The rest of the experiment was performed with equal promptness and ease. After a stay of ten minutes on the cruiser, the aeroplane was dropped overboard by the big boat crane, the propeller was cranked by one of the military pupils in aviation, and I got under way for the return trip to the island. Two minutes later I brought the hydroaeroplane to a stop a few yards away from the hangar on the beach. The entire time taken from the moment I left North Island for the cruiser to the moment I landed on the water at the hangar on my return was less than half an hour, and yet within this brief space had been written one of the most interesting chapters in the history of naval aviation. I regard this experiment as one of the most interesting, from my idea of a military experiment, that had been attempted up to that time, for the reason that no special equipment was needed on board the ship. Obviously the objections to the landing of an aeroplane on deck from a flight had to be overcome, and this could be done with a machine that could land on the water and be picked up. For a flight from the ship, all that was necessary was to drop it over the side and watch it rise from the water into the air. Such a machine could be "knocked down" and stored in a very small space when not in use; and when wanted for a flight, it could be brought out and set up in a short time on deck. An aeroplane sent from a scout ship on a scouting flight must, to be efficient, be able to carry a passenger, especially if it be sent for any purpose other than as a messenger, where speed would be the first consideration. But if sent to seek information as to an enemy's position, to take observations and make maps of the surrounding country, or with any of a dozen other objects in view where a trained observer would be necessary, it seems to me it should be equipped to carry at least two, and possibly three, persons the aviator and two passengers. There were many machines capable of carrying one or more passengers on land flights, so I set about equipping one to carry passengers on water flights. This I first succeeded in doing on February 23, when I took up Lieutenant T. G. Ellyson of the Navy, in the hydroaeroplane. We rose from the water without difficulty, flew over San Diego Bay and returning, alighted on the water with perfect ease.