The Adventurers' Club News Jul 1989adventurersclub.org/archives/AC News/AC News Jul 1989.pdf ·...

JULY 1989

The BEAR OF OAKLAND" (c. 1933)

A CLUB

D NEWS JULY 1989

V Page OF CONTENTS

age

E 3 MEMORIES OF AN OLD SHIP by Russ Robinson #623 (Part 1 of a 3 part series)

- A NIGHT RIDE by Chet Sidell #734

N U An adventure in Trujillo, Peru

WE HEARD FROM ..... 8 Letters and cards from our traveling membe

CAN YOU DIG IT? by Doug Macdonald #758 9 Adventure in the Borrego Badlands

GRATITUDE by Al A. Adams #688 Words that needed to be spoken

1 3 TEN YEARS AGO-- A look back Do you remember these meetings?

OUR NEWEST MEMBER -- Edward A. Morris #1003 14 A yachtsman and an educator

E 15 12,000 MILES IN SOUTH AFRICA by Bill Hawkinson #798 - the program for April 27, 1989

FROM JENNYS TO JETS--THE STORY OF THE AIRPLANE 17 by guest Lawrence Craghie - the program

R for May 18, 1989

19 A BEHIND THE SCENES LOOK AT THE 1969 LUNAR LAN-DING by John Mahon - program for June 1

S 20 DARING ADVENTURES IN PHOTOGRAPHY by guest Max Helwig - the program for June 15, 1989

July 1989 Page 1

AON1Lt3E3L' IThtihl Nruui

(usPs 389-310)

THE ADVENTURERS CLUB NEWS is the Official Publication of the Adven-turers Club of Los Angeles, California. Subscription: $15.00 year.

PUBLISHER - Frank Haigler #825 EDITOR - Robert Williams #905

§

PRESIDENT FIRST VICE PRESIDENT SECOND VICE PRESIDENT SECRETARY TREASURER PAST PRESIDENT

DIRECTOR - Bil Brown #708 DIRECTOR - Bob Sechrist #828 DIRECTOR - Sven Wahlroos #978

Frank Haigler #825 Pierre Odier #988

David Dahl #993 David Linehan #977 Keith Chase #664 Alan Siebert #932

DIRECTOR - Bruce Meyers #973 DIRECTOR - Bob Sandwick #909 DIRECTOR - Milt Valois #974

§

THE ADVENTURERS CLUB NEWS (IJsPs 389-310) is published monthly by The Adventurers Club, P. 0. Box 15791, Los Angeles, Calif. 90015

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to P. 0. Box 15791, Los Angeles California, 90015.

§

Manuscripts and other items intended for publication by the mem-bers of the Club should be sent to the Publication Office, 1735 Avalon Bay Road, Lake Havasu City, Arizona 86403. Phone is 1-602 453-3996. Hours 8:00 AN to 8:00 PM. Lead time for publication is a minimum of three months. Adventure stories, human interest stories, or other items submitted by the author are always wel-come.

Page 2 Adventurers Club News

OUR JULY FEATURE STORY

A great old ship with an unusual story and a sad ending

Memories Of An Old Ship As told by Russ Robinson 4623

A couple of years ago one of our distinguished adventurers published in these pages an ar-ticle recounting some of the early achievements of the cele-brated Coast Guard cutter Bear. You may recall that she was the auxiliary ice-breaking barken-tine that the United States bought from her Scottish owners not long after the U.S. purchase of Alaska from the Russians. And it was she who rescued the survivors of the unfortunate Greeley Expedition.

July 1

After being on active sea du-ty longer than any other ship in U.S. service history--inclu-ding the famed USS Constitution --she was retired in 1928 and spent a few years as an Arctic museum ship in Oakland, Cali-fornia.

The Bear was still sound and hearty however and she was just the type of ship that Adm. Ri-chard E. Byrd needed in 1933 to he the icebreaker for his forth-coming scientific expedition to the Antarctic--the Second Byrd Antarctic Expedition of which I was a proud member. Byrd bought the Bear from the

City of Oakland for just over $1,000 and she was renamed the Bear of Oakland. I lived aboard that ship much of the two years of that expedition and I got to love every inch of her, and I came to know her from her main truck to the bottom of her keel. Now lamentably, she lies at the bottom of the ocean somewhere off Nova Scotia or Maine, but she remains fresh in my memory.

989 Page 3

MEMORIES OF AN OLD SHIP

As an explanatory preface to a longer yarn to follow soon, I thought I would give you a des-cription of her construction--at least that portion which had such a strong influence over our lives and the success of the expedition.

