Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

Excerpt

She had been flying during the afternoon over Howden, and towards five o’clock a noise was heard at Hull above the clouds. When seen, the airship appeared to be flying a thousand feet up smoothly, and she presented a beautiful picture as she came from behind the white clouds into the sunshine. She was steering in a south-westerly direction towards the River Humber. Just as she reached the Humber the airship seemed to do a nose dive, and in a second the frame was observed to be dented. Immediately afterwards the airship was seen to break into two parts. There were then two terrific explosions, and part of the giant ship descended, falling on to a sandbank in the middle of the Humber, which was at low tide. The back part of the airship remained in the air awhile and floated down, alighting on the other side of the river. Where the airship dropped was halfway across the Humber between Hull and New Holland, on the Lincolnshire side. The disaster was witnessed by thousands of people, who flocked to the Corporation Pier. Debris was seen by the spectators dropping from the ship as it was descending, and the concussion from the two explosions shattered hundreds of windows in the older parts of Hull. A large portion of the foremost part of the airship could be seen completely doubled up upon the sandbank. Numerous tugs set out in the direction of the crumpled mass, with the hope of rendering service, but these could not reach the spot owing to the low tide. Another report by a spectator says that when the airship touched the water one half exploded, and a few seconds later, with a terrific roar, the second half exploded. When the material touched the water a huge mass of flame and smoke was all that could be seen. When the smoke cleared away all that could be seen was about half of the airship projecting above the river.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations:

• ER: East Riding
• GM: Greater Manchester
• NR: North Riding
• NY: North Yorkshire
• SY: South Yorkshire
• WR: West Riding
• WY: West Yorkshire

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Original

The airship R.38, flying over Hull at 5.30 this afternoon, met with disaster. She had been flying during the afternoon over Howden, and towards 5 o’clock a noise was heard at Hull above the clouds. When seen, the airship appeared to be flying a thousand feet up smoothly, and she presented a beautiful picture as she came from behind the white clouds into the sunshine. She was steering in a south-westerly direction towards the River Humber. Just as she reached the Humber the airship seemed to do a nose dive, and in a second the frame was observed to be dented.

Immediately afterwards the airship was seen to break into two parts. There were then two terrific explosions, and part of the giant ship descended, falling on to a sandbank in the middle of the Humber, which was at low tide. The back part of the airship remained in the air awhile and floated down, alighting on the other side of the river. Where the airship dropped was halfway across the Humber between Hull and New Holland, on the Lincolnshire side.

The disaster was witnessed by thousands of people, who flocked to the Corporation Pier. Débris was seen by the spectators dropping from the ship as it was descending, and the concussion from the two explosions shattered hundreds of windows in the older parts of Hull. A large portion of the foremost part of the airship could be seen completely doubled up upon the sandbank. Numerous tugs set out in the direction of the crumpled mass, with the hope of rendering service, but these could not reach the spot owing to the low tide.

Another report by a spectator says that when the airship touched the water one half exploded, and a few seconds later, with a terrific roar, the second half exploded. When the material touched the water a huge mass of flame and smoke was all that could be seen. When the smoke cleared away all that could be seen was about half of the airship projecting above the river.

350 words.

Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Admiralty (5), government department responsible for the Royal Navy until 1964 ·
• Air Ministry (1) ·
• East Riding of Yorkshire (66) ·
• Explosion (7) ·
• Howden (3) ·
• Humber (20) ·
• 📌Kingston upon Hull (65) ·
• Lincolnshire (15) ·
• New Holland, Lincolnshire (1) ·
• R38-class airship (1) ·
• Rigid airship (1) ·
• Royal Air Force (2) ·
• Short Brothers (1) ·
• United States Navy (1) ·
• United States (18) ·
• Work accident (20) ·

All tags.

Similar

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