First East-West Non-Stop Trans-Atlantic Flight - April 2000

First East-West Non-Stop Atlantic Flight: The `Bremen'

April 2000

By Antonio Cormier

History has recorded the celebrated Atlantic crossing by the Spirit of Saint Louis in 1927, but few people are aware that the crossing of the ocean in the opposite direction was made under more spectacular conditions by the Bremen between April 12 and 13, 1928. Two German flyers and Irish Commandant accomplished this exploit.

At first The Bremen, a monoplane built in Germany by the Junkers Company in Dessau, landed at Ile Verte (Greenly Island) near Lourdes Blanc Sablon on April 13, 1928 at 6:08 PM, Greenwich Mean Time. It had left Baldonnel in Ireland the day before, April 12, 1928 at 5:38 a.m. Greenwich Time.

Nine years earlier, in June 1919, John William Alcock and Arthur Whidden Brown had made the first west-east crossing of the Atlantic from Newfoundland to Ireland. This time, 1928, news was flashed that the first east-west crossing of The Atlantic had been made.

History was made that time when two German flyers and an Irishman joined together to make the historic flight. The three aviators were Captain Herman Koehl, Baron Ehrenfreid Guenther Von Huenefeld and Commandant James C. Fitzmaurice.

Their exploit did much to further Trans-Atlantic flights. The numerous victims of previous attempts to fly the Atlantic had contributed nothing to public opinion with regard to the safety of such flights.

Even official opinion described such flights as useless and they should be banned. The facts of the time confirmed that opinion. Including Charles Nungesser and Francois Coli, 20 people had lost their lives trying to fly across the Atlantic. The intrepid trio knew what a challenge awaited them, and that death on some unknown icy plain might be their lot, the price of failure.

When the three flyers left Baldonnel Airport near Dublin on April 12, 1928, their planned destination was New York. From that moment until the end of their voyage, the task of piloting the Junkers was not just a dream but also required tremendous physical effort on the part of the two pilots. In order to make their trip as easy as possible they replaced each other at the controls every half-hour. One tried to sleep while the other worked.

The cockpit was sheltered from the worst of the elements, but there was no heating system in the plane, even in the cabin. There was no radio and once they left sight of Oul' Erin the rest of the world would hear nothing from them until their attempt became an accomplishment.

For 36 and a half hours of their flight, they fought an inch-by-inch battle. The very wind, which supported them in the air, became an invisible wall, reducing their speed to a 100 miles an hour for the greater part of the crossing.

On April 13, a gray and cloudy dawn slowly announced a new day. The pilots peered anxiously through the dimness trying to find a parcel of land which might serve as a geographical reference to give them their approximate landfall.

They were lucky: through the thickening snow an object suddenly appeared on the horizon. They took it for the funnel of a ship but passing over it, they were delighted to realize that it was a lighthouse. They knew they were over the Western Hemisphere, but where? That was the question. They were tired; gas running out, so they decided to land their machine somewhere. They took a short fly-over to find the right place.

There seemed to be a good spot near the lighthouse, but poor visibility played with their judgment. Hardly had the Bremen touched ground when its front wheels went through the ice, causing damage to the propeller. Happy that their landing had not been disastrous, the men descended to terra firma and within a few minutes the light keeper strode forward to welcome them.

The aviators were astonished at how far off course they had managed to go. They were certainly not on United States soil, far from it. They landed on Greenly Island, a tiny piece of land situated between the northern extremity of Newfoundland and Lourdes Blanc Sablon, Province of Quebec.

The incredulity of the lightkeeper reached a peak when the first man to meet Fitzmaurice, told them what he had learned. Johnny Letemplier met the plane and Fitzmaurice asked him where they were.

There was astonishment on both sides when the flyers learned where they were, and the Greenly Island men were told that the single motored plane arrived on a non-stop flight from the airport of Baldonel in Ireland. When my grandfather Alfred Cormier of Lourdes Blanc Sablon, the telegraph operator, was informed of their exploit he sent the news out immediately that the first east-west trans-Atlantic flight had been achieved.

The pilots thought that they were more or less abandoned in this near desert island. But help was not long arriving. Trans Canada Continental Airways Limited sent two Fairchild FC2W ski planes from Lake St Agnes near Malbaie in Quebec. The experienced bush pilots received orders to get to "Greenly Island as fast as possible," a distance of 700 miles, in order to collect the aviators and bring them all the help they needed.