The Bear was built in Gree-noch, Scotland* for the Arctic sealing and whaling trade. She was built of sturdy English oak and very much after the tradi-tion of an old man o'war except that she was more heavily plan-ked under the water line to en-able her to survive the crushing ice pressure of an icebound si-tuation. Her bulwarks and bot-tom were actually forty-two in-ches thick--that is three and a half feet of almost solid oak!

Her hull comprised three lay-ers of eight-inch planking, in-side of which was the line of fourteen-inch square ribs spaced at five to six inches. Then inside that was another layer of eight-inch planking which served as the floor of the coal bunkers. I believe that origi-nally all three outer plankings were caulked as well as the inner planking. But her usual seasonal refit included recaulk-ing the outer planking to keep out the sea, and the innermost planking to prevent coal dust from seeping down and clogging the bilges. * near Glasgow.

A couple of hundred pigs below decks

Deep grooves were formed in the underside of the ribs where the ribs joined the keelson to create limber holes which pro-vided a continuous bilge from bow to stern on each side of the keelson.* Screened suction flo-wers on each side were piped to the manual bilge pumps on deck, and to the steam-driven bilge pump located in the engine room. The Bear's basic ballast com-

prised a couple of hundred iron pigs which were stowed along both sides of the keelson and strongly floored over toprevent the pigs from shifting in heavy weather. The main ballast that kept the ship really stable was coal -- hundreds of tons of it. The coal bunkers extended along both sides and outboard of the engine and boiler rooms for al-most the entire length of the ship. There was far more coal aboard than would be needed for one hard season's operation but the idea was that, should she become icebound, the crew could survive comfortably for several years by happily burning their ballast.

The Bear had chalked up sixty years of distinguished service with her bilges remaining clear and her pumps working fine, * see the illustration

Page 4 Adventurers Club 'Tews

MEMORIES OF AN OLD SHIP

probably because she had always been bunkered with good, lumpy anthracite coal. But unfortu-

nately, Byrd had bunkered with

a largely soily, crushed bitu-minous coal while we were pas-sing through Norfolk, Virginia, which turned out to be the cause of our near-disaster. After that event and after we returned to Newport News, it was decided to fit the ship with limber chains.

ship from stem to stern. Their entire life's work is to be pulled a foot or so in one di-rection, then in the opposite direction every few months to clear any clogging in the limber holes, thereby keeping the bil-ges clear.

After we returned to Newport News, the shipwrights at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Co. decided that rather than burrow underthe stoke hold

Post

Keelson

Bilge

Stru

Permanent Ballast (Pigs)

Lfli!er Pl*nkin! Ribs - -

I finch I Planqing

Limber Hole

.CROSS-SECTION OF THE SHIP Now these limber chains wflicfl

were fitted in most of the old cargo-carrying sailing ships, are sizable chains that pass through the limber holes and extend the length of a wooden

and engine room, pull out many of the iron pigs, and try to slide the limber chains through the limber holes, the far sim-pler way would he to tackle the

(Continued on page 12)

July 1989 Page 5

A fliqht Ride by Chet Sidell #734

The lights of Lima stretched beneath us as we climbed into the night sky and headed North to Trujillo. In a few minutes the city disappeared behind us. Inside, the cabin of the Con-stellation was warmly lit. Out-side, faintly visible in the light from the windows there was a dim blur where the big props spun in front of the rum-bling engines. Below was dark-ness only rarely dotted with a tiny cluster of lights.

It was still dark below. No sign of a city or town when a couple of hours later, with en-gines throttled back, we began our descent for the airport at Trujillo. As we banked for our approach I caught a glimpse of a double row of faint lights a-head---the runway---a streak in the darkness with nothing else visible.

This was my first time in Peru, in Lima, and Trujillo. There is often a tiny needle of anxiety mixed with anticipation when you arrive in a totally new country, in this case a country where they spoke a language I didn't know and where there was no person I knew.

The plane stopped beside a

small dimly-lit building. Some stairs were rolled up and I de-scended along with another man. The attendant on the plane as-sured me that this was Trujillo Airport. There was one man on the ground getting our luggage from the plane. When I asked him if there was transportation into town he pointed to a dila-pidated car alongside the buil-ding. He thought the driver would take us into Trujillo.

I wondered if I had gotten off at some forsaken

jungle airstrip

The terminal consisted of one room lit by a single bulb hang- ing on a wire. We found the driver there and he agreed to drive us the 10 or 15 miles in- to Trujillo. As we loaded our bags into the trunk, the plane came roaring down the runway and lifted into the sky. As it disappeared into the night it seemed to be taking with it my connection to civilization. i wondered if this really was Tru-jillo or if I had gotten off the plane by mistake at some forsaken jungle airstrip.

