“The Lindberghs have another baby boy now and everybody in the country will protect this child. People all over the world were heartbroken at the death of their first baby.
“It was when the baby was a year old, and didn’t require so much attention, that Anne and Lindy started out on their longest trip, the flight across the Pacific to China and Japan. That was in July of 1931. There was some delay in choosing the route, because they had to consider all sorts of things, like chances for refueling, and over-water flying distances, but finally they decided that they’d fly across Canada to Point Barrow, in Alaska, and from there to Nome; then across the Ocean to Karaginsk, from there to Nemuro, and on to Tokyo.”
Captain Bill broke in. “Good for you for remembering that. Did you memorize the route?”
“I did,” said Bob proudly. “I even drew a map of it. They flew roughly northwest, and then south again, making the two sides of a triangle, with the point up at the top of Alaska.
“Well, the Lindberghs made their usual careful preparations. They needed more than a ham sandwich for this trip. The plane they chose was a low-winged Lockheed Sirius with a Wright Whirlwind motor. It was a blunt-nosed ship, painted reddish orange and black. And since they were traveling over water, it had to be equipped with floats. These were a new kind of Edo float, which were grooved on at the bottom to make for less resistance of the water.
“In the tail of the plane they had a pretty complete emergency kit, which would pop out automatically if the plane went under. It had a folding life boat in it, that they could fill from a bottle of compressed air. It was pretty smooth, with a mast and sail and everything, and though they didn’t; have to use it, it was a mighty nice thing to have along in case they sat down in the middle of the ocean. Then, of course, they had food and water, and an emergency radio set, besides the one that Anne Lindbergh was going to use. This emergency one was ready for anything. You couldn’t hurt it by getting it wet, or by dropping it. In fact, they tested it by dropping it from a hangar, and then soaking it in water for 24 hours. I wouldn’t want anybody to do that to my radio set, but I guess nothing much happened, because the tough radio survived its tests, and went along with the Lindberghs to China. The rest of their equipment included fifty pounds of food, five canteens of water, blankets, and all that sort of thing.
“On July 27th, Anne and Lindy started out. Washington was their first stop, to make the first leg official. From there they went to New York, bound for Maine, to say goodbye to the baby. But there was trouble right at the start. About two hours after they had left New York, the Lindberghs had to turn back again. Somebody had tampered with their radio, and put it out of working order. But this was fixed up all right, and they started out again. They got to North Haven, Maine, in about three and a half hours.
“After spending some time at North Haven with Anne’s parents and the baby, they left for Ottawa, and from Ottawa for Moose Factory. Just out of Ontario, though, they disappeared. The newspapers ran big headlines, ‘Lindberghs Missing.’ But they weren’t really missing. That is, the Lindberghs knew all along where they were, but their radio was out of order, and they couldn’t tell anybody else. Pilots were sent out to search for them, and Pilot Clegg found them in Moose Factory, safe and sound.
“Moose Factory sounds awfully funny, doesn’t it? I’d never heard of it, before the Lindberghs landed there, but it’s quite a place. All one hundred of its people came out to cheer the flyers.
“On Sunday morning they left Moose Factory, for their 750 mile jump to Churchill Harbor, in Manitoba. The weather wasn’t very good for flying—gray and stormy, and the country was gray and flat. All in all, it wasn’t a very pleasant leg of their journey, and there was almost nine hours of it. I’ll bet they were glad when they flew into Churchill Harbor, and saw the whole town waiting for them. There were only 2,000 people in the town, but then, that probably looked like a pretty big crowd after all that flying over country without seeing anybody or anything. And those 2,000 made up for it by being awfully noisy.