CHAPTER XII
The Naval Flying Corps--What The Navy Department Has Accomplished And Is
Accomplishing in the Way of Air-Fighting--Experience of a Naval Ensign
Adrift in the English Channel--Seaplanes and Flying Boats--Schools of
Instruction--Instances of Heroism
In writing of aviation in the navy an incident which befell one of our
naval airmen in the English Channel seems to demand primary
consideration, not alone because of the dramatic nature of the event,
but because it sets forth clearly the nature of the work upon which our
flying men of the navy entered as soon as the United States took hostile
action against Germany. Our navy aviators, in fact, were the first force
of American fighters to land upon European soil after war was declared.
Here is the story as told by Ensign E. A. Stone, United States Naval
Reserve, after he was rescued from the Channel, where with a companion
he had clung for eighty hours without food and drink to the under-side
of a capsized seaplane pontoon. "I left our station in a British
seaplane as pilot, with Sublieutenant Moore of the Royal Naval Air
Service as observer, at 9 o'clock in the morning. Our duty was to convoy
patrols. When two hours out, having met our ships coming from the
westward, we thought we sighted a periscope ahead, and turned off in
pursuit. We lost our course. Our engine dropped dead, and at 11.30
o'clock forced us to land on the surface of a rough sea. We had no kite
nor radio to call for assistance, so we released our two
carrier-pigeons.
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