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"San Diego Visit of the NC-4, 1919"
by Eldon P. Slick Jr.
The painting depicts the Navy-Curtiss flying boat NC-4 departing San Diego Bay after a Good-Will visit in 1919. The flying boat was touring the nation after the successful completion of the first transatlantic crossing by air. It took some three weeks, from May 8th to the 27th, to accomplish that.Near the end of World War I, the Navy requested an aircraft that would be able to cross the Atlantic under its own power and go directly into action against the German U-boat menace, which were sinking tons of merchant shipping each week. Four large flying boats were designed and constructed as NC-1, NC-2, NC-3, and NC-4 under a joint venture of the Curtiss Company and the Navy. Because of damage from storm and fire, NC-2 was salvaged to repair the NC-1, and its remainder became spare parts.
On 8 May, 1919, NC-1, NC-3, and NC-4 took off from Naval Air Station Rockaway in Long Island, New York, with Trepassey, Newfoundland, the intermediate stop prior to their attempt at the Atlantic. After delays from NC-4's engine trouble near Cape Cod and bad weather at Trepassey, all three aircraft finally departed on the long flight across on Friday evening, 16 May. The flight was an endurance to be sure...the aircraft flew at 90 mph maximum, with the crews exposed to the elements in open, unheated cockpits. A scheduled stop for fuel in the Azores required more than 17 hours to reach — elapsed flying time for the entire crossing would add up to more than 26 hours!
Beleaguered by engine trouble and inclement weather, NC-1 and NC-3 landed short of the Azores, but with high seas and waves cresting over 20 feet, were unable to take off again. Yet, NC-3 sailed and was taxied backwards some 250 miles to the Azores, a formidable adventure in its own right! NC-1 was abandoned to the sea, but the crew was rescued by a Greek freighter. NC-4, after what seemed like impossible delays in weather, engine repairs, and other problems, finally made Lisbon, Portugal, on 27 May, becoming the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic.
NC-4 was the first in 1919, and for always. Its place in history and the significance of its flight have long been diminished by the public's love of heroics. The crews were soon forgotten as America looked to peace and prosperity after the war. This was best demonstrated by our Congress, which took more than 10 years to appropriate the meager budget needed to award special medals which were authorized for the NC crews. Four presidential elections passed before the men stood at their White House ceremony!The crew of the NC-4 included: Albert Cushing Read, commander/navigator; Walter Hinton and Elmer F. Stone, pilots, James L. Breese and Eugene S. Rhoads, flight engineers, and Herbert C. Rodd, radio operator. Initially E.H. Howard, was to go as a flight engineer, but Howard lost a hand in a propeller accident at the start of the mission, and was replaced by Rhoads.
Crew of the NC-4, posing before the start of the flight.
(left to right): Read, Stone, Hinton, Rodd, Howard, Breese.
In the summer of 1919, American composer Frederick Bigelow was so moved as to write a song, "The NC-4 March." Each year at 4th of July celebrations and on town greens, this tune can still be heard from brass bands, but very few know the cryptic significance of its title.
Still Around...
NC-4 was restored by the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum and the U.S. Navy for its 50th anniversary, and another six years before being placed on permanent display at the National Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola, Florida. NC-4 finally had a place of honor. The plane would not have survived at all had it not been for the efforts of the late Dr. Paul E Garber, former curator of NASM, who shepherded NC-4's remains from the 1940s until it was restored.
2002 Wings Publishing
