If the compasses had tumbled during the night and if the chronometers were badly out of calibration, then there were navigation errors aplenty—especially where Amelia depended on a faulty radio to make her landfall at Howland.
The seaplane out of Honolulu had to turn back to base because of bad weather. During the initial part of its 1,800-mile flight to Howland, however, it constantly received transmissions from the Itasca. Obviously, there was nothing wrong with the ship’s radios.
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The Lockheed engineers were contacted to find out whether the Electra’s radio could operate if the plane were floating. Their answer was the first heavy note of discouragement. The Electra’s radio definitely could not operate if it were on the water, they wired, because it needed the right engine for power. But, they added, the plane could float from the buoyancy provided by the empty tanks for a maximum period of nine hours. It was now hoped, for radio purposes, that the Electra had made an emergency landing on land.
The Itasca searched an area of 9,500 square miles without success. In addition to constant transmission on 3,105 and 500, during the day it set up a smoke screen, and during the night it played its searchlight against the sky. These measures were in vain.
On July 7 the battleship Colorado and the minesweeper Swan joined forces with the cutter Itasca. The Colorado with its planes went south and east through the Phoenix Islands, exploring the 157° reciprocal of 337° represented in AE’s last reported line of position. The Swan and the Itasca turned north and then west to the Gilbert Islands.
On July 9 the aircraft carrier Lexington, with 63 planes, accompanied by the four destroyers Perkins, Cushing, Lamson, and Drayton, sailed from Hawaii. They arrived in the Howland area on the thirteenth to lend their support to the search. For the next five days the Lexington’s planes logged 1,591 hours looking north and west for the missing fliers. The planes covered an area of 151,556 square miles without turning up a trace of the Electra or its pilot and navigator.
Each ship was required to send out the same broadcast:
“We are using every possible means to establish contact with you. If you hear this broadcast, please come in on 3,105 kilocycles. Use key if possible, otherwise, voice transmission. If you hear this broadcast, turn carrier