The Azores formed the central point in the flight from the United States to Europe. It was the evening of May 16, 1919, when the three giant planes swung out from Trepassy, Newfoundland, on the long "jump" to the Azores, a distance of 1,380 miles. When the goal appeared to be near, the worst foe of navigation appeared. A dense fog all but blinded the pilots, endangering the success of the flight and putting the lives of the flyers in peril. The NC-4 managed to ascend above the fog, and 15 hours and 13 minutes after leaving Newfoundland arrived at Horta, the emergency stop in the Azores, and after a delay of three days, due to bad weather, flew to Ponta Delgada. The NC-1 was forced to descend to the water 45 miles from the island of Flores, and half an hour later the NC-3 also descended not far from Fayal. Disabled by heavy seas, the NC-1 sank. Nothing was heard from the NC-3 for more than two days. Many people feared that she was lost, and there was general rejoicing when, after fifty-three hours on the water, drifting and taxiing 209 miles, she reached Ponta Delgada. Early in the morning of May 26th, Commander Albert C. Read and his crew departed on the NC-4 for the 891-miles flight for Lisbon, carrying the good wishes of the people of the islands. Lisbon did honor to the fliers, who had made a new world record. Bells rang, whistles blew, and the guns of the shore batteries boomed as the thousands lined the water front to welcome the aerial voyagers. Portuguese in Lisbon as well as in the Azores took the deepest pride in the achievement of the great adventure. CHAPTER XXVI TO VICTORY ON A SEA OF OIL ABILITY TO SECURE OIL AND TRANSPORT IT TO EUROPE WAS ESSENTIAL TO SUCCESS--OUR NAVY PATROLLED CARIBBEAN AND GULF COASTS--TRANSPORTED MATERIAL AND FURNISHED PERSONNEL TO LAY PIPE LINE ACROSS SCOTLAND--AMERICA FURNISHED EIGHTY PER CENT OF OIL FOR ALLIED FORCES. "The Allies floated to victory on a sea of oil," was the epigrammatic way in which Lord Curzon expressed the truth that oil was essential for success in the World War. This was true particularly of the Navy's part in the war, for most of the naval force and the Shipping Board's ships were oil burners. That oil was necessary also for the army was emphasized when General Foch warned that "interruption of the petroleum supply would necessitate an entire change of campaign and if long continued might result in the loss of the war." Long before 1914, Great Britain had felt dependence upon Mexican oil for its increasing oil-burning navy, and had made provision for securing it through acquisition of Mexican oil fields. American captains of industry had likewise large oil fields in Mexico. From the minute war was declared in 1914, Allied dependence was upon Mexican and American oil. Tampico and Port Arthur were strategic points in all Allied plans of campaign on sea or land. If this supply of oil had been interrupted, the war might have gone on much longer.