June 15, 1919: The 1st Transatlantic Flight

Arthur Brown (left) and John Alcock

June 15, 1919: The 1st transatlantic flight is made.

What's that? You thought it was by Charles Lindbergh in 1927? No, that was the 1st flight between the North American and European continents, an achievement made famous well before it was done, due to a cash prize being awarded.

It's also worth noting that Lindbergh's fame was greater than it might otherwise have been because he did it alone, hence his nickname, "The Lone Eagle." It didn't have to go to a solo pilot. Indeed, mere days before Lindbergh did it, a 2-man team of Frenchmen, Charles Nungesser and François Coli, attempted to go the other way, from Paris to New York. They were seen flying over Ireland, and were never seen again. Their wreckage has never been found: It may have fallen into the Atlantic Ocean, or it may have crashed into the dense woods in Maine or Canada's Maritime Provinces.

John Alcock, 24, was a native of Greater Manchester. Arthur Whitten Brown, 32, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and grew up in Manchester. Both served in the Royal Air Force in World War I, and both were prisoners of war. Alcock's His plane's engine failed while he was providing air support during the Gallipoli Campaign in 1915, and he was taken prisoner by the Ottomans. Brown was shot down by the Germans. Both survived their ordeal.

They met shortly after the Armistice, and, both intrigued by the £10,000 prize offered by national newspaper The Daily Mail for the 1st transatlantic air crossing in under 72 hours, decided to go for it. They chose a modified Vickers Vimy bomber biplane with Rolls-Royce engines. Unlike Lindbergh with his Spirit of St. Louis, and Nungesser and Coli with their White Bird, they did not choose a special name for their plane.

They chose the closest possible route: From St. John's, Newfoundland, the easternmost city in the Western Hemisphere, to the west coast of Ireland, the westernmost point in Europe. (Newfoundland would remain a British Dominion until 1949, when they applied for admission to Canada as a Province, and got it.)

At 1:45 PM on June 14, they took off from Lester's Field in St. John's. The takeoff was difficult, and they just missed the tops of some trees. Within their 1st 4 hours, their generator failed, costing them their radio and their heat. Then an exhaust pipe burst, causing a noise that meant that Alcock and Brown couldn't even hear each other. And then they hit fog.

In the 10th hour of the flight, the fog lifted, and Brown could see the stars and use a sextant, and found that they were on course. But their electric heating suits had failed, and in the open cockpit, they were terribly cold. In their 13th hour, they hit snow. They got wet, and their instruments began to ice up. It began to look like they would have to fly low and bail out, and hope that someone would rescue them before they drowned or died of hypothermia.

But their luck held out. At 8:40 AM, Greenwich Mean Time, less than 16 hours after takeoff, they saw what they thought was a suitable green field, and set down. It was a rough landing, because the field was actually Derrygilmalgh Bog, near Clifden in County Galway, Ireland. But you know the old saying: Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing.

They had done it. Brown, perhaps feeling a bit cocky, said that if the weather had been good, they would have had enough fuel left to go all the way to London. They were honored by their country, as King George V invested them as Knight Commanders of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire at Windsor Castle a week after the achievement.

Alcock did not have long to enjoy his share of the laurels and the publicity. On December 18, 1919, he was flying the new Vickers Viking amphibious aircraft at the Paris Airshow, but crashed, and was killed. Brown lived a bit longer: Like co-inventor of the airplane Orville Wright, he died in 1948.

In 1954, a statue of them was dedicated at London Heathrow Airport. In 2019, to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the flight, the statue was moved to Clifden, near the site of the landing. Another statue is in their shared hometown of Manchester. The plane was repaired, and is on display at the Science Museum in South Kensington, London.

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June 15, 1919 was a Sunday. Sunday baseball was not yet legal in all cities, or all States, that were home to teams in what we now call Major League Baseball. Only 8 of a possible 16 teams were in action. Not in action: In the American League, the Boston Red Sox, the Cleveland Indians, the Philadelphia Athletics and the St. Louis Browns; and in the National League, the Boston Braves, the Cincinnati Reds, the Philadelphia Phillies and the Pittsburgh Pirates. But these games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the St. Louis Browns, 1-0 at the Polo Grounds. Urban Shocker, possessor of one of the great names in baseball history, and a pitcher whom the Yankees had traded away, came back to haunt them, pitching a 5-hit shutout.

* The New York Giants beat the Chicago Cubs, 5-4 in 10 innings at Cubs Park, later to be renamed Wrigley Field. Ironically, one of the players on the losing side for the Cubs was Fred Merkle, whose baserunning "Boner" cost the Giants the 1908 National League Pennant against the Cubs. Grover Cleveland Alexander was the losing pitcher in relief.

* The Brooklyn Robins, the once-and-future Dodgers, beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-2 at Robison Field in St. Louis.

* And the Detroit Tigers beat the Washington Senators, 8-5 at National Park in Washington, later to be renamed Griffith Stadium. Ty Cobb went 1-for-4 for the Tigers.