FROM LONDON TO AUSTRALIA BY AEROPLANE 



30 



Photograph by S. P. Stambach 



THE "SHIP OF ULYSSES," ISLAND OF CORFU,, GREECE 



Pontikonisi ('"Mouse Island"), which lies at the entrance to the harbor of Corfu, accord- 

 ing to tradition, was the Phaeacian ship which brought Ulysses to Ithaca, and was afterward 

 turned into stone by the infuriated Poseidon. "First we flew east to the heel of Italy, and 

 then headed across the open sea to the Island of Corfu. . . . Almost before we realized 

 it, Corfu loomed up in the mist" (see text, page 265). 



found, to our dismay, that the aero- 

 drome looked more like a lake than a 

 landing ground. However, I started up 

 the engines and endeavored to taxi into 

 the wind, but the machine became badly 

 bogged, the wheels refusing to budge an 

 inch. 



A force of thirty Italian mechanics 

 came to help us, but it took us an hour 

 and a half to extricate the machine. Our 

 difficulties in getting anything like "team- 

 work'' were increased by our lack of 

 knowledge of Italian, and Sergeant Ben- 

 nett amused us greatly by breaking into 

 Arabic, with all the French he knew 

 sifted in. A second attempt also re- 

 sulted in failure, and by the time the ma- 

 chine had been dug out I came to the 

 conclusion that it was hopeless to try to 

 leave that day. It was still raining, so 

 we covered up the engines and reluc- 

 tantly returned to the town, soaking wet 

 and grimed with mud. 



SEEING PISA 



Late in the afternoon the rain ceased, 

 so my brother and I went sight-seeing. 

 We visited the usual hackneyed tourist 



sites, including the famous Leaning 

 Tower. Elections were in progress and 

 the whole town was swayed with ex- 

 citement. We attracted much attention 

 walking about in uniform ; for, besides 

 Captain Home, we were the only British 

 officers in Pisa. 



BENNETT'S FLYING LEAP 



We were cheerful, for we had hopes 

 that the water would drain off the aero- 

 drome by the following morning, but 

 once more we awoke to disappointment. 

 Drizzling rain and a cold south wind 

 ushered in the new day. However, we 

 went down to the aerodrome, determined 

 to get the machine into the air somehow. 



My brother and I walked over the aero- 

 drome, stamping in the mud to try to 

 find a hard track for the machine. We 

 got very wet. but managed to find a path- 

 way with a fairly hard surface. 



All went well until I swung the ma- 

 chine round, just preparatory to opening 

 the engines full out for getting oft. In 

 doing this sharp turn, one wheel became 

 a pivot in the mud and stuck fast ; so 

 once more we were badly bosfSfed. Our 



