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The weather persistently spat drizzle and squall in the face of the proposed flight, holding the aviatrix and her copilot, George Haldeman, at Roosevelt field, L. I. Another aviatrix, Mrs. Francis Grayson, appeared on the scene, ready to snatch the honor of being first woman over by hopping from Old Orchard, Maine. Then, Miss Elder took off—weather or no weather.
They started at dawn, electing a direct course instead of the great circle over New Foundland and Ireland. Storms battered them southward from the start. 500 miles out they were sighted by a passenger ship. They were seen no more that day, that night. Crowds waiting at Le Bourget field, Paris, turned away, glum, morose.
Meanwhile, The American Girl bucked storms. Flying high, flying low, sleet and wind cut into her. Once Miss Elder, unafraid, climber out onto the tail of the ship to balance it. In perilous spells she relieved her co-pilot at the levers. Two thirds of the way across, they veered still further south of their course to avoid a low pressure storm area. Then the oil presure fell. Part of the gasoline supply had been dumped to lighten the ship in its fight against the storm. They knew that their time was short.
After five hours of scouring the sea for help, they sighted the Dutch tanker, S. S. Barendrecht, bound from the Azores to Rotterdam. Circling low they dropped a message on the ship's deck. "How FAR ARE WE FROM LAND AND WHICH WAY?"—Ruth Elder.
On the deck, in large letters, Capt. Goos painted the answer: "true south, 40 west, 360 miles, Terceira, Azores."
Only 520 miles from the Portugese coast the American Girl came down close to the tanker Barendrecht. Even if the oil system had functioned, the gasoline supply was too low to negotiate the distance. The pilots crawled on to the wings of the plane, bobbing precariously on a choppy, fresh-blown sea. Soon both were hauled to the deck of the tanker. . . .
Captain Goos tried to haul up the American Girl, too, but gasoline ran over her hot engine, took fire. The flames shot into a towering pyramid, higher than the rescuing ship. An oil tanker avoids flames. The American Girl was abandoned. Said Miss Elder: "It was like watching an old friend drown."
At Horta, island harbor of the Azores, pilots Elder & Haldeman were welcomed by the entire population (about 3,000). Mrs. George W. Mackey, wife of Western Union Traffic Manager Mackey, lent Miss Elder an evening gown for a reception in her honor. Said the guest: "I have nothing to wear but the clothes on my back but I hope some kind friend will rig me out." Later, she replied "indeed not" when asked if she were too tired to dance. She declined, however, to accompany Friederich Loose, Karl Loewe & Fraulein Dillenz (Viennese actress) on their flight by easy stages from the Azores to the U. S. She wanted to go to Paris first. There, no official welcome was planned. But Miss Elder's coming was known to a gallant populace.