The Airship "Golden Hind"Westerman, Percy F. (Percy Francis)
General
The Airship "Golden Hind"
Westerman, Percy F. (Percy Francis)
Adventure stories; Flight -- Juvenile fiction; Voyages around the world -- Juvenile fiction
Kenneth had plenty of time for reflection during his "trick." The
"Golden Hind" was making good progress. There was little or no wind,
and her drift was in consequence almost imperceptible; while the
temperature was so constant that there was no necessity to alter the
volume of brodium in the ballonets for hours at a stretch. The motors,
too, ran like clockwork, and beyond attending to the semi-automatic
lubricators occasionally, the air-mechanics on duty had little to do.
Fosterdyke, having paid a brief visit to the navigating room, retired to
his cabin to make up arrears of sleep.
"Might work," soliloquised Kenneth, reflectively. "I’ll tackle
Fosterdyke about it next time I come across him."
At four in the afternoon Malta was passed at a distance of ten miles to
the south’ard. The "Golden Hind" was doing well, maintaining more than
her normal cruising speed. If she were able to keep on at that rate she
would accomplish the voyage of circumnavigation well under the twenty
days; but that was now but a secondary consideration. At all costs von
Sinzig’s Z64 must be overhauled.
The "Golden Hind’s" first stop was at Alexandria, sixteen hours after
leaving Gibraltar. She made a faultless landing on sandy spit that
separates Lake Mareotis from the Mediterranean. The time of her arrival
had been notified by wireless, and all preparations had been made for
her reception. Keenly interested Tommies manned the trail ropes and
secured her firmly to anchors buried in the sand; lorries laden with
petrol and oil were rushed to the spot, and the work of refuelling began
without delay. While Fosterdyke and Kenyon were signing the "control
certificate" and holding an informal reception of almost the whole of
the British Colony at Alexandria, Bramsdean remained in charge of the
airship.
In order to keep back the dense crowd, composed of fellaheen, Copts,
Arabs, Syrians, and representatives of every nation bordering on the
Mediterranean, strong picquets of British troops were posted round the
tethered airship, no unauthorised person being permitted to approach
within a hundred yards of the "Golden Hind"; while to enable the work of
refuelling to proceed as rapidly as possible, the improvised aerodrome
was brilliantly illuminated by portable searchlights mounted on motor
lorries.
It seemed as if it would be impossible for any suspicious characters to
approach the airship without being detected. Having once been "bitten,"
Fosterdyke was not taking chances in that direction.
No attempt had been made to get rid of Enrico Jaures. Closely watched
by a couple of the crew, he was even permitted to view the proceedings
from an open scuttle in one of the compartments on the starboard side.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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