Capetown, Oct. 9.
Recounting the record long disk tance flight, from Dundee to Capetown, of the pick-a-back seaplane Mercury, her chief lot, Captain Bennett, said that they had struck trouble from the outset.
First, they were compelled to sacrifice altitude because they struck ice at a height of 10,000 feet, Then, they encountered thunderstorms over Algeria and very severe head winds over West Africa, The strain of adverse conditions, Captain Bennett explained, brought their petrol supply low, compelling them to seek a landing near the mouth of the Orange River. A safe landing was negotiated, but for a lime the plane was stranded on a sandbank, The inhabitants of Alexander Bay sighted them and, discarding their clothes, waded to the scene and assisted in getting the machine clear.
The pilot stated that petrol, dispatched from Port Nilloth, 84 miles away, had arrived in the meantime, and drums of fuel were floated out to the seaplane.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.