speaker 1: closely they had gotten to the ocean until they had
Speaker 1: sudden visibility that they were only about three feet from
Speaker 1: the water. And he continued quote, the order was given
Speaker 1: to stand by for a crash. The ship hit the
Speaker 1: water within thirty seconds of that order, and most of us,
Speaker 1: I believe, were catapulted into the water. We were in
Speaker 1: the water about forty five minutes, and we are now
Speaker 1: ready for duty in airships or wherever we may be assigned. Incidentally,
Speaker 1: Herbert Wiley had been passed over for command of the
Speaker 1: Acron when both Dressel and McCord were appointed. Wiley had
Speaker 1: notified McCord if the weather conditions that could include potentially
Speaker 1: hazardous storms before the Acron had left for the mission,
Speaker 1: but McCord had determined that they should proceed as planned.
Speaker 1: A storm that developed in their path was one of
Speaker 1: the most powerful in a decade. Yeah, even though there
Speaker 1: had been indications that there was going to be inclement weather, Uh,
Speaker 1: there was no sense of how bad and how violent
Speaker 1: this storm was going to be. Wiley was commanding officer
Speaker 1: aboard the Akron sister ship, the USS Making, when it
Speaker 1: went down in storm off the California coast just a
Speaker 1: year later. Wiley also survived that incident. While portions of
Speaker 1: the Akron were salvaged from the sea weeks after it sank,
Speaker 1: in two thousand two, additional debris was explored by the Navy.
Speaker 1: Portions of the ship's rigid ribs were observed still sticking
Speaker 1: out of the sediment on the ocean floor. The Akron's
Speaker 1: pennant is now part of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential
Speaker 1: Library and Museum's collection. In fourteen, a grant from the
Speaker 1: National Film Preservation Foundation to the University of Akron's archival
Speaker 1: services enabled the library division to preserve several films of
Speaker 1: the Akron, and several of them were referenced in this episode.
Speaker 1: We will link to them in the show notes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just four, but they're um they're really interesting, particularly
Speaker 1: that one that shows them training to hook onto the
Speaker 1: trapeze is really spectacular. It seems very slow and relaxed,
Speaker 1: but when you realize what's happening, it seems almost discordant
Speaker 1: in how calm it seems, because I would be completely
Speaker 1: in a state of nerve wrack. Uh. So that is
Speaker 1: the acron. We may eventually also do an episode on
Speaker 1: the sister ship the USS make in, but for the moment,
Speaker 1: that's the akron. Do you also have some listener mail
Speaker 1: for us? I do, Um. We have gotten so many
Speaker 1: postcards lately, and I just wanted to acknowledge a few
Speaker 1: of them. Um. The first is from our listener page.
Speaker 1: She says, Hey, I thought you might enjoy the sweet postcard.
Speaker 1: I also wanted to thank you for the great show
Speaker 1: and express how much I enjoy listening. As a student
Speaker 1: at b Y you studying American studies. I love learning
Speaker 1: new things about history. Keep up the good work. Thank you, Paige.
Speaker 1: It's a lovely postcard, and I presume it's probably aimed
Speaker 1: a little bit more at me because it is a
Speaker 1: Star Wars postcard. Um, and I love it. It's darling.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. We also had a postcard from
Speaker 1: our listener Joe Anne uh, and it is uh an
Speaker 1: Edward Gory postcard that said her laugh made beatles swoon,
Speaker 1: her frown made geese and cows turn upside down, illustration
Speaker 1: of a goose and a cow flipped over uh, and
Speaker 1: suggested maybe we should do an episode in the life
Speaker 1: of Edward Gory, which we've certainly talked about. I have,
Speaker 1: but that unless something goes wrong, it is in the works.
Speaker 1: It is in the works, but a couple of things
Speaker 1: need to happen first. Yeah. Uh, so that is lovely
Speaker 1: and I love Gory, so I'm always in and I
Speaker 1: can't wait for that one. And then our last one
Speaker 1: is this hilarious postcard from I think it is Helena.
Speaker 1: This is one of those cases where the postage markings
Speaker 1: have kind of obscured things. But it is a postcard
Speaker 1: from Froggy Land. She says she is holidaying in Croatia,
Speaker 1: and amongst visiting many other interesting sites, we came across
Speaker 1: this strange tourist attraction, which is Froggy Land, a room
Speaker 1: with lots of boxes of stuffed frogs. Uh, I'm reading
Speaker 1: this correctly. It says five hundred and seven of them
Speaker 1: arranged in lifelike human poses. So now I have another
Speaker 1: place that I want to go. It reminds me a
Speaker 1: little bit of the the episode that we did about
Speaker 1: the taxidermist named Potter, who did particularly a lot of
Speaker 1: little cute mammals in adorable human poses. Froggy Land looks
Speaker 1: very much the same, but all with frogs. So thank
Speaker 1: you so much. This is just delightful. Uh. If you
Speaker 1: would like to write to us, you can do so
Speaker 1: at History Podcast at house to works dot com. You
Speaker 1: can also find us across the spectrum of social media
Speaker 1: as missed in History. You can visit missed in history
Speaker 1: dot com to see all of our episodes of the
Speaker 1: show ever, including many, many many before Tracy and I
Speaker 1: were even involved. Uh, and on the episodes that Tracy
Speaker 1: and I have worked on, they're also show notes, so
Speaker 1: you can get all of that stuff if you just
Speaker 1: come and visit us at missed in History dot com.
Speaker 1: For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit
Speaker 1: houst works dot com.