$40,000 Rewards Offered for Recovery of Miss Doran and Golden Eagle
WEATHER CONDITIONS IDEAL FOR FIVE FLYERS IF AFLOAT
Fruitless Quest Continued Throughout Day and Night by Radio, Fleet and Aircraft
SAN FRANCISCO, August 19.—The Pacific Ocean today was the scene of a renewed search for a brown-eyed girl of 22 and four men, missing flyers in the aerial derby to Honolulu, who may still be afloat upon its limitless leagues.
Mildred Doran, pretty school teacher of Flint. Mich., and her pilot and navigator, John A. Pedlar and Vilas R. Knope, had been down approximately 48 hours, according to the most hopeful estimates of the cruising radius of the biplane in which they set out Tuesday noon in the Dole $35,000 flight from Oakland to Honolulu. The time limit set by the builder of the plane on its ability to withstand the buffeting of the seas was only 24 hours.
Golden Eagle Better Equipped.
The plight of John W. Frost and Gordon Scott, flyers of George Hearst’s cigar-shaped monoplane, Golden Eagle, the other lost entrant in the air race, was considered possibly less acute, as jts equipment and construction made it the last word in sea worthiness of disabled aircraft.
The United States Navy carrier Langley, with its covey of observation planes, early today reached the Farallones, outside the Golden Gate, after its voyage from San Diego, and swung westward into the course over which Miss Doran’s plane, named for her, and the Golden Eagle sped Tuesday noon.
Between the Farallones and the Hawaiian Islands were deployed 41 other ships of the Navy, cruising under the orders of Admiral R. H. Jackson, commander merchant vessels, scanning the horizon for some trace of the missing aircraft.
James Dole, the Hawaiian millionaire, who put up the prize for the race, today opened the purse again, this time to offer $20,000 for the recovery of the missing planes and their occupants. To this amount William Malloska, Michigan millionaire, who entered the Miss Doran in the race, added $10,000 for the recovery of the occupants of the Miss Doran, dead or alive. George Hearst, publisher of the San Francisco Examiner, also offered $10,000 reward, $5,000 for the rescue of the occupants of each missing plane.
Their gasoline supplies exhausted many hours ago, their food sufficient for about two days more, the missing aviators —if they have escaped death—were either riding along the waves in their planes or had abandoned them for rubber life rafts. Perhaps they were safe on some isolated Island far from the lines of communication, or they have been battered down to the depths if their planes crashed into the sea.
The one bright spot in the whole situation was the weather. For two days weather conditions in the Pacific have been ideal for the lost flyers. There was an absence of wind, and this would assure a smooth riding surface for an airplane forced down or a rubber life boat, according to T. R. Reed, United States Weather Bureau expert here.
However, the Miss Doran would not last many hours in the most favorable weather, aviation experts said. The construction of the plane was such that it would give buoyancy to its weight by emptying the gasoline tanks, but it could not ride the waves for many hours after the first 24.
Went Respite Warning.
The Miss Doran, put out into the race on Tuesday after it had been forced back from a first start because of engine trouble. Miss Doran, smiling and unafraid, took her place beside Navigator Knope and went up despite the warning of Lieut. Ben Wyatt, navigation director of the Dole flight, who said the changing of the plane’s spark plugs would not help the Miss Doran’s engines. The trouble was more deep seated, he believed.
The consensus of those who watched the planes perform was that it did not get far along its course before the engine trouble recurred and the plane was forced to a quick comedown, landing in the sea with more than a ton of gasoline in the tanks. Dropping an airplane into the sea under the most favorable circumstances is considered a precarious job for an expert pilot, but landing there with a heavy load of gasoline would seem certain to invite disaster.
Against this opinion was a notion that the plane might have cruised until it went off its course and passed the islands, either to the north or south, goining down with exhausted gasoline tanks. But this was only a most remote possibility.
The Golden Eagle, carrying a crew of two. Frost and Scott, presented a different situation. With a cork bottomed fuselage, inflated wing tips and rear end, it could be converted into a sea-going craft by the turning of a valve and the closing of its doors.
May Have Missed Islands.
Gordon Scott, the young navigator, is at home on the water, having sailed the Pacific for years.
Lieut. Wyatt considered it unlikely that Scott would make a serious error in navigation, but the owners of the craft, the San Francisco Examiner, believed that Scott may have passed the Hawaiian Islands during the first night of the cruise and come down exhausted somewhere between Honolulu and the Far East.
Meanwhile the organized search continued, spurred by the offering of additional thousands in reward money.
Malloska received a radiogram from Flint, Mich., saying that Pedlar had advised members of his family there before starting on the air race that might take a southern route, suggesting that Malloska might arrange to search a small group of islands south of Hawaii.
Under fresh orders from Rear Admiral McDonald, two destroyers in the search changed their courses at midnight in order to search the area toward Paia, off the Island of Maui. They will steam parallel courses, 10 miles apart. When the destroyers changed their course at midnight, it was estimated they were 180 miles from Paia, 225 miles northeast of Honolulu.
Submarines Sweep Seas.
In addition submarines continued moving in line formation from Hawaii, 5 miles apart, covering a 60-mile sweep off Kahuku, Isle of Oahu, and starting for the windward side of the island in the direction of Hilo. They expected to arrive at the latter point at 9 a.m. Other submarines are expected today off Kohola coast, Island of Hawaii, where they have been ordered to investigate a mysterious floating object.
The destroyer Corry, which has been steaming toward Seattle, changed its course yesterday and headed for San Francisco, where it is expected some time today.
The mine sweeper Ortolan and two additional submarines left Pearl Harbor late Thursday to search the area northwest of the Island of Hauai.
PLANS SEARCH UNTIL TUESDAY.
Navy Places Hope In Aircraft—Submarines Seek Floating Object.
The present elaborate searching operations in the Pacific for the missing Dole aviators will be continued until next Tuesday by the Navy Department. If at that time the aviators are still missing other plans will be made.
The Navy places great hope in the operations of the aircraft carrier Langley and the aircraft tender Aroostook, which today swung into position 100 miles out of San Francisco and began to comb the sea with land and sea planes. These two vessels are under orders to continue this method of search if necessary until they reach Honolulu.
Six destroyers are now centering their activities around Farallone Islands, 30 miles off the California Coast, on the theory that the two planes may have gone down because of engine trouble shortly after taking off.
On the Honolulu end of the flight the search is being conducted by submarines and submarine tenders.
Two submarines have been ordered from the Island of Hawaii to investigate reports of an “object in the water” on the route of the Dole Hawaiian flight on which two planes are missing. Rear Admiral McLean, commander of the submarine division, reported to the Navy Department today.
Admiral McLean’s message said the submarines S-15 and S-16 had departed for San Francisco to search for the missing Golden Eagle and Miss Doran planes and that en route would Investigate reports of “an object” having been seen in the water.
The message did not indicate whether the object might be the fishing boat discovered off the islands last night and which prompted reports that the Miss Doran had been found.
Evening Star, Washington, DC, August 19, 1927