Chapter NINE

The sinking of the airship Wilbur Wright by the unknown aerial pirate, coming as it did twenty four hours after the airship Langley had been shot down, shocked the entire world, and caused a wave of anxiety to surge through every civilized country. “Where will he strike next?” was the thought on every mind.

Its immediate effect was the wholesale cancellation of all commercial air transport schedules along the Pacific railways, completely isolating Australia and the Orient from rapid communication with the rest of the world.

This was followed by a universal demand that the pirate be tracked down and brought to justice. Throughout the North American continent there was an insistent demand by every newspaper for immediate action in running down the menace.

The question was immediately brought up before the executive committee of the League of Nations, but at the request of the American member it was decided to allow the United States Government to patrol the airways and apprehend the pirate, particularly as only American ships had been attacked thus far.

The news of the Wilbur Wright attack brought the utmost consternation to official Washington. To the Secretary of the Navy it brought the added fear for his daughter’s safety and anxiety over the seriousness of his wife’s condition. With his daughter actually in the power of the unknown pirate, he was fearful lest harm should come to her when the forces of the government bore down upon the outlaw.

This fear weighed so heavily upon him that he gave expression to it at the cabinet meeting which was called at once by the President to plan the campaign against the pirate. As soon as the meeting was called to order Secretary Ingleton arose and addressing the President, gave voice to his fears and concluded by saying: “Therefore Mr. President I desire to be excused from taking any part in formulating the plans that will be devised to run down this man, because I feel my judgement might be influenced by fears for my daughter’s safety. I will, however, pledge myself to carry out as far as possible, wherever my department is concerned, any plans that my colleagues may decide upon.”

The President and the other members of the cabinet expressed their sympathy with the Secretary of the Navy and assured him that in the plans laid down every possible precaution would be taken to insure the safety of his daughter.

Then George Cowl, Secretary of Air, arose and read an official cipher cablegram he had received from Commodore Heathcote describing the attack on the Wilbur Wright in detail.

“You will see,” he said, after reading the cablegram, “that its details coincide exactly with those of the attack on the Langley. The methods adopted in both cases are practically identical, except of course for the abduction of Miss Ingleton. In fact to me there seems to be no possibility of any doubt as to the pirate being the same in both cases. The chances of there being two pirates operating in that vicinity are extremely remote.

“In laying our plans to hunt him down there is one important point to bear in mind. He cannot operate without a base. He must have a base to replenish his fuel, food and execute whatever repairs are necessary to his machine after each flight.

“It seems to me that our first task is to locate this base. It must be on one of the Islands in the mid-Pacific groups. Another problem which we must solve is this: What is his method of keeping his base supplied with the necessary stores?

“These are two very important points, and I think it would be wise to investigate whether any coast vessels have been carrying cargoes necessary to airplane maintenance, and whether they have been destined to unusual places. It would also be a good plan to make inquiries at all aircraft factories to ascertain whether they had by any chance constructed the machine used by the pirate. Even from the meagre description we have of the machine one gathers that its design is quite out of the ordinary, and should be easy to trace if it was constructed by any ordinary manufacturer.

“The next thing in my opinion would be to issue explicit instructions to all the naval radio operators in the Pacific. The incident yesterday when the pirate shot down the Wilbur Wright and then inquired for Miss Ingleton shows that he must be equipped with wireless, because there is no other way in which he could have known she was on board.

“The fact that he has wireless on board and uses it is borne out by what occurred when the Wilbur Wright sent out an S.O.S. call. The operator at Pearl Harbor was unable to get the complete message because of interference, which, judging from all the facts in the case, could have come from no one else except the pirate.

“Under these circumstances I would suggest that a description of his signals be obtained from the Pearl Harbor station operator and sent out by rush cable to all the other operators with instructions to listen for them at all times.

“Then I would also suggest that the operators at Pearl Harbor, Guam and Manila be instructed to adjust their Direction Finder apparatus on the pirate immediately they hear him, and get a bearing on him. In this way we might possibly be able to trace him to the base. We could also arrange a new code for the operators to use in transmitting the results of their Direction Finding bearings. This code should also be rushed to them by cable, with the request that they repeat it back to us, so that there will be no chance of any error.

