(De notre correspondant)
Cardiff, la nuit de mercredi.
Dans les premières heures de ce matin un aéronef a été vu depuis les docks de Cardiff, venant de la direction de Newport. Il a pris une courbe au-dessus des docks à une hauteur estimée variablement de 600 pieds à 1/2 mile, puis est passé au-dessus du Canal de Bristol en direction de Weston. L'aéronef brûlait 2 lumières alors qu'il passait au-dessus de Cardiff, mais lorsqu'il sortit au-dessus du Canal celles-ci étaient soudainement éteintes. Official cognisance was taken of its presence par Charles Westlake, signalman at the King's Junction of the Alexandra Dark, qui reported as follows:
A 1 h 15 ce matin, le 19 mai, alors que attending to my duty signalling trains at the King's Junction Queen Alexandra Dock, I was startled by a weird object flying in the air. En apparence il représentait une forme de bateau ou de cigare, faisant un bruit de sifflement. Il était éclairé par 2 lumières, qui pouvaient être clairement vues. Il se déplaçait à grande vitesse, et était élevé à une distance de 1/2 mile, venant de l'est.
Westlake, en réponse aux questions, a dit par la suite que l'ensemble du corps de l'aéronef n'avait été visible que 2 ou 3 mn, et puis que les lumières avaient disparu.
Le signalement du signalman confirmé
At the time a number of men, many of them highly intelligent dock officials and coal trimmers working on the steamer Arndale, were about, and they all saw the airship. The facts as set forth by Signalman Westlake are testified to by W. Morrison, pointsman ; C. Harwood, traffic foreman ; W. John, boxman ; C. Hayman, J. Rogers, and C. Bray, mal tippers ; and F. Smith, the acting mate of the Arndale. Several of these have since been interviewed.
Harwood, the traffic foreman, ridiculed the suggestion that there could be any doubt about the reality of the airship, adding:?
We could not all be mistaken. It took a wide curve from the direction of Newport, and though high up it could be plainly seen against the clear sky, even if it had not been lit up by the two lights which it carried, and we all heard distinctly the whirr of its driving gear. It seemed to hover over the docks for a few seconds, and then swept away across Channel, and the lights were extinguished as it passed away in the eastward. We could not see those on board. The airship was too high up for that at night ; but it was plain that it was a big ariship with the usual cigar-shaped balloon.
W. John, one of the coal tippers, corroborated this statement, and added:?
We were having supper when the throb of the motor above attracted our attention, and looking up we saw by the two lights on the airship the trellis work round the balloon. We all left our suppers, and went out into the pad to have a good look at it. It was cigar-shaped, and travelling at a very high speed.
W. Morrison, the pointsman, said:?
I had a full view of it for a minute. As long as they kept the lights burning you could follow the flight across the Channel quite distinctly.
All the eyewitnesses?and there must have been a couple of dozen who saw the airship?are agreed upon the main facts as to the course of the airship, and the fact that it travelled very fast and was under perfect control ; but there is not unnaturally some diversity of opinion as to its height above the ground and as to the time during which it remained visible. Careful inquiries from incoming steamers and from Weston, towards which it was travelling when last seen, have failed to elicit any news of its subsequent whereabouts.
A report is in circulation that the airship was seen by some inhabitants of the Cathays district of Cardiff shortly before eleven o'clock on Tuesday evening, but of this I have been unable to obtain any corroborative evidence. The inhabitants of Cardiff are conversant with the appareance of an airship, as one was built in Cardiff two or three years ago in a big shed upoin the East Moors, from which numerous experiments took place. Inquiries go to show that the airship seen last night did not come from any part of the counties of Glamorgad or Monmouth. Naturally enough, tremendous interest has bee, manifested throughout the district, and in some quarters a feeling of unrest has been created, because it is generally recognised that in the event of invasion the Welsh coal parts would represent a vital spot of cosncsts strategical importance.
A Cardiff Theory
A Cardiff man , who has made a study of aerial navigation for many years past, and