We are in wireless touch with East Fortune, Clifden, on the west coast of Ireland, and Ponta Delgada, Azores, and messages wishing us good luck are received from Air Ministry, H. M. S. Queen Elizabeth, and others.

11.45 A. M.—Lunch—Excellent beef stew and potatoes, chocolate, and cold water.

The talk, as usual, was mainly “shop,” dealing with such problems as the distribution of air-pressure on the western side of the Atlantic, what winds were likely to be met with, what fog we should run into, the advantages of directional wireless for navigational purposes, cloud horizons, and the like.

Scott, Cooke, and Harris, in comparing their experiences and expounding their theories, were most interesting and illuminating.

12 NOON.—Watch off duty turned in for their routine four hours’ sleep before coming on for their next period of duty—only two hours in this case, as it is the first of the two dog-watches.

The sleeping arrangements consist of a hammock for each of the men off watch suspended from the main ridge girder of the triangular internal keel which runs from end to end of the ship. In this keel are situated the eighty-one petrol-tanks, each of seventy-one gallons’ capacity; also the living quarters for officers and men, and storing arrangements for lubricating-oil for the engines, water ballast, food, and drinking-water for the crew. The latter is quite a considerable item, as will be seen from the following table of weights:

GallonsPoundsTons
Petrol4,90035,30015.8
Oil...2,070.9
Water......3.0
Crew and baggage......4.0
Spares... 550.2
Drinking-water...800.42
———
Total24.32

Life in the keel of a large, rigid airship is by no means unpleasant. There is very little noise or vibration except when one is directly over the power units—a total absence of wind and, except in the early hours of dawn, greater warmth than in the surrounding atmosphere.

Getting into one’s hammock is rather an acrobatic feat, especially if it is slung high, but this becomes easy with practice; preventing oneself from falling out is a thing one must be careful about in a service airship like the R-34.

There is only a thin outer cover of fabric on the under side of the keel on each side of the walking way, and the luckless individual who tips out of his hammock would in all probability break right through this and soon find himself in the Atlantic.