That four of them did not forestall us was due in part to very bad luck, and in part to their whole-hearted patriotism. They wanted for their country the honor of the first transatlantic flight, whether non-stop or otherwise; and, being unable to continue the wearisome wait for good weather in face of the news that the American flying boat _N. C. 4_ had reached the Azores, they made their attempt under conditions that were definitely unfavorable. Fate tripped up Raynham and Morgan at the start, when they tried to take their heavily-laden machine into the air while running over a too short space of uneven ground, with the wind crossways to it. Fate allowed Hawker and Grieve a rather longer run, but brought about their fall when they were half-way to success, owing to a mishap which, though trifling, had the same effect as a vital breakage. It is superfluous, at this time of day, to offer public sympathy to such gallant competitors; but I seize the opportunity of expressing admiration for their splendid effort, and for the spirit that prompted it. To Hawker and Grieve we owed particular thanks in that we profited to a certain extent by what we learned from the cabled reports of their experiences. For Grieve, as an expert on aërial navigation, I have the deepest respect, and I am in full accord with his views and theories on this, my own subject. The same sort of odds against accident that sent them into the sea might well have befallen Alcock and me. But it did not; and our freedom from it was an important factor in our good fortune. Others were the excellence of the Vickers-Vimy machine and the Rolls-Royce engine. Whatever credit is ours should be shared with them, and with Mr. R. E. Pierson, E.Sc., M.I.C.E., the designer of the Vickers-Vimy. We have realized that our flight was but a solitary fingerpost to the air-traffic--safe, comfortable and voluminous--that in a few years will pass above the Atlantic Ocean; and even had the winning of the competition brought us no other benefits, each of us would have remained well content to be pioneers of this aërial entente which is destined to play such an important part in the political and commercial friendship between Great Britain and America. [Illustration: THE LATE CAPT. SIR JOHN ALCOCK, K.B.E., D.S.C.] CHAPTER II ST. JOHN'S "Hawker left this afternoon." This message was shouted by a chance-met motorist, who held up our own car as we were driving back to St. John's from Ferryland on the evening of May the eighteenth, after an unsuccessful search for an aërodrome site. "And Raynham?" I asked. "Machine smashed before he could get it off the ground."