“So much for that phase. We must now lay plans for tracking him down with patrols. In my opinion we must proceed with this on well organized lines, and should use both naval and aircraft units. The latter should be fast scouts with long cruising range. Dirigibles are too slow for this work, I think, and too vulnerable against this man. We must arrange a complete co-ordination between the wireless and the patrol units, and the latter should be advised of all codes.

“In this connection I have just received an interesting cable from Commander Fitzgerald who was a passenger on the Wilbur Wright. Here it is. He says:

“‘Respectfully request that I be given opportunity of leading any expedition against airplane which shot down airships. As Miss Ingleton was under my escort I feel it a personal duty to see no harm comes to her and that she be safely restored to her parents. I am anxious to go after the pirate, and strongly urge my request be granted.’

“Now Fitzgerald had ample opportunity of getting a comprehensive idea of the attacking airplane, and he observed it both on the water and in the air. Therefore he is the logical man for the job. Moreover, he undoubtedly feels he has been remiss in the pledge to look after Mrs. Ingleton and her daughter and seeks to atone, although personally I do not think there is anything else he could have done under the circumstances. I propose putting him in command of the pursuit forces and having Commodore Heathcote at Honolulu in charge of base operations. I think that Honolulu would be the best place to base the expedition because of its central location to the apparent field of the pirate’s operations.

“I think that we should have at least twelve squadrons of pursuit airplanes for the task, and while they should be based on Honolulu for repairs and refitting, I am in favor of having each squadron located at some particular island so that it can be concentrated rapidly at any particular spot the pirate is reported in.

“The task of running down the pirate should be carried out by a double arrangement, first a daily patrol and second a special concentrated patrol. In the first case I would suggest that the squadrons be located on islands approximately five hundred miles apart and that each squadron be assigned to patrol a definite territory of approximately five hundred miles square. This could be done each day with four airplanes, leaving each squadron with fourteen machines in reserve for emergency.

“The patrolling airplanes would keep in constant wireless communication with their squadron headquarters, and all the squadron headquarters should be linked together by wireless or cable. The airplanes held in reserve by each squadron will be kept in readiness at all times, and in the event of a patrol airplane sighting the pirate, the reserve machines will concentrate on the spot as soon as possible, after receiving the wireless report. It would also be well to determine the types of naval vessels to use, and the manner in which they can co-operate with the aircraft.

“Those are my views gentlemen, but I am willing and anxious to co-operate in any other plan that you may adopt.”

As Secretary Cowl finished, and even before he could sit down, a murmur of approval swept through the room, and one or two of the cabinet members actually clapped their hands in applauding the general plan outlined by the head of the Air Department. For a few seconds there was a spirited discussion as the members went over the points of Cowl’s suggestions. Then John F. Seeley, the Secretary of War, arose and said:

“The Secretary of Air has stated the case concisely and admirably. I agree absolutely with all his main points and heartily concur in the methods he had so masterly proposed to meet the menacing situation. There is, however, one phase of the situation that he only touched upon--the use of naval craft in the pursuit.

“Under normal circumstances we would await the pronouncement of our colleague of the Navy Department upon that subject, but in view of his statement at the outset of this meeting I am presuming to venture a suggestion in his place.

“Before I do so, however, I want to state that there may be a very grave question as to the efficacy of a surface patrol in this situation, and I would very urgently suggest that before anything definite is done that we consult with the experts of the Navy Department as to the utility and feasibility of using naval vessels.

“Should they decide that it would be feasible to use them, it seems to me that since we are dealing solely with an aviation problem there are only two classes of naval craft that can be at all considered in this question--namely, destroyers and fast, light scout cruisers. Even these are inadequate so far as speed is concerned, but we might find them useful in long range, continuous patrol work.

“In using naval craft we must determine the amount of territory that we are going to patrol. Having definitely done this, we can then decide the exact number of vessels we shall require under the plan that I am going to propose to you.