We left the airport or a nar-row gravel road that Proceeded


straight ahead. On both sides there seemed to be nothing but scrub growth. The lights of the car cut a tunnel into the dark-ness ahead.

We bumped along at a moderate rate for about 15 minutes when suddenly, in the middle of the road straight ahead, our head-lights lit up a car. There were no lights on it and as we ap-proached I could see a group of men gathered around it. It ap-peared like we might be in for some trouble. The man sitting next to me muttered an "Oh, oh" and looked at me. I turned to see if there was

enough room between the car and

Suddenly it occurred to me that this was a set up and the driver was in on it.

the ditch to pass. I expected our driver to step on the gas and get by. When I realized he was slowing down it suddenly occurred to me that perhaps it was a set-up and he was in on it. I assumed it was a holdup.

I only hoped that they would be satisfied taking our luggage, money and cameras and let us go. The thought flashed through my mind that this might not even be Trujillo. My only thread of assurance came from the fact that the airport attendant knew we Were in the car. But maybe

he was also in on the business. By the time these thoughts

had flashed through my mind our car had come to a stop about 50 feet behind the other car and 6 men were running back toward us. They split and 3 came on each side. Our windows were open and the next thing I knew a couple of heads were poked in on each side and there was a lot of ra-pid fire Spanish!

At any moment I expected to be pulled out of the car. Our driver did not seem particular-ly alarmed. This tended to con-firm my feelings that he might be in collusion with them. The loud conversation in Spanish went back and forth for several minutes--it seemed an hour.

From time to time our driver made a comment and then sudden-ly the talking stopped and the men pulled their heads out of the car and stepped back. Slow-ly we started forward, crept carefully between their car and the ditch and headed down the empty road again. I turned and looked back. Everything was dark. Already I could scarcely make Out the other car and the men.

"What was that all about?" I asked the driver. "They were stalled---maybe no gas, maybe the engine. They wanted me to

(Continued on page 13)

July 1989 Page 7

We Heard From Our travelling Finn, Sven...

LONDON, May 6, 6tom the Savage. Cab. Many g&e.e.tivig-o (,/Lom au the Savage.4 in London. Witt g-Lve. you a ite.po'tt when I come. back.

Che.vis, Sven #978

COPENHAGEN, May 12 Geeing 'tom the Adve.vivt C-tab o5 Copenhagen. Sven #978

(The card was signed by twenty members of the Copenhagen Club)

HELSINKI, May 24 8ILo-the.n. Adve.n-tivtv-, The Fin-t-Lh gikt4 cvte. Atitt the mo-6-t

in the would, which we have pwve.d to OWL gite.at

ti-ac-Lori, but the booze. L4 way -too e.xpe.n-6-Lve.. Ne.vvi-

Che.euo, Sven #978 HavtJ- Mahine.vi #981

REMEMBER THIS

IF YOU'D BE SPARED

TRAINS DON'T WHISTLE

BECAUSE THEY'RE SCARED

BURMA SHAVE

J1UZf(ATGOU, CU1NA, Maq 14 Pe.a't Fe.uow Adue.ntu'tc't', Spent a week at Wotofrlq Panda Re.e.&u'e and jut got o the 73,000 oot Tibetan pate.au. Road and b&idge wahe.d out aU ove.'i. the puace. .'tom ne.aona' now and 'ta-en. Am

,spending the ua-t week in China at J-uzhai.goa in t'Jo'Lthe.'Ln Sichuan P'Lov-nce.. My woutd uie.co&d que.t is tight on ,schedule with atmo't 1,900 spe.c-e.-o oA b-L'td -'te.cokde.d to date.. Se.e. you -soon.

JJjn Ctements #697

In case of AN EMERGEWCY on a Thursday night

while attending a Club meeting, members may be reached

by telephone to

1-818-405-7019

(The Security Officers desk)


CAN YOU DIG IT? by Doug Macdonald *758

A rather unusual experience in

a rather unusual place.

§

Somewhere, out in the baking Borrego Badlands, a group of amateur paleontologists, all volunteers, are unearthing the fossil bones of a mammoth, an elephant like creature that roamed the area thousands of years ago. (I say "somewhere' because unfortunately there are people who would visit the site for souvenirs, or maliciously vandalize the area, for reasons known only to themselves.)

The paleontologists work un-der the direct supervision of Professor George Miller, a mem-ber of the staff of Imperial Valley College. Professor Mil-ler came upon a mass of fossil-ized bones while prospecting for fossils in the Badlands of the Anza-Borrego State Park. (Special permits are required to do this) and knew immedia-tely that hehad found something Of importance.

