22nd April 1934
Pilot helps yacht in distress
When Flight Lieutenant Eckersley Maslin spotted a yacht in distress while flying his passenger aircraft from Jersey to Heston Airport, he dropped down low to see if he could help. In fact, he was so low that he and his passengers could clearly make out the people on deck signalling that they were stranded. The vessel was a 50-ton motor yacht called Cormorant, with six passengers aboard and drifting without any power.
Maslin had been closing on the Isle of Wight, so he flew on towards the mainland and, spotting another craft nearby, descended again and made a series of signals to indicate that Cormorant was nearby and in need of assistance. He then flew to Heston as quickly as his plane could manage, contacted the Admiralty and told them to radio the lifeboat. In the end, Cormorant was rescued by a steamer, which threw her a line and towed her back to the mainland.
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Other events that occured in April
Historian George Balleine is born
- George Balleine was honorary librarian of the Société Jersiaise, which gave him the opportunity to produce written works on Jersey’s history.
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British European gobbles up Jersey Airways
- Jersey Airways had been flying between the island and the mainland for 14 years when it became part of the larger British European Airways.
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Race car crash kills driver and spectators
- A leading light in the world of motor racing was killed when he skidded and crashed his Bugatti into a house at Jersey's Marquand’s Corner.
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The St Saviour wireless case show trial
- By 1943, the war was turning against Germany, and its forces realised they needed to control the flow of information. They banned radios.
- Read more…