Very often events beyond our control dictate responses we’d not anticipated. Such was the case for one Pan American World Airways flight some eighty-one years ago. President Rosevelt called December 7, 1941 “a date that will live in infamy,” an apt description for the attack on Pearl Harbor. Over 2,400 lives were lost that morning, another thousand were wounded and the US Pacific Fleet was crippled. But, for the crew of one Pan American flight, the attack forced them to do what hadn’t been done before: Fly a commercial airliner around the world. Here’s the beginning of that incredible journey.
The aircraft was a Boeing 314 flying boat, registration NC18602, named Pacific Clipper. It was one of the largest of its day at 106 feet long with a wingspan of 152 feet. Fully fueled and carrying its complement of seventy-four passengers, Pacific Clipper weighed 84,000 pounds, requiring the full power of its four 1,600-horsepower Wright Cyclone Engines to help it break free of the water’s pull and rise into the sky. These flying boats had their advantages in the early decades of aviation. Fixed runway infrastructure was still developing and they often had greater range than their land-based counterparts, making the flying boats better suited for ocean crossings.
On December 7, NC18602 was cruising high above the Pacific. It was just a few hours from landing in the Auckland, New Zealand harbor after having left San Francisco six days earlier. The Boeing 314 was part of the airline’s new and growing service linking the far corners of the Pacific. Onboard were twelve passengers and a crew of ten with veteran Captan Robert Ford in command. Auckland was supposed to be the final leg of their trip before returning to base. In the morning hours though, the radio delivered a message informing those on the flight deck that Pearl Harbor had been attacked by Japanese war planes and suffered heavy losses. America would soon be at war. The stunned crew realized their route back to California was irrevocably cut, and there was no going back.
Pan Am was prepared for this eventuality. Captain Ford had been handed a sealed, “Top Secret” letter just before leaving San Francisco. If war broke out, he was to follow his instructions exactly. At the time, the Boeing 314 was considered state-of-the-art technology. The letter was explicit: If the crew could not deliver the Pacific Clipper to the American military due to attack or imminent capture, then they were to destroy the aircraft. Their fate was secondary. The captain ordered radio silence, and posted lookouts in the navigator's blister mounted in the ceiling of the aircraft’s upper deck. Two hours later, Pacific Clipper touched down smoothly in Auckland harbor. As soon as the passengers exited the plane, the crew began preparations for what was to come next. There would be no more passengers, or first-class service onboard the Pacific Clipper. Going forward, the trip would be focused on escape and survival. The odyssey was just beginning.
After a week in New Zealand, the captain received orders from Pan Am to remove all visible markings from the aircraft and fly west with his crew. His destination was New York City, which meant he would have to fly over some of the most inhospitable lands and seas in the world with which none of the crew was familiar. Worse yet, Captain Ford and his crew were on their own for fuel and supplies. Overloaded with gas, oil, spare parts and provisions, the Pacific Clipper departed Auckland on Dec. 17 and headed for Australia, unsure of its fate. Just before departure, the captain was lucky enough to secure a $500 advance from the local Pan Am ticketing office (about $9,000 today) that would cover food and fuel. Their journey was marked by radio silence. They carried no charts, using only celestial navigation supplemented with an atlas obtained from an Auckland library.
The crew initially backtracked to Noumea, New Caledonia, to pick up several Pan Am station personnel left there when war broke out and then headed west for Australia. Hours later, they put down in Gladstone, north of Brisbane on the Coral Sea. The next day, Captain Ford and the Pacific Clipper crew headed northwest to Darwin. Their next goal was Surabaya, in the Dutch East Indies (present day Indonesia). Keeping their fingers crossed that Japanese forces had not reached this far, the crew of the massive flying boat flew 1,400 miles over open ocean and reached the city but not before they were intercepted by suspicious British fighter aircraft and escorted in to safety after taxiing through mined waters.
The Homeric odyssey continued as the plane flew on to Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. Just before landing there, Ford eased his plane below the clouds only to discover an enemy vessel about 300 feet below him. “All of a sudden there it was, right in front of us, a Japanese submarine!” The captain later recalled. “We could see the crew running for the deck gun.” He quickly pulled back up into the clouds and avoided the incoming enemy fire. On Christmas Eve morning, the Pacific Clipper departed Ceylon, but just as it reached cruising altitude, there was a frightening bang as the number three engine let go. It shuddered in its mount, and as they peered through the windscreen, the crew could see gushes of black oil pouring back over the wing. Captain Ford quickly shut the engine down, and wheeled the plane over into a 180-degree turn, heading back to Ceylon. Less than an hour after takeoff, the Pacific Clipper was back on the waters of Trincomalee Harbor.
The adventures of the Pacific Clipper weren't over yet. I'll tell you all about the rest of their historic journey in a future post.
Until next time...safe travels.
Wow - really the epitome of the "ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country" ... Will await the next instalment without the help of Mr Google!