I had met Professor Miller when the Los Angeles Natural History Museum decided to reopen the La Brea tar pit site on

Wilshire Boulevard, and he was placed in charge of the 'dig' He took an entirely different approach to the problem from that of the original excavators conducting the operation with great thoroughness which resul-ted in the discovery of many small fossils that had been previously overlooked. The in-terest aroused in his project eventually led to the construc-tion of the Page Museum in Han-cock Park, now one of Los Ange-les' major attractions for sci-entist and layman alike.

Having moved to Indio, I con-tacted him and asked if I could join his group. He said yes, but first I would have to re-

July 1989 Page 9

CAN YOU DIG IT?

gister in his Paleontology class at the college so that I could be included in his permits. Once more a student I joined his group in the field.

Literally tons of soil have been removed to uncover the bones, which are then protected with a plaster cast much as you would a broken arm. The jacketed specimens are transported to a laboratory in the town of Borrego Springs where they are cleaned and prepared for study or display.

So far the cranium, mandible, leg bones, assorted ribs and vertebrae, and an almost complete tusk have been recovered. Small bone fragments were submitted for age-dating by the most advanced technology and it seems that our beast is over 400,000 years old.

During its lifetime the area was a savannah lush with grass, trees and abundant water--quite a bit different from the desert we see now. At this writing the exact genus and species of the animal have not been deter-mined. Further study will re-veal it to be a known species or a variation new to science.

Most of the jacketed bones left the site in four-wheel- drive vehicles, but the tusk and cranium were quite another matter, due to their bulk and

1400 pounds were flown out in a

rented helicopter

weight. A helicopter was rented from Skydance Helicopters of El Cajon. Its pilot, Mel Cain, was an artist in the manipulation of his craft. In two separate trips the tusk and cranium were loaded into a net, made fast to a long cable, and flown to the laboratory with absolutely no damage to the specimens.

The maximum lifting capacity of the helicopter was 1500 lbs. so when Mel took off in a cloud of dust with the 1400 lb. cra-nium, he departed tocheers from the volunteers, members of the press and television crews who had been invited to witness this unusual event.

(Reprinted with permission from the LAAC publication MERCURY.)

DOUG MACDONALD - Graduate of Univer-

sity of Notre Dame, 1942. U.S. Marine

Corps Artillery officer 1943-46. Former

Foundation Trustee of the Los Angeles

Museum of Natural History. Participated

in several of the museum's field trips

in the U.S. and Mexico. Discovered two

new species of fossil dogs. Former Di-

rector of Administration of Gernological

Institute of America. Travels in Wes-

tern European countries, Mexico, North

China, Melanesia and Micronesia, Brazil

and South Africa. President in 1981.


Gratitude One amongst us continues to serve for the

betterment of members and individuals and for

the total Club. He achieves with the quality

of his deeds as well as his written words. We

all owe gratitude to Bob Aronoff. He is a

gentleman. Year after year he writes excellent

copy for the ADVENTURERS CLUB NEWS. His abil-

ity to report is enhanced by his amazing memory.

Bob is an editor's right hand and the Club's

Courier of Kind Expressions. I speak for my-

self, but feel certain he has touched all of

US. "Thanks, Bob".

--Al A. Adams

July 1989 Page 11

MORE ABOUT THE BEAR OF (AKT,AND

job from the outside by removing the garboards, then lifting the chain up into the bilges before replacing the garboards.

The garboards, as everyone knows, are the important inner-most planks in a wooden ship, that lie against the keel and structurally merge it to the outer planking.

So, in September 1933 we went into drydock and they started to jackhammer out the garboards. What a surprise they, and all of us, got, when, after the outer eight inches of planking were removed, there was a second planking, and then a third sim- ilar planking to remove before they finally broke into the bilges! Once into there they were able to flush out the remaining tightly packed, almost stone-like coal dust and get on with their job. I I remember that while we were there, the liner, Queen of Ber- muda was also in drydock having a broken tail post replaced. She was one of the two gorgeous ships that used to carry passen-gers between New York and Ber-muda. (All of these adventures occurred long before the days of mass air travel.)

The Queen had a splendid gr-and piano in her luxuriously furnished main saloon; and, be-ing a fair pianist at that time I used to go over and practice

my Bach, Debussy and Chopin ev-ery day while my shipmates ex-plored the fleshpots of Newport News. The stewards, thinking I was a member of the entertaining staff, used to give me afternoon tea with scrumptious sandwiches and pastries. The result was that, more than anyone else, perhaps I was able to sense the vast difference between life on a 19th century square rigger, and making do in a 20th century floating palace!

