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Yesterday was when a huge
' dirigible, the Los Angeles, came
out of the western sky aiul
passed over New Bern at 70
miles an hour. Late sleepers
were getting their second nap,
but the motors woke them up.
It was a German-built Zep
pelin, originally christened the
^-3, and made big news when
it crossed the Attantic from
Friedrichshafen to Lakehurst
on its maiden voyage in 81 hours
and 17 minutes. The year was
1924.
Unlike other postwar
dirigibles, American-buUt and
foreign, the Los Angeles was
destined to lead a charmed life
devoid of tragedy. It continued
to cruise serenely, at intervals,
until it was retir^ in 1932.
Several dirigibles were
considerably less fortunate.
Soon after the Los Angeles cast
its shadow on our town, another
American monster of the air
ways, the Shenandoah, was
broken in two by winds near
Caldwell, Ohio, and 14 crew
members perished.
That was only the beginning
of disasters. Two more
dirigibles, built in the United
States like the Shenandoah,
were destroyed in flight. The
Akron went down off the New
Jersey coast during a violent
storm, and 73 of its 76 men
perished. And the Macon fell
into the ocean off California.
Two men died.
Other countries had their
tragedies too, most of them
earlier than ours. Germany’s
Hindenberg was an exception.
Largest of the zeppelins, 803
feet long, it caught fire when it
struck power lines at Lakehurst
in 1937, and burned in less than
30 seconds.
Designed to carry 60 crew
members and 50 passengers,
the craft had 97 persons on
board at the time. Of this
number, 35 were cremated, and
a member of the ground crew
also lost his life.
The grim parade of dirigible
disasters began in 1921 when
England's R-34, first Zeppelin to
fly the Atlantic (1919) wrecked
at its moorings. Fortunately,
there were no fatalities.
That same year, the R-38,
built for the United States by
England, collapsed and burned
over Hull, England, with a loss
of 42 lives. Six months later the
Italian-buUt Roma, temporarily
filled with hydrogen, exploded
over Hampton Roads, Va.,
and 34 crew members died.
Exactly 10 months later, to
the day, a French Zeppelin
renam^ the Dixmude went
down in the Mediterranean,
carrying 52 men to a watery-
grave. Five years later, Italy’s
Italia crash^ en route to the
North Pole, and six of the crew
were killed.
In retrospect, it is difficult to
accept the reasoning of those
who clung tenaciously to their
faith in this type of aircraft.
Much of that faith subsided, at
long last, when England’s RlOl
exploded over France, killing 46
Britishers.
The Los Angeles that flew
over New Bern on an all but
forgotten morning, was, like all
dirigibles. painted with
(Continued on page 8)
OUT OF THE PAST—Pictured here are the New
Bern High School Bears of 1920, first of the
legendary ball clubs coached by Graham A. (Hap)
Barden to state-wide fame. Few in number, with
hardly enough uniforms to go around, they were
known from the mountains to the coast as a team of
exceptional talent and remarkable stamina. A toy
who couldn’t take 60 minutes of rough going in a
bruising battle would have been decid^y out of
place in this crowd. Barden, at the initial practice
session, ordered his aspiring gridders to get nine
hours sleep a night. It required just one full af
ternoon of tough scrimmage to convince die Bruins
they needed all the rest they could possibly get.
What the team lacked in poundage, it made up in
speed and determination, and from this limit^
squad would go several youngsters to reap further
gridiron glory at Trinity (now Duke), the
University of North Carolina, and North Carolina
State. Their coach, of course, would give up
teaching school in favor of law, serve with
distinction in North Carolina’s General Assembly,
and finally become a Congressman from this
district. Hap was a relentless driver, who drilled
the Bears on fundamentals to the point of
exhaustion. “Hard but fair” is the way they
described Barden. To a man they literally wor
shiped him, and the passing of a half century hasn’t
dulled their memories of this man who demanded
much from them, and got it. In the front row, left to
right, are Bob McSorley, Rexford Willis, Pig
Duval, Rudolph Jackson, Caleb Bradham, Louis
Foy, and Redmond Dill. Immediately behincl them,
at each end, are Braxton Pugh and Laurence Stith.
Left to right in the back row are Barden, Charles
Gaskins, Owen Guion Thomas, John Jennette,
Nickey Simpson, and Fred Shipp. Evidently, this
tootograph was snapped on a warm day. You’ll
note raised windows in the bell building and the
Moses Griffln building.
VOLUME 14
NEW BERN, N. C., FRIDAY, MARCH 19, 1971
NUMBER 1
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