THE LATE CAPT. SIR JOHN ALCOCK, K.B.E., D.S.C.
[CHAPTER II]
St. John's
"Hawker left this afternoon."
This message was shouted by a chance-met motorist, who held up our own car as we were driving back to St. John's from Ferryland on the evening of May the eighteenth, after an unsuccessful search for an aërodrome site.
"And Raynham?" I asked.
"Machine smashed before he could get it off the ground."
We thanked the stranger for his news, and passed on to hear further details at the Cochrane Hotel, which was the headquarters of the several transatlantic flight contingents at St. John's. We had rather expected the Sopwith and Martinsyde parties to make an attempt on the eighteenth, although the conditions were definitely unfavorable. The news of the American N. C. 4's arrival at the Azores had spurred them to the great adventure, despite the weather. The United States flying boats were not competing for the Daily Mail prize; but Hawker and Grieve wanted to gain for Great Britain the honor of being the first to cross the Atlantic by air. The outcome of this ambition was the gallant effort that ended in the sea, half-way to Ireland.