Climber720 --
The August 14, 1928 arrival of Ile de France was preceded by its mail
plane, which was the "first line-to-pier mail plane" usage, according
to the New York Times. The plane was launched from about 350 miles at
sea and beat the ship (then one of the fastest in service) by 24
hours.
The plane was piloted by Louis Domougeot and was a Liore & Olivier
biplane. It had a Gnome Rhone Jupiter 480 hsp. engine. Mail that
used this special airmail service had a premium of $0.60 for the
faster delivery. There are pictures of the plane and its crew in the
August 14, 1928 New York Times.
The French liner used the mail plane in both directions, getting mail
to faster, as well. On September 13, 1928 there was a near disaster
as the mail plane disappeared off England for about 24 hours. The
plane apparently was damaged on launch and in this case the Ile de
France arrived in port -- but the plane was missing. It was found on
Sept. 14 and the crew of three were fine, though they suffered from
exposure.
I used the New York Times text search to find the shipping arrivals
and departures from among 1,000 articles on the Ile de France during
this period. The regularly scheduled route shows the passenger liner
sailing from Le Havre to Plymouth, England, and then on to New York
City. The scheduled departure from New York was at midnight, though
occasionally when the ship was full it would leave as early as 7 p.m.
(5 hours early).
The Times is available with an excellent free-text search via Proquest
Historical Newspapers, a fee-based service that is available at no
charge from many public libraries.
To make the list easier to read, I've put it in a spreadsheet. You
may want to print or download a copy of this spreadsheet, in case this
server should periodically be unavailable. Your browser should be
able to view this file, even if you don't have a copy of Microsoft
Excel on your computer:
"Ile de France Sailings" (Omnivorous-GA, Nov. 20, 2003)
http://www.mooneyevents.com/ile.xls
Reading through the NY Times articles and headlines of the era is a
lesson in history. Ambassadors traveled aboard the Ile de France;
customs agents were continually confiscating alcohol from passengers
and the ship during Prohibition; the stock market crash that set off
the Great Depression occurs; Madame Curie visits the U.S.; and the
mail plane itself was making history.
Google search strategy:
Use Proquest Historical Newspapers to access the New York Times, which
during the era had a weekly "Shipping and Mails" column that
documented arrivals of ships.
And finally, just as an aside, the oldest item in our house is a map
of Ile de France dated 1713.
Best regards,
Omnivorous-GA |
