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Von Wiegand: "Dr. Eckener, veteran air dog that he is, is in rare, fine humor—barometer of the spirit of the crew, the passengers and the giant ship itself. . . . He is bending over a chart on the dining room table, as unconcerned as any of the other officers."
Wilkins: "What can I write? I can do no more than skeletonize."
Playboy Leeds stayed up all night "to see the dawn over Nantucket."
First Day. Lady Drummond Hay rose first the next morning and went shouting through the passageways: "I was first up of all. I'm hungry. You'd better get up or you'll miss breakfast." Passengers Leeds, Richards, paid no heed, slept until luncheon. Sir Hubert Wilkins, always taciturn, apologized for his large breakfast appetite, settled down to read a book.
The French liner Rochambeau, then the U. S. liner Roosevelt glided into sight beneath, like shavings on a river. No one on the Zeppelin could hear the passengers' futile hails.
Lady Drummond Hay, in knickers and leather flying coat, "clambered squirrel-like" (Von Wiegand description) along the girders of the ship's hull. She carried a Boston Bull pup, who was cold and, she decided, lonesome. Sir Hubert Wilkins clambered with her. Her cloth cat mascot remained in her cabin.
Alexander H. Godfrey, Boston broker, a passenger, excited himself by wirelessing a stock-purchase order.
Second Day. The second night out the ship ran into low clouds, descended to 600 feet above the sea in order to pass under them, could not, so ascended to 1,000 feet. Brilliant cabin lights threw the silhouettes of passengers against the clouds. Passengers played with their shadows. Commander Eckener went to bed. So did the passengers.
Journalist Von Wiegand awoke towards daylight and ran out on the navigating bridge in his pajamas. He had "sensed immediately a thrill in the air." The ship was making 105 m.p.h. with the boost from a tail wind.
That night the Scilly Islands, then the English mainland hove into sight. Journalist Von Wiegand radioed: "Land. It is Land's End. It is England. We have crossed the Atlantic. It is one o'clock in the morning, 42 hours and 42 minutes after we left Lakehurst. . . . A peaceful Zeppelin—over England—the first since the War. . . . All day long we have been trembling with excitement."
Third Day. At Paris, drowsy tourists and blowsy workpeople heard a hum and saw the Graf Zeppelin in the morning sky. She soared around the city's centre, then wafted towards Friedrichshafen.
It was Germany's Constitution Day. Berlin authorities pleaded by wireless for Commander Eckener to have the Graf Zeppelin salute their city as it did Manhattan and Paris. But the day was also Commander Eckener's 61st birthday and he wished to celebrate it at home. So directly to Friedrichshafen he took his airship.
Shortly after noon Germany time, 55 hours after she left Lakehurst, the Graf Zeppelin landed. A multitudinous crowd on the ground, fences, poles, roofs and steeples screamed joyously. Passengers debarked quickly. Count Albrecht Montgelas carried a fat bundle. It contained 52 ears of golden bantam corn, bon voyage gift of Mrs. William Crapo Durant. He fed them to his comrades that evening.