A regular feature looking back at what was being printed around 100 years ago in the Bristol Daily Courier. This week’s entry comes from the October 1, 1921 edition of the newspaper.
Flying Boat Damaged By Storm
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The hurricane-like storm of yesterday afternoon did a lot of minor damage in Bristol and the adjacent territory, including the destruction of trees and late crops. The most spectacular damage it did was the partial demolition of Clarence Winter’s hydro-aeroplane.
The flying boat was overturned bodily by the gale which swept up the river, and both its wings were broken.
It will not fly for some time until Mr. Winter secured the parts of replace those broken and otherwise damaged. He expects to be able to get these parts at the U.S. Naval Air Factory at League Island, where he purchased the plane. The parts are probably carried in stock there, but, if they are not, he will have to precure them from the Curtiss Flying Boat Factory in Ithaca, New York.
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The flying boat was anchored in what is now known as “The Marsh,” below Bristol in the direction of Maple Beach and just off the canal basin. Having no hanger accommodations for his aircraft, Mr. Winter has been tying her to ropes and fastening her with anchors securely enough to weather any ordinary blast, but not yesterday’s hurricane.
The wind came roaring up the Delaware River from the southward, and when the first blast hit the aircraft, she shivered and showed signs of leaving her moorings. When the wind set in to blow in earnest, the airboat soon broke its ropes and was blown about 25 or 50 feet in the air. It was carried some distance and fell bottom side up in the marsh. Both wings were broken.
Thomas Harrison, a Radcliffe Street friend of the flying boat’s owner, was coming along in a canoe just about the time the storm started and perceived that the aircraft was in danger of slipping its moorings. He endeavored to fasten them more securely, but he was unable to do so, and had to seek safety when that boat broke loose.
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An advertisement from the October 1, 1921 edition of the Bristol Daily Courier:
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