Then, when I returned to the Rear after each afternoon's fo-ray into the arts, I would climb down into our drydock, gaze up into the deep abyss that had been our garboards, and check the progress of the work. Be-cause of our debacle off Cape Hatteras and our adventures in Newport News,c*r ship lost over a month of valuable time before the breaking of the Ross Sea ice pack. The result was that the expedition cargo ship which was carrying the main bulk of our supplies and all of the dog teams, and for which we were supposed to break an ice channel arrived in the Bay of Whales a week or so before we did.

(To he continued)


A NIGHT RIDE

(Conclusion, from page 7) push them. I tell them too far, five miles to town. I tell them I send a friend with a truck when I get to town." I looked

at the other man and he looked

at me and we both grinned with a sign of relief.

Fifteen minutes later we top-ped a rise and there were the lights of Trujillo. (C.M.S.)

TEN YEARS AGO - JULY 1979

July 5. 1979 - First Vice President Bob Sil-

ver had this to say to the mem-bers assembled at 706 West Pico Boulevard: "Some of the excite-ment of the programs that we have is because the speaker can turn a key inside each of us and we then re-live some of the adventures we have had or would like to have."

The program was on The Gala-pagos and the Moon by our guest speaker Jack Green.

July 12. 1979 - A most interesting program on

Sailing in the Kingdom of Tonga with reports by Al Adams and Ken Brock

July 19, 1979 - George Manchester recounted

some of his experiences while helping to build the U.S. Air Force Base at Thule, Greenland.

John Goddard had just retur-ned from a retracing of his route down the Nile River some thirty years before.

July 26, 1979 - Cob Harms gave us a first-

hand report of the flight across the English Channel by the Gos-samer Albatross.

Bob Silver provided his own program as he told of the many interesting experiences while travelling on foot through Pak-istan and Afghanistan.

AN IMPORTANT MEMORANDUM FROM THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS IS ON THE

INSIDE BACK COVER. PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO READ IT.

July 1989 Page 13

WE HEARD FROM OUR TRAVELING MEMBERS.....

THAlLA!JV, May 10, 1989

To all, 7 have just te6t the Repab-

c o4 China two day6 ago and I am now on a beach o' Phuize.t iand, Thailand. I wao with Pe-tvt Klaa on the tt Amvt- can Expedition to Mu.LL and the

Moun,tan4 o4 Chanado'Lje.. (See Joeph Rock a&tLc-ees, Nat. Geog. Mag. 1921, 1930). Next Hong Kong, then Japan. O./.LU tel mo'te £a-tvt.

F'td Koyen #985

§

JAKARTA, TMPOWESIA, May 23, 1989 Ve.a't. Gang,

Thi my 6econd vL4-Lt to Indone6-La in about a yeak. No a-5 exciting a4 the 6iut time when I I.2ue.d with a .stone age. t&.Lbe in I't.Lan Jaya OIL going up to the p&.LmAtLve peopI.e up the iL'e.& in 13o4ne.o but i'm buying t4:je. c/Lazy 6ome. Buddha6 to add to my coUect-Lon o6 the OiLe.rt,t. I'm 6titt having a wonde.it6aI. -ttrne..

Bob &tahrn6 #967

INVONES7A, May 1989

GIL eet-Lng, (ULll ma-Lt thi6 6,,tom LLmoit,

&ztL. invLe.tLng. Reco'Lde.d mach otiange mu-Lc and tots o pActuke.o. Had I.unch with the Vkagou o4 Komodo and went

no'theLLng in the ite.eç.o Ü(ç Komodo. In a wokd--an.ta-o-t-Lc! Stopping at -matt vittagu on Sa-tonda, Savu, Samba and FIo'Le. -oo 4ak. A they 4ay in indo- neLan, SeJama-t MaI.an,

Bob 8tne.'t #707

§

INTRODUCING OUR NEWEST MEMBER

EDWARD A. MORRIS #1003

ATTORNEY, FORMER PRESIDENT UCSB. REGENT, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFOR-NIA 1974-75. PUBLISHED SEVERAL ARTICLES ON LAW AND INSURANCE, SCIENCE, AND WEATHER. SPENT 4 MONTHS SAILING WITH HIS WIFE AND FIVE CHILDREN EXPLORING THE UNINHABITED ISLANDS OF CORTEZ. HAS TRAVELLED IN HAITI, INDONE-SIA, KOREA) AND THE PHILIPPINES IN SEARCH OF MATERIAL FOR HIS ROOK.

PLEASE DON'T FORGET-- The mailing address for all correspondence with the Club is:

P. 0. Box 15791, Los ."qeles, CA 90015


H

Our Thursday Nights Programs A RECORDING OF HISTORY

April 27, 1989 April 27. 1989 - The Program

Reported by Bob Aronoff #837

T Everyone was especially de-lighted to see a vigorous, if slightly unsteady Carroll Craig. And who was by his side? Dean Pore, of course. These two camel buddies made it to the Club tonight and it was nice to see them both.

