Part 10 (2/2)

”In the tail of the plane they had a pretty complete emergency kit, which would pop out automatically if the plane went under. It had a folding life boat in it, that they could fill from a bottle of compressed air. It was pretty smooth, with a mast and sail and everything, and though they didn't; have to use it, it was a mighty nice thing to have along in case they sat down in the middle of the ocean.

Then, of course, they had food and water, and an emergency radio set, besides the one that Anne Lindbergh was going to use. This emergency one was ready for anything. You couldn't hurt it by getting it wet, or by dropping it. In fact, they tested it by dropping it from a hangar, and then soaking it in water for 24 hours. I wouldn't want anybody to do that to my radio set, but I guess nothing much happened, because the tough radio survived its tests, and went along with the Lindberghs to China. The rest of their equipment included fifty pounds of food, five canteens of water, blankets, and all that sort of thing.

”On July 27th, Anne and Lindy started out. Was.h.i.+ngton was their first stop, to make the first leg official. From there they went to New York, bound for Maine, to say goodbye to the baby. But there was trouble right at the start. About two hours after they had left New York, the Lindberghs had to turn back again. Somebody had tampered with their radio, and put it out of working order. But this was fixed up all right, and they started out again. They got to North Haven, Maine, in about three and a half hours.

”After spending some time at North Haven with Anne's parents and the baby, they left for Ottawa, and from Ottawa for Moose Factory. Just out of Ontario, though, they disappeared. The newspapers ran big headlines, 'Lindberghs Missing.' But they weren't really missing. That is, the Lindberghs knew all along where they were, but their radio was out of order, and they couldn't tell anybody else. Pilots were sent out to search for them, and Pilot Clegg found them in Moose Factory, safe and sound.

”Moose Factory sounds awfully funny, doesn't it? I'd never heard of it, before the Lindberghs landed there, but it's quite a place. All one hundred of its people came out to cheer the flyers.

”On Sunday morning they left Moose Factory, for their 750 mile jump to Churchill Harbor, in Manitoba. The weather wasn't very good for flying-gray and stormy, and the country was gray and flat. All in all, it wasn't a very pleasant leg of their journey, and there was almost nine hours of it. I'll bet they were glad when they flew into Churchill Harbor, and saw the whole town waiting for them. There were only 2,000 people in the town, but then, that probably looked like a pretty big crowd after all that flying over country without seeing anybody or anything. And those 2,000 made up for it by being awfully noisy.

”Baker Lake is 375 miles from Churchill, and that was the next stop.

Just three and a quarter hours after they'd left Churchill Harbor, they got into Baker Lake. Everybody was waiting for them, and everybody in this case was made up of Eskimos. There are only about six white people in the whole place, but they were out, too, and took charge of the Lindberghs when they landed that night. So far so good.

”The Lockheed up to now was working perfectly-the trip was going off as scheduled-just as all of Slim's trips go off as scheduled. From Baker Lake the going was to be harder. The next stop was Aklavik, on the MacKenzie River. Aklavik is pretty far north, just about 130 miles within the Arctic Circle, and the route called for a jump of over 1,000 miles across this cold country. But Slim and Anne made it. They did that 1,000 miles in eleven and a half hours, which was some going. They had the Aurora Borealis with them, because the farther north they went, the brighter the lights grew, and flying at night was as easy as flying by day.

”Aklavik may be cold, but it was warm to the Lindberghs. Slim and Anne saw a lot of things they'd never seen before, and they had what you'd call their first real taste of the arctic. There were all the people you read about up there-Mounties, and Eskimos and fur trappers, who'd trekked in from miles around to see the Lindberghs land. Eskimo kids trailed them around and grinned when they were spoken to.

”They had a lot of time to look around, too, because they had to stay at Aklavik for three days. The weather grounded them, but on August 7th, the sky cleared, and they were off again, now for Point Barrow. Nome was next. But before they got to Nome there was trouble.

”They'd started out from the Point in the morning, and flew all day. All they saw was packed ice for miles around. A thick fog was raising.

Finally at 11 o'clock that night the fog grew so thick that the Colonel and his wife thought it would be best just to sit down and wait for the fog to clear. So that's what they did. They sat down in s.h.i.+smaref Bay, on Kotzebue Sound.”

At this point Bob paused significantly, and waited. He had p.r.o.nounced both words without hesitation of any kind, and he was waiting for the praise that he felt was due him. There was a strange silence. So Bob said again: ”They sat down on s.h.i.+smaref Bay, on Kotzebue Sound.”

This time Captain Bill realized what was required of him. ”Good work,”

he said ”You got them both without a slip.”

Now Bob could go on. ”They sat down,” he began.

”That they did,” interrupted Pat. ”They sat down on s.h.i.+smaref Bay on Kotzebue Sound. What heathen names. But we've heard them, and get on with you, lad.”

”I am,” said Bob, and got on. ”They had to wait for ten hours for the fog to lift, and it must have been mighty uncomfortable in the c.o.c.kpits of their planes. When they finally did get started, they found that they couldn't get to Nome after all. The fog drifted up again, and they had to come down-”

Pat broke the silence with a mighty exclamation. ”Not on s.h.i.+smaref Bay!”

Bob was cold. ”Of course not. This time they came down on Safety Bay, and please don't interrupt.”

But there was another interruption, this time from Hal. ”Where's Safety Bay?” he asked.

Bob stretched out comfortably. He was satisfied with himself and his story. ”I don't know whether you're just trying to test me, or not,” he said, ”but I'm prepared for you. I've been over every inch of the Lindbergh trip with an atlas, and I know where everything is located, and how to p.r.o.nounce it.”

Hal, his pale face lighted up by the moonlight, was obviously impressed, and his large eyes beamed in the light. He was storing up notes for his own story that was to come later.

”Safety Bay,” said Bob, ”is twenty-one miles from Nome, and mid-way between Nome and Solomon Beach. They call it Safety Bay because fishermen caught in storms out at sea used to come in to the bay for safety. It was a 'safety bay' for the Lindberghs, too, all right. They waited for the fog to lift again, and they finally got to Nome. Nome had been waiting so long for them that it gave them a right royal welcome.

”Nome was an important stop, because the Lindberghs planned to use this as their jumping off place for the hop across the Pacific Ocean to Karagin Island, off the Kamchatkan Peninsula. The Pacific has been crossed before, and was crossed later, too, by Herndon and Pangborn. But it's a tricky place to cross, especially in the northerly part, where the Lindberghs were to cross. It's a place of fog and ice, and quickly changing wind currents, so that a fog can creep up on you and blot out the world in a split second.

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