Radio stars (Oct 1934-Sept 1935)

Rumor lightly speeds it* varying message over the air, but slowly truth comes home. Here are the facte BY JOHN SKINNER Rotofotos, 1 nc. The cabin of the ship's master suggests charm, dignity and authority. The Inside Story of Setl THE seas of the South Pacific, whipped hy the sudden hurricane had been mounting for the past six hours, hurling themselves against the storm-racked schooner Seth Parker. The sails snapped and creaked in the gale. Phillips Lord, master, floundered along the wet deck to the after companionway. Gaining it, he clung to the lifeline, breathing hard, listening to the scream of the wind in the rigging. An ominous rending came to his ears and he thrust his sou'wester back to peer upward through the flying spray. One look was enough. He plunged down the companionway. "All hands !" he yelled. "Foretopmast giving 'way. Stand by with hatchets to cut away the rigging when she goes." He swung to the radio room. "We've got to send it, Sweeny," he cried bitterly to the radio operator. "Can't hold off any longer. It's not so much the ship now. It's the youngsters aboard. Let her go !" Sweeny flicked over a switch. His hand snapped down on the wireless key. Dots and dashes bit through the howling night. "S-O-S!" they shrilled "S-O-S . . . S-O-S . . Less than an hour later the New York broadcasting world was reading from freshly-printed newspapers the fateful words flashed from the schooner seven thousand miles away. And ironically enough, they were laughing. "Fake," they jeered. "Publicity stunt for those travelogue broadcasts he puts on from the ship!" One woman didn't laugh. She knew it was no fake. She knew Phillips Lord too well. She was married to him. The hours since Mrs. Lord first had had word of her husband's plight had dragged grimly along in their Long Island home. Dry-eyed, she tried to smile reassuringly when their two little daughters, seven and four years old, asked for news of Daddy. She would not admit that hi life was in danger. But she knew that each wave tha smashed at the disabled ship was a cruel thrust at hi lifelong dream of sailing around the world in his own ship Worse, she knew what the radio world was thinking She knew that the harsh rumors, circulated since th start of the expedition, were beginning again. You've heard them. The critics said that he was put ting out in an unseaworthy boat ; that he was not ; competent master ; that he was gambling with the live of the boy-crew. Despite this, they asserted, so eage was he for the money to be realized from the sponsor ship of broadcasts from the vessel, so avid for the pub licity, that he went ahead. They had made much of hi cla^h with the American Consul in Jamaica. I knew these stories, but not until I heard Lord ac cused of sending out an unnecessary distress call did determine to track them down from every possible insid< source. Such an accusation is too serious to pass by. Ii investigating them I've uncovered a gripping story o the sea — the whole story of the Seth Parker shipwreck When Lord first saw that schooner lying idle at s Brooklyn dock, all the dreams of his youth sprang t( the foreground of his mind. Again he felt that long suppressed yearning to visit faraway places with allurinf names — Zanzibar, Bangkok, Singapore — a yearning wbicf had been denied by the practical necessity of earning i living. Now, somewhat released from that necessity, he wa> in a position to buy the ship. He didn't hesitate. From the moment the bill of sale was in his hand Lord was a different man. He devoted every energy to outfitting ii for a world voyage. He spent thousands of dollars in the enterprise. By the time the ship was ready for sea. with her equipment, she was (Continued on page 78)