I Bill Hawkinson brought along his usual retinue of friends to see his program.

¶ Bil Brown continues to make fine progress with his hand. No longer is it in a sling and he is coming back with all the cou-rage and strength that any one could hope for.

¶ Mark Lane was by to see the new quarters tonight. Nice to see Mark.

1 A good word needs to be put in here for Wanda. She has been making some of the most deli-cious soups you can ever imagine. Everyone digs in for seconds as for some reason, she's been ha-ving a soup derby of sorts.

I Bob Brahms was heard from, from the far reaches of Morocco. You can justbet he'll have some interesting stories when he re-turns.

"12,000 MILES IN SOUTH AFRICA" with Bill Hawkinson #798

Bill Hawkinson, it must be admitted, is a step slower these days. He can do anything any-one else can do ... but catch a thief. Bill roamed his way a- round through a series of Afri-can nations we seldom get to see plus a good look at Ascension Island.

Bill is such a good natured lover of humanity that he makes it well with everyone. In the USA (Union of South Africa is its official tag) Bill met a master of sorts. Having comple-ted his extensive sojourn, it was time to turn the old faith-ful Peugeot over to a new, car-ing master. A few words here and there as a kind of adverti-sing turned up some curious po-tential buyers and one "lurkir' in the bushes". (For the coa- plete story, read Bill's story starting on page 3 of our June 1989 issue. Ed.)

SPRING HAS COME, THE GRASS HAS RIZ WHERE LAST YEAR'S

CARELESS DRIVER IS. BURMA SHAVE

July 1989 Page 15

OUR THURSDAY NIGHT'S PROGRAMS

April 20, 1989

Reported by Bob Aronoff #837

I Sven Wahiroos completed a magnificent looking book on his second love "Mutiny and Romance in the South Seas" on the occasion of the Bicentennial of the mutiny on the Bounty. Sven has always regaled the members with his knowledge of, and trips to, the South Seas but especially about the lore of the Bounty.

Sven was gracious with his time as he autographed his book for the members who were able to get a copy. Sven is off to Eu-rope soon where he will visit the Savage Club in London as well as stopping off at the Co-penhagen Club, too. Sven is on his way back to Finland where he is anxiously looking forward to the 40th class reunion with his high school chums. I Milt Valois let us in on some fascinating aspects of his time on a yacht when he assisted in taking it from Acapulco to Cabo San Lucas. On another trip, he couldn't make it and the inex-perienced crew that was handling the yacht came to bad luck when it cracked up against the rocks of Cabo San Lucas. After a 15-year hiatus, Milt returned to visit the Cabo area and found much had changed.

If Bob Corey is going to be joi-

ning the friendship force for a 3-week stay with families in Scandinavia this summer.

I Ralph White was over to in-spect the new quarters with sto-ries of his recent ventures on a Soviet ship as its guest. He can even pop off a few words of Russian, the meaning of which the girls are already leery of

knowing Ralph.

I Bil Brown's hand is wired up in such a way that you would think some-one might nod to him to "pull the trigger". He has specially wired sets of appara-tus which is applied to his f in-gers in different positions for set periods of the day. The purpose being to give movement, stretching and general exercise for his muscles in the hand as he makes the journey back to full usage. For a one-hander, Bil gets around so well that you wouldn't even know his right wing is not what it used to be.

¶ Dick McDartney and Dwayne

Merry joined us again this eve-ning. Nice to see you, fellas. Doug MacDonald was in from Indio last week too.

I Frank Haigler came across a book by Kodak describing the early days of the camera indus-try. In it he spotted a couple of pictures of our departed mem-ber Gil Morgan.


OUR THURSDAY NIGHT PROGRAMS

May 18, 1989

Reported by Bob Zeman #878

I Bob Brahms gave us a synopsis of his 3-week trip seeing the sights in Morocco. For Bob, no trip is complete without bring-ing down to the Club many pieces of local craftworks. In this case he had a small case made of camel skins. Bob and his family are off again. Tomorrow they go to Java for two weeks.

A number of members from afar graced the Club with their at-tendance: Howard Gee, Bill Ne-thery, Dick Steppe, John Mahon, Cob Harms and Doug McDonald.

I It is with sadness we report the demise of Howard Gee's wife to cancer last month. Our deep-est sympathy to Howard and the Gee family.

The Program -

"FROM JENNYS TO JETS--THE STORY OF THE AIRPLANE"

with guest Lawrence Craighie

Lawrence Craighie's second birthday was six weeks after the Wright Brothers' first flight. So his lifetime has spanned the age of flight. In fact, Law- rence had a picture of him stan-ding with Orville Wright when Orville saw his first jet plane.

