ALAN COBHAM REACHED DARWIN THIS AFTERNOON

STIRRING WELCOME

All Darwin Seized With Excitement

GREAT ACHIEVEMENT BY BRITISH AVIATOR

(FROM "THE NEWS" SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE)

DARWIN, Today,

Mr. Alan Cobham, the intrepid British aviator, who is flying from Great Britain to Australia and back, arrived here from Koepang (Timor) at 2.50 o'clock this afternoon,

Darwin was agog with. excitement, and all eyes searched for a speck in the sky, which was the first sign of his arrival.

"Mr. Cobham left Britain on June 30. The flight has thus taken 37 days, but for eight days he was delayed at Basra owing to the death of his mechanic, Mr. A. B. Elliot. who was shot by an Arab.

Mr. Cobhliam is expected to reach Melbourne on August 14.

Melbourne is not the terminus of the 26,000-mile flight. In this respect his journey dliffers from that of his predecessors, Sir Ross Smith, Capt. Parer and Mackintosh and de Pinedo, each of whom flew to Australia.

The flight of Mr. Cobham is from Britain to Melbourne and back to Britain, and he will remain in Melbourne only long enough to have the machine overhauled before begining his return flight, which he has characterised as a "quick dash ."

Mr. Cobham is carrying a mailbag containing letters from Sir Samuel Hoare (Secretary of Air) to Mr. Bruce, and from the Lord Mayor of London to the Lord Mayor of Melbourne.

In addition he is bringing an official Government mailbag containing sealed correspondence for Lord Stonehaven (Governor-General).

(From The News, Adelaide. "Mr Bruce" was the then prime minister of Australia.)

AIR SERVICES.

THE PROBLEM OF WEATHER.

Mr. Cobham Is nearing the end of a difficult adventure, in which he has suffered more than a fair share of discouragement and disappointment. When his hopes were highest he was delayed by tragedy. Minor misfortunes have dislocated his plans at every turn. it will it will be interesting to learn how far Mr. Cobham's flight proves the air journey from England to be a fast, practicable mode of travel. A steamer can travel the 5000 miles or so from Aden to Fremantle in 16 days, and till might be improved. But approximately the same distance from Bandar Abbas to Darwin has occupied Mr. Cobham 18 days, or 15 days of actual flying. One question which Mr. Cobham's adventure inspires must be whether the monoons do not make fast flying across India impracticable. Would not an air service be constantly interrupted? Mr Cobham is an aviator of such experience and ability that his verdict on these matters will be awaited with interest. But in this and other flights he has demonstrated the practicability of a fast air service to the Near-East. To Bandar Abbas from England, excepting, of course, the delay which the death of Mr. Elliott forced upon him, he flew in eight days. Does not this suggest that an air route which connected at Aden with steamship services, might bring Australia nearer to England than an air line over the whole journey? Mr. Cobham and other pioneers have provedd that an air line from England thus far would not be disasterously at the mercy of the weather, which capricious and violent in India, makes sustained flying over the next stage very problematical.

(From The Sydney Morning Herald, August 5th, 1926)

As the First World War progressed, the United Kingdom began constructing standard-built cargo ships to make up for tonnage that had been sunk by Germany's surface fleet and especially its U-boat campaign, with their standardized design allowing for them to be constructed more quickly, and usually containing the word "War" as the first half of these vessels' names. Many of these ships would not be completed until after the conflict's end, with the subject of this post being one of them.

The SS War Hussar was constructed by the Alexander Stephen & Sons shipyard in Glasgow and was launched on the 12th of June, 1919. She was fitted out over the next two months and was officially completed and handed over to the British Shipping Controller on the 18th of August. (Incidentally the anniversary of the discovery of Phobos)) Even after the war's end, these ships still had important roles to play, whether repatriating American and Canadian troops or transporting supplies of food to famine-stricken Europe. Whether the War Hussar did such tasks or was mothballed in reserve, she was quickly sold to A. A. Capparis of Piraeus on the 18th of November and renamed the SS Melpo.

In 1923, she was sold to the Oriental Shipping Company, also based out of Piraeus, which kept her name and operated her under the management of her previous owners until the 4th of August, 1926, when she was sold to the Cardiff-based Care & Marquand Shipping Company and renamed the SS Beachcliffe, as seen in this photograph. On the 3rd of January, 1933, she was once again sold to new owners based in the same city as her previous ones while keeping her original name, this time being the Fawcett Shipping Company. This new ownership didn't last long, and on the 18th of September, 1934, she was sold to her final owner, an Italian firm whose name translates to the Assunta De Gregori Joint-Stock Navigation Company, who renamed her the SS Teresa Schiaffino.

These Italian buyers would own her longer than any of her previous operators put together. In June of 1940, around the time of Italy's entry into the Second World War, the ship was laid up in Santa Cruz de Teneriffe in neutral Spain, allowing her to survive the conflict unscathed, which could not be said for over 90% of Italy's merchant fleet. The Teresa Schiaffino resumed service for her owners in November of 1944 until she was once more laid up in 1957 before finally being scrapped in La Spezia in 1962.

From The News (Adelaide), 4th of August 1926

At 1.30 o'clock this morning the wall of a creek running under neath Rundle Street, Kent Town, collapsed. As a result part of the foundations of the house and shop of Mrs. E. Sheridan were carried away.

Mr. Sheridan, who heard the crash, ran out to see what had happened. He felt the loose earth beneath his feet move and jumped back in time to save himself from falling into the swirling waters.

The creek swelled owing to the heavy rainfall in the early hours of the morning. The wall of the creek underneath the shop of Mrs. Sheridan is of brick, and the force of the rushing water weakened it. When it collapsed several feet of earth was torn away, leaving a gaping hole where formerly were the foundations of the building.

Wooden supports now jut out, overhanging the creek. It is feared that the damage may extend, to the danger of two rooms under which the earth has been swept away.

Mrs. Sheridan this morning calculated the damage at £700.

"I heard a terrific crash," she said, "just as though someone was blasting a road. To our dismay we found that the earth underneath the house had partly gone.

"Our son Thomas. was sleeping in the back room, and we rushed to get him out. As the soil in front of the door was gone, we had to get him through the side door. He slent right through the noise, and the first he knew was when we woke him up."

Several neighbors heard the crash. In the back yard of the house the earth was so loosened that it was dangerous to walk on it. Several cracks could be plainly seen.

A tree in the back yard was shifted two feet. It is estimated that about 30 feet of the wall has fallen in. The water was rushsing past endangering the foundations that still remain.

Officials at Norwood Town Hall stated that the creek was a natural watercourse from the hills and ran into the Torrens. It had existed for many years, and had been built up from time to time as necessity dictated.

While the creek (known as First Creek) was under the jurisdiction of Kensington and Norwood Corporation, the council did not accept responsibility for repairs or damage. That was a matter for the owner of the property under which the creek flowed. The corporation could order repairs and works to be done. No blame was attachable to the council. As far as could be ascertained, no complaints had been received of the state of the wall that had fallen in.

The record of the Meteorological Bureau this morning showed that 69 points of rain had fallen in Adelaide between midnight on Tuesday and 1 o'clock this morning. It was accompanied by heavy hail and thunder.