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At 12:57 #6 sent the following: "There are two sailing vessels about 4 miles apart, bearing 150[[degree symbol]] true 8 miles from Stockton".

We had not seen them, and I had visions of missing Plymouth so asked the Navigator if it would be possible to climb to 400 feet so that I could call Plymouth station and request compass signals.  It has always been so much easier to take bearings on a shore station that I thought I would be able to get accurate bearings and help find the harbor.  We start to climb but had to come down again.

The Rochester then called at 13:10 and said our signals were getting louder.

Her signals were good but not as good on the skid-fin antenna as they were on the trailing wire four hours previously when we only half way across the Bay of Biscay, consequently it seemed to me that Plymouth was much further distant than it really was.

At 13:12 the Aroostook called with best wishes.

At 13:15 I was able to put out the trailing wire as we had sighted land and found ourselves headed right for the harbor.

At 13:19 #6 called and said that the visibility was 10 miles, and the sky clear.  I told her that we had sighted land and were all right.

At 13:25 we spiraled down and landed inside Cattewater at Plymouth, ending the flight.


I was afterward told that two British planes which had started out to meet us were equipped with 1600 meter continuous wave transmitters, but I did not know it, consequently did not tune for them.

The radiation on the skid-fin antenna changed slightly during the flight across the channel, but could be kept to 3 amperes by adjusting the variometer from time to time.  This was no doubt caused by the varying amount of moisture in the air at different times or at different altitudes.

The radiation on the trailing wire averaged 3.3 amperes throughout the flight and nothing but praise can be said of the CQ-1300 transmitter.  It was not oiled throughout the flight of 54 hours or 4100 nautical miles.  The frequency of the generator was never quite up to 500 cycles, as near as could be judged by ear, due to being mounted too near the deck and not getting the proper rush of air, except when the center tractor engine was