Lawrence told the history of

the jet airplane, focusing on two men -- a Britisher named Frank Whittleand a German named Pabst Von Ohain, who each inde-pendently developed the jet en-gine in their countries.

Whittle started in the late 1920's but received little go- vernmental and financial sup-port. His first idea was rejec-ted by the British military. But he continued and finally his work resulted in the Glos-ter Meteor, the Allies only jet plane in WWII.

Von Ohain started later but received much help from Heinkel. The Germans eventually built 1200 Me262's but only 200 flew due to shortage of pilots.

The first U.S. jet was built by Bell and was a good plane but underpowered, according to Lawrence. Even though the U.S. was given the British designs progress was slow because of severe security restrictions.

But on October 1, 1942, he was in the right place at the right time. He became the first U.S. military jet pilot when he flew the XP59 at Muroc Dry Lake.

At 87 years old Craighie had many experiences. He graduated from West Point in 1923 and la-ter became a general. He served in Italy and Corsica during W112 and earned the Distinguished Flying Cross. He still fits in

July 1989 Page 17


June 1, 1989 -

Reported by Bob Williams *905

§ Another fine meeting in our handsome and comfortable tempo-rary headquarters. Forty-one of us turned out fora delicious meal served by Mrs. Bronson and her staff--steak, creamed pota-toes, mixed vegetables and cake and ice cream for dessert. What a gem we have in our fine Ca-teress. Those members who live in the Los Angeles area are sure missing out on a lot of good times if you don't attend the meetings regularly. § Our meeting rooms are very adequate to our needs, comfor-table with plenty of privacy and the programs are held in a large, comfortable courtroom complete with padded seats. § Quite a number of guests were in attendance swelling our ranks to nearly 70 people. § John Mahon brought along his two sons and his brother.

(May 18, 1989, concluded)

to his uniform. During his career, he has met

Hap Arnold, Billy Mitchell, Tom Stafford, Howard Hughes, Chuck Yeager, Ivan Kincheloe and Ernst LJdet along with Whittle and Von Ohain and many other famous fly- ers. (Bob Ze'nan)

§ Bill Carr and son/member Bill

Carr Jr. had two guests with them. § John Zane turned out with six guests, all doctors. § Dwayne Merry reported on his plans to attend the Queen's birthday party on June 17th.

§ Bob Brahms (Travelin' Bob) just returned from Indonesia. He spoke of a 2512 hour flight to reach his destination. He visited Java and Bali to see the largest Buddhist temple in the world. Indonesia is the fifth largest country in the world with shopping made relatively easy by 1770 Rupiers to our $1. § Alan Siebert told about his flight with Channing Clark in the Fleetwing Seabird up to Clear Lake, Cal. Channing has located another owner of an am-phibian plane like his, now lo-cated in Florida. § We missed President Frank Haigler who is in Normandy for a reunion of those who partici-pated in the Normandy Beaches landings on D-Day forty five years ago. § Member Buddy Ebsen #814 is soon to be seen on television in a rather ususual program. He was cast as the original Tin Man in the film The Wizard Of Oz but had to give up the role because of a makeup allergy. (Program for June 1 on the next page)



June 1, 1989 - The Program

A BEHIND THE SCENES LOOK AT THE 1969 LUNAR LANDING

by John Mahon #615

Member John Mahan played a very vital role in the planning and production of the lunar lan-ding modules built for that his-toric voyage.

He showed us an hour-long sound film that he produced for North American Aviation and Grumman Aviation as they prepared to build this amazing and intricate piece of space hard- ware. Even though all the shots of the landing itself were il-lustrations, the actual landing went exactly as projected many months before by John and his crew.

This film was most interes-ting, especially from the stand point that it s something that the general public never saw. We are indeed fortunate (as we are on many, many occasions) to be able to have an inside view on events in history that most people never see. Thanks, John, for a good program.

Maturity is when you turn down the stereo.

Age is when you turn up the heat.

June 15, 1989

Reported by Bob Aronoff

I Bob Mueller is off to Bell- fair, Washington for a summer of R&R from the hectic life of Pasadena. In case you are won-dering, Beilfair is about 15 miles southwest of Bremerton and some 35 miles northwest of Ta-coma. I Dave Yamada is going to be grabbing some time over in Ha-waii. I Cobb Harms got the VIP treat-ment by the US Navy on a LA-SD day trip. I Chet Sidell just got back from an exciting adventure on a 4-man yacht. Chet, his friend and another couple made up the passenger list. I Bob Benner had one humdinger of a trip on the Society Explo-rer to the Indonesian Archipel-ago where he saw 16 islands sel-dom visited by anyone let alone the natives. I President Frank Haigler re-turned from the Normandy beaches with stories of his trip that dwarfed some of the real exper-iences of 1944. Besides France Frank was in England and Ger- many. He reported some highly entertaining experiences such as the French shouting greetings to the returning GI's such as "High Grand-daddy, you've come

July 1989 Page 19


home" and the like. Wherever Frank goes, action is bound to happen. Even when some of it is very serious Frank never leaves the humor out of it.

