The first stretch to Ramsgate was 144 miles; the next to Yarmouth 96 miles; and the third to Scarborough 150 miles. To have any reasonable chance of completing the whole course in the appointed 72 hours, Harry realised that he would have to get at least as far as Scarborough on the first day. His delay in starting after 10 a.m. was due to difficulty in adjusting the compass, which had to be done, as he would require it in negotiating the mist and fog hanging about the Solent and the Thames Estuary. Assuming that he would reach Scarborough on Saturday, he expected to cover the 446 miles from there to Oban on Monday; on Tuesday he would make Dublin, 222 miles distant from Oban, and proceed on to Falmouth, a further 280 miles, leaving the final stretch from there to Southampton to be completed on Wednesday, on which day his time would be up at 4 p.m.
Having reached the open sea, Harry, keeping well out from the land and maintaining a steady height of about 1,000 feet, followed the South Coast, and was seen by numerous holiday folk at Brighton, Eastbourne, Folkestone, and Dover, which he passed in good time.
After rounding the corner of England he was assisted by the light southerly wind. The first control, Ramsgate, 144 miles from the start, was reached at 2.11 p.m., an average speed of 60 miles per hour having been kept up. While passing Margate, Harry saw a Blériot monoplane rising to greet him. This was M. Salmet, who was giving exhibition flights at Margate. Harry and Kauper enjoyed his company for a few minutes while he flew along beside them. On arriving at Ramsgate, they were welcomed by the Mayor (Alderman Glyn) and members of the Corporation, the Mayor, speaking through a megaphone, announcing that they had won the Cup offered by the townspeople to the first competitor arriving at Ramsgate. Ramsgate was en fête with much bunting, and crowds were there from Deal, Dover, Broadstairs, Margate, Canterbury, Whitstable, and all the villages for miles around, thronging the shore, piers, harbour, and every point of vantage. Local coastguards acted as patrols in two motor-boats, to keep the official control area clear. Mr. Thomas and Mr. Ramsden Tagore, members of the Royal Temple Yacht Club, lent their craft to the Royal Aero Club. At 3.20, the Aero Club officials having inspected the machine and handed to him a clean waybill with which to proceed, Harry started his engine and began the second stage to Yarmouth. Crossing the mouth of the Thames, he was unable to see either bank owing to the fog, and, steering by compass, he proceeded northward, afterwards passing Walton-on-the-Naze and Clacton, at which places holiday crowds enjoyed a passing glimpse of the machine in the distance, flying strongly.
Those who have made the tedious journey by steamboat from Yarmouth to London, taking the greater part of the day, will particularly appreciate the marvel of travelling all along the coast-line from Southampton to Yarmouth in less than five hours, including a rest of one hour at Ramsgate. At Yarmouth Harry and Kauper were received with an enthusiastic welcome at 4.38 p.m. At the time of landing, Harry was feeling quite fit, but soon after he had been rowed ashore he collapsed. He had been troubled by the gases escaping from the rather short exhaust-pipe, and this, coupled with the fact that, as Kauper reported, the sun had been very trying, and Harry had not worn any goggles, led to the case being diagnosed as sunstroke aggravated by the conditions under which he had been flying. I am inclined to think that his actual breakdown was completed by the change of conditions from piloting the seaplane to being rowed ashore in a small boat, and it was a lucky circumstance that this temporary breakdown was not deferred until he had taken the air again.
The following communication from a special correspondent of the Evening News, published on Monday, August 18th, 1913, sheds some light on the circumstances:
“Yarmouth, Monday.
“The hope expressed by Mr. Sopwith that Mr. Hawker may have recovered sufficiently to make a fresh start from Southampton this week is based on the opinion of the doctor attending the airman. His view is that Mr. Hawker should be quite fit again in a couple of days.
“The doctor tells me that no specific cause can be assigned as the reason of the airman’s breakdown.
“It is, he says, a general accumulation of nerve strain, lack of rest, and, on top of it all, Saturday’s hot sun.