“From the vantage point of a destroyer’s decks or lookouts the skies can be swept for a radius of approximately thirty miles. Therefore my plan is this:--place flotillas of destroyers or squadrons of scout cruisers on the ocean, each vessel to take a station sixty miles from its neighbor in any direction. These vessels are to do patrol duty at a predetermined speed along definite courses arranged so that the patrol is constantly maintained over the same stretches of water. At no time during the patrol must the sending apparatus of the wireless be used by any vessel, but the operator on each ship must maintain a constant watch at his receiver.

“All these vessels should be equipped with a low powered wireless sending apparatus. I believe such sets are available, and the radio engineer should be instructed to adjust them so that they have a range no greater than sixty-five miles.

“If at any time it is necessary for the patrol craft to intercommunicate they would use these sets for the purpose. In cases of emergency they could use their regular sending apparatus.

“In the event of the pirate being observed the word will be passed along the lines by the wireless sets. In this connection I would suggest a simple code to express that fact, which could be followed by the figures of the position. For instance the letter O could be used to express the meaning ‘pirate observed’. Suppose he were seen in Longitude 178 E. and Latitude 12 N.; the signal sent along the lines would be 'O 178 12'.

“Immediately upon receipt of such a signal the vessels of the flotilla would proceed to the general vicinity of that position at full speed and render such assistance with their anti-aircraft guns as would be possible under the circumstances.

“That is the general plan I have to suggest, gentlemen. If it is feasible the next question to be determined will be the extent of the territory we must cover by this means.”

A large map of the Pacific Ocean was spread across the table before the members of the cabinet, and they had all studied it during the discussion. At this stage the President said:

“Well, gentlemen, if it is found feasible by the naval experts to use naval vessels in this work, don’t you think that it would be advisable, in order to save valuable time, to authorize the Secretary of the Navy to go ahead along the lines of the plan that Mr. Seeley has outlined, or along similar lines that may be suggested by the naval staff. I also think that Mr. Cowl should be authorized to proceed under the admirable plan that he has put forward for the forces controlled by his department.

“Before we go any further, however, I would like to state, in connection with Mr. Seeley’s suggestion, that I have been studying the map of the Pacific ocean. Of course I am not an expert, but at a glance, it seemed to me that if naval vessels were used at all, it would be a very good scheme to use them in a belt between the Hawaiian archipelago and the Marshall Island group to the eastward. How much territory would that involve Mr. Ingleton?”

“Why, roughly speaking, Mr. President,” replied the secretary of the navy after a quick calculation, “it would mean a belt of about two thousand miles in length, and I presume three hundred miles in width. This would not be impossible. In 1919, within our own memory, the Navy Department spread out a network of destroyers across the Atlantic Ocean over a distance as long, although not so wide, in connection with the first flight across that ocean with the historic old NC seaplanes that are now in the Smithsonian Institute. So far as the physical aspects are concerned, such a patrol would not be impossible.”

“That’s what I thought,” said the president. “There is another thing that suggests itself to me, and it is this: Why not take advantage of the location of the mid-Pacific islands as lookout positions, place observers on each of them, and make them part of the general observation system, with instructions to the observers to report immediately to Honolulu if they should happen to sight the pirate.

“Well, gentlemen, I propose that the different departments be empowered to put the suggestions made here to practical use. The details of each scheme can be worked out by the experts and then be put into operation.”

Before any reply could be made to this suggestion, Secretary Ingleton broke in and said:

“Mr. President, the fears that beset me constantly arise in my mind, and I cannot overcome them. I feel that in the circumstances I am in no condition to actively prosecute the affairs of my department, particularly as the most pressing problem of the department is in connection with the cause of my own troubles. Therefore I desire to tender my resignation right now, and transfer my department to abler hands. I will send you, Mr. President, the formal notice of my resignation as soon as this meeting is concluded, and I implore you to accept it in the interests of the country. I am going to the Orient to cheer my wife and aid in the search of my daughter.”