Lighter Than Air

Back at USLines in New Jersey I sat at lunch with a senior ship's captain who had been reassigned to shore duty. He told me of an incident that occurred circa 1937 while on a eastbound crossing from New York to Southampton aboard the passenger liner S.S. WASHINGTON. While he was duty officer on the bridge he heard a frantic yell from the forward lookouts. There was something unidentified that seemed to be coming directly toward them. Looking thru binoculars he observed the zeppelin HINDENBURG  at a low altitude which passed directly over the vessel in the opposite direction headed for Lakehurst N.J. Lighter than air dirigibles were very popular in that era carrying such as Max Schmeling to the USA for his fight with Joe Louis. However, it was several months later that the HINDENBURG had that fatal fire and crash at Lakehurst which ended the use of hydrogen for helium. I have a friend who was about ten years old when his father took him to Lakehurst on business that fatal day. He grew up to become a third mate on a USL freighter that was involved in a collision in the Delaware River in 1949. I told him he reminded me of Forrest Gump with such notoriety.
tjs
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