The pilot Duke Schiller left in the first plane on April 14, and had on board Doctor Louis Cuisinier, technical director of Trans Continental Airways Limited and Eugene Thibeault, mechanic. Romeo Vachon piloted the second plane with a journalist and two New York photographers on board. They reached Greenly Island on the April 15 and 18 respectively after flying through snowstorms, with one obligatory stop.

At first, the men believed that they could repair the Bremen and fly it to New York. With this in mind, Schiller flew back to Lake St Agnes, taking with him James Fitzmaurice who would order the necessary pieces from New York.

In New York Hertha Junkers, the daughter of Professor Hugo Junkers, builder of the planes, filled the order with the collaboration of Otto Scherrer, chief engineer of the Junkers Corporation in America.

The pieces were sent by train to Montreal under the supervision of the mechanic Ernest Koeppen of the Junkers Company, and from Montreal to Lake St. Agnes

From Malbaie, Hertha Junkers ordered a plane flown in by Floyd Bennett and Bernt Balchen, a Ford Trimotor N114542. Its mission was to carry the pieces for the repairs on the Bremen to Greenly Island.

When the plane arrived in Malbaie, Floyd Bennett was sick with double pneumonia, and had to be brought to Jeffrey Hale's Hospital in Quebec City. Charles Lindberg flew a military plane to Quebec City with serum for Bennett but he arrived too late to cure the sick man of the aggravated condition of the pneumonia. Bennett died the following morning.

James Fitzmaurice then replaced Bennett as co-pilot with Berbt Balchen to fly to Greenly Island, on April 23, 1928. On board were the Junkers mechanic Ernest Koeppen, and American photographer, Charles Murphy. They spent the night at Sept-Iles and left at 5:30 A.M. the next day, arriving at Greenly Island six hours later.

On Greenly Island Koeppen and Thibeault got to work to repair the Bremen but they could not get the engine to work. Faced with the possibility of a long delay, and urged on by the desire of the aviators to be in New York for the burial of Floyd Bennett, the men decided to leave the responsibility of the Bremen in the hands of Doctor Louis Cuisinier and Eugene Thibeault.

The pilots of the Bremen then boarded the Ford airplane to go to New York with Ernest Koeppen. The Bremen was then towed to Lourdes Blanc Sablon and installed on the hill. A Loening OA-1 under an American Army Air Force commander was sent to this place. He was accompanied by the pilot Fred Melchior from the Junkers Company who was supposed to pilot the Brement to New York.

Since heavy ice prevented them from landing, they decided to drop the pilot in by parachute. Dr Cuisinier and Thibeault, still on site, had succeeded in getting the engine started, and boarded with Melchior. Unfortunately, there was not enough runway for the plane to take off. It hurtled over the cleared land and was badly damaged in the rougher terrain, undercarriage and propeller being broken into pieces.

The Bremen was consequently brought to Quebec City by the ship North Shore. >From there it was sent to Bremen in Germany on the ship Krefeld on September 17, 1928. It arrived there ten days later, and then was sent to New York on the ship "Columbus" on May 10, 1929.

Later on, Henry Ford acquired the plane for his museum, the Henry Ford Museum in Greenfield Village near Detroit, Michigan where it can still be viewed. The outcome of this daring feat is commemorated on Greenly Island by a stone monument, placed there by the Clarke Steamship Company of Montreal which used to carry passengers and goods for the Lower North Shore communities.

The dedication took place on August 14, 1928. Monseigneur Jean-Marie Leventoux, Catholic Bishop of the North Shore presided over the ceremony, Father Gallix of Natasquan, Father Francois Hesry of the parish of Lourdes Blanc Sablon, Alfred Cormier, telegraph operator of Lourdes Blanc Sablon as well, Captain J.A. Brie, Master, the officer and men of Clarke Steamship were present. Besides other Canadians present, there were tourists from the United States, as well as fishermen and residents of Greenly Island and their families.

The inscription on the monument marks an important event in the history of world aviation: On this island landed the Bremen, Friday April 13, 1928, after the first east-west non-stop flight, having left Ireland at dawn on Thursday April 12, 1928. The crew members were Baron Ehrenfreid Guenther Von Huenefeld of Germany, Major James C. Fitzmaurice of Ireland. Erected by the Clarke Steamship Company Limited of Montreal in recognition of this great exploit.

Had it not been for the generosity of president Desmond A. Clarke and his company which defrayed the cost of the erection of the monument, it is quite likely that this faraway spot where the Bremen landed might never have been recognized, and there would be an unfortunate gap in the history of aviation.

Antonio Cormier is a historian, based in Lourdes Blanc Sablon in the Province of Quebec. Translation was provided by Marianna O'Gallagher.