June 15, 1989 - The Program

DARING ADVENTURES IN PHOTOGRAPHY"

By guest Max Heiweig

An adventurer extraordinaire. With an eye for a photograph, camera on his shoulder this guy will travel. He's one who was once into the drug culture, the booze culture and the environ- mentalist culture. Don't get this fellow wrong, he has also spent time with Don Regan, Ivan Boesky, Fortune 500 presidents, on Indian reservations and has lived with a few women here and there (with great intensity of life). You get the picture I'm trying to convey?

Max showed us his repertoire of shots taken over 15 years of never living too long in one place. He has impressive cre-dits of those for whom his ta-lents were hired. It all star-ted in Pierre Odier's classroom on photography, believe it or not. Max is one of Pierre's graduates.

It was through Pierre's aus-pices that we were treated to an extraordinary insight of che

hurly-burly life of a profes- sional photographer. An inci- sive lookintowhat's behind the camera.

The program itself ranged from black and white to vivid color shots. Whatever kind of pictures Max happened to be af-ter, we saw the best of it. Hu-man expressions, human pathos reflected in the faces of people. On occasion, Max shared with us the conversations he had while taking shots of some big shots. He lived without knowing what tomorrow would bring, some times sleeping in his car for days until anew assignment came along. A great show!

THE VOYAGE OF NAUTI MATILDA

For the first time in four years there was no inhabited vessel inKolonia's Yacht Harbor in Pohnpei (formerly Ponapei). Nauti Matilda was towed out of Pohnpei and cast to the winds. After a number of extensions on his visitor's visa, 68-year-old Australian Ian Jenkins, known locally as the Ancient Mariner, was ordered to leave and single handed his 34-foot cutter with-out an operating engine. Hap-pily, he arrived safely on Guam after a rather turbulent 20-day sail. (From the PACIFIC NEWS, 12/86)

Page 20 Adventurers Club 'ews

MEMORANDUM

TO: Adventurers Club Members FROM: The Officers and Directors DATE: June 14, 1989 SUBJECT: Dinner Reservations, Bar Contributions, etc.

We would like to briefly remind our fellow members of four important points;

(1) Please make a dinner reservation by noon on Wednesdays. (2) Please buy your dinner ticket before 7:00 PM. (3) Support the Club by contributing for drinks. (4) If you have complaints or comments about the dinners or

the bar, direct them to Dave Dahl rather than to the caterers. With respect to the first item, inaccurate reservations have

almost forced us to turn some people away from dinner several times this year. Handling dinner reservations and tickets is a trying job to begin with. An inaccurate reservation list makes it much worse.

Regarding dinner tickets, be sure to buy before 7:00 PM. Under a long-standing rule adopted by the Board of Directors, no reservations are held past 7:00 PM. It doesn't matter whether you are on the standing list or the weekly call-in list, or whether you are socializing at the bar, your reservation is cancelled at 7:00 PM if you haven't bought your dinner ticket. The Board imple-mented this rule long ago so that hopeful diners without reserva-tions would have a fixed time at which they could buy surplus din-ner tickets. If your reservation is cancelled, please don't berate the person selling the dinner tickets--he is bound to abide by the Board's rule.

With the re-introduction of a bar, we are doing a little better on drink contributions. However, we still have not achieved full participation. In order to remain financially sound, the Club needs your contribution of $2.00 per alcoholic drink or $1.00 per non-alcoholic drink.

As a final matter, we are trying very hard to keep our cater-ers happy. The reason is that competing caterers charge much more (usually $15-16 per meal). If you have a compliment, feel free to discuss it with the caterers directly. However, if you have a com-plaint or suggestion for improvement, please direct it to Vice President Dave Dahl. He will see that such remarks are evaluated by the Board and presented to the caterers in a constructive manner.

ADVENTURERS CLUB NEWS Second Class Postage P. 0. Box 15791 paid at Los Angeles, CA 90015 Los Angeles, California

The Adventurers' Club News Jul 1989adventurersclub.org/archives/AC News/AC News Jul 1989.pdf ·...

Documents

Transcript of The Adventurers' Club News Jul 1989adventurersclub.org/archives/AC News/AC News Jul 1989.pdf ·...