Business & Finance: Rich Cargo

One rainy midnight last week the great German dirigible Hindenburg rose from her moorings at Lakehurst, N. J., for her tenth,and final 1936 crossing of the Atlantic eastward. Just before she soared away her massive designer, Dr. Hugo Eckener, celebrated a summer of perfect performance with a bit of perfect publicity. On an invitation cruise over six Eastern States he carried 84 potent U. S. industrialists, Government officials and financiers, as a demonstration of lighter-than-air transport to those best able to do something about it (see p. 87).

Many more than 84 invitations had been sent out by Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey’s Vice President Everit Jay Sadler, who arranged the cruise. Among those who could not or would not go were Henry Ford, Walter P. Chrysler, Alfred P. Sloan Jr., Walter C. Teagle. Among those who could and did were Cord Corp.’s President Lucius B. Manning, TWA’s President Jack Frye, De Soto Motor’s President Byron C. Foy, Goodyear Tire & Rubber’s President Paul W. Litchfeld, President Thomas N. McCarter of Public Service of New Jersey, Eastern Air Lines’ General Manager Edward V. Rickenbacker, Director of Air Commerce Eugene L. Vidal, his assistant Col. J. Carroll Cone, Commander Charles E. Rosendahl, U. S. N., Pan American Airways’ Juan Trippe, Admiral William H. Standley, No. 1 U. S. sailor, and those two inveterate tourists, young Nelson Rockefeller and his uncle, Board Chairman Winthrop Aldrich of Chase National Bank.

Up at dawn’s crack, these gentlemen gathered at Lakehurst before 6 a. m. Loading the wealthiest cargo that ever went aloft, the dirigible circled over Manhattan until a heavy mist burned off enough to give the tourists a view, then headed north up the Hudson River. Over Yonkers at 8:53 a. m. the passengers heard cries from school yards where teachers delayed classes. At Sing Sing, the New York Times reported, “the ship had a different and silent greeting from convicts in the yard.” At the Danbury Fair, barkers, fan dancers and blooded cattle paused to stare with their Connecticut patrons. The dirigible arrived at Boston about noon, circled the city, headed south again toward New York City. Over Long Island Sound happy Captain ErnstLehmann sat down at the piano, played German airs.

At 3 p. m. officeworkers in Manhattan first glimpsed the Hindenburg’s silvery nose. A tail wind sped her on to New Jersey. On a Newark roof a garage mechanic stepped backward to get a better view, crashed through a skylight to his death. The big ship floated over Philadelphia, returned to Lakehurst.

Said Banker Aldrich as he landed: “I have lived an amazing experience.”