Chapter EIGHT

One of the patrol airplanes, in response to an order from Commodore Heathcote, came down and landed near the lifeboats, and transferred Mrs. Ingleton from the captain’s boat. It then took off and started for Honolulu at high speed.

As soon as this operation had been completed, Captain Johnstone was taken off his lifeboat, aboard the P-Q, flying boat, where he was received in the after gunpit by the two government commanders. “I have wirelessed for a couple of destroyers to come along here and pick up the passengers and crew, Captain,” said Captain Smith. “It will take them a few hours to get here, and we will stand by you till they arrive. Tell us how it happened.”

Captain Johnstone narrated the story of the second act of aerial piracy that was destined within a few hours to shock the world into frenzied action.

“We had been fully warned about the Langley,” he began, “so I put the ship a hundred miles off her course. At first I decided to fly to Manila without a stop, but when we fetched up with Hawaii without any sign of the pirate I changed my mind and decided to make Honolulu.

“I’d scarcely changed my course when the lookout man observed a strange craft at tremendous altitude. After an observation I figured it must have been at least 45,000 feet up, and it was moving rapidly in circles. Suddenly it commenced to spiral down toward us, and I decided it was no time to take chances, and I ordered my wireless operator to send out an S.O.S.

“The stranger came down on us with terrific speed. He didn’t make a sound, with the exception of the hum of his propeller. He soon reached our level and circled around us. Then he fired a shot straight at us. It went clean through the middle of the envelope. I gave orders to nose down and land, but it was useless. The pirate was doing some great shooting, and he soon had us disabled.

“We settled quickly and he came down after us. As soon as we had landed I had the boats out, and started putting the women in them. When we had done this he came up alongside. A man leaned out of the window in the body and shouted through a megaphone.

“‘You’ve got a Miss Mary Ingleton of Washington on board. Where is she?’”

“As soon as he had asked this question another man stood up in a small cockpit in the bows and fingered the trigger of a machine gun fixed there. He looked as though he meant business. I hesitated a few moments and tried to evade his question, but he shouted back:

“‘I know she’s on board. Tell her to come right here, I want to speak to her. I’m not going to stand any nonsense. If she’s not here in five minutes, you will be placing all your passengers in danger. It’s up to you.’

“Miss Ingleton was in my boat with her mother and Commodore Fitzgerald, and she heard what the stranger had said. Mrs. Ingleton immediately became hysterical and pleaded with me not to let her daughter go. Fitzgerald was also against it, as he was quite sure the pirate would not have the heart to endanger defenseless people. ‘All we’ve got to do is to stand firm against him, and he’ll weaken,’ he told me.

“I was in a terrible dilemma. Naturally I didn’t want to let Miss Ingleton go over to the pirate, and I didn’t want to jeopardize the rest of the passengers. We could only see the two men on the strange airplane. They wore heavy flying clothes and had chamois masks over their faces. I imagine that was for the high altitudes they were flying, as well as for the purpose of disguise. While I was trying to figure a way out, Miss Ingleton got up and said:

“‘Let’s row over there, Captain. It won’t do any harm to talk to him and find out what he wants.’

“I gave the order and my crew pulled away until we came within a few feet of the airplane. As we drew up the fellow in the cabin leaned out and asked:

“‘Have you got Miss Ingleton on board that boat. Where is she?’

“Before I could answer Miss Ingleton stood up and said:

“‘Here I am, what do you want?’

“‘We want you to come on board here,’ he replied. ‘If you do so we will let the rest of the passengers alone. If you don’t come willingly we’ll be compelled to use force.’

“To this Miss Ingleton answered: ‘I’ve got my mother with me, can she come too?’

“‘No, we only want you,’ the fellow replied.

“Mrs. Ingleton began to cry hysterically. ‘Don’t go Mary, don’t go, I’m afraid.’ Her daughter spoke to her soothingly a few minutes and tried to console her. Miss Ingleton was not in the least afraid and was acting very calmly. I overheard her say to her mother: ‘I can take care of myself, mother dear, don’t worry, you don’t want to make all these other poor people suffer, do you. We can’t stop this man from doing what he wants. If I don’t go willingly he can get me by force. I don’t know what he wants, but he will probably let me come right back again.’

“After a little more pleading Miss Ingleton stood up again and shouted over to the man in the airplane: ‘Alright, I’ll come over now.’

“I went to her, and said: ‘It’s funny that he should know that you were on board. Do you recognize his voice.’ She said that as far as she knew it was the first time she had heard it. It was quite strange to her and she did not recognize it at all. I was trying to get a clue to the man’s identity by asking her that question, but she couldn’t help me.

“When we came up alongside, the fellow stood in the doorway of the cabin and assisted Miss Ingleton on board. While he was doing this the other man in the gun cockpit stood over us with a revolver in his hand. As soon as Miss Ingleton was on board the airplane the fellow in the doorway ordered us to shove off and lay clear. I tried to look into the small doorway while we were alongside, but he stood so full in the small aperture that it was impossible to see anything.

“As soon as we fell away the cabin door was closed, and the airplane started over to where the Wilbur Wright was lying awash in the water. He evidently had a marine screw for use on the water, as his propellers were not working. I saw some of the crew go aboard the disabled airship. There seemed to be five of them. Whether any remained I don’t know. They were there for upwards of twenty minutes, and during that time one of them was engaged in passing most of the valuable cargo from the airship to the airplane. Then they all got aboard the airplane again and taxied away about a hundred yards. From that position they opened fire on the Wilbur Wright and continued firing until she sank.

“Suddenly the propellers of the airplane began to whirl around, and in a few seconds she was in the air. She climbed with incredible speed and disappeared in no time. We could not hear any motor sound at all, and there was apparently no room for the motors where the propellers were housed. The propellers must have been connected to the motors by means of gears.

“As soon as the airplane disappeared Mrs. Ingleton collapsed completely. She had been buoyed up by the hope that her daughter would come back, but now that the pirate had left without hesitation she was heartbroken. We tried our best to console and revive her, but it was of no avail.

“After the pirate had disappeared I made the rounds of the boats to find whether all my passengers and crew were safe. In the hurry we had not had time to make a roll call. The round showed all the passengers were safely on board with the exception of Miss Ingleton. All the crew were also on board, except the second officer Howard Redmond, who is missing. I made inquiries, but no one seems to have seen him anywhere on the ship. I am afraid he is lost. I can’t account for his disappearance. He must have got tangled up somewhere in the ship and gone down with her.”