Press coverage of mystery airships hasn’t quite fallen off a cliff, but it is perhaps scrabbling down a rocky slope. Only a handful of newspapers mention them today, and not even yesterday’s startling report from the trawler Othello rates a mention. While there is still considerable (mostly negative) discussion of the new aerial navigation regulations, […]
The big news today is that the government has issued, in the words of the Daily Express, ‘a long list of regulations under the new Aerial Navigation Act to prevent foreign aircraft from flying over Great Britain or Ireland’ (p. 1) The extraordinary thing is that despite their length (9 orders, 4 schedules, a notice,
The Dundee Courier today has a long article providing more details of the airship seen by Captain Lundie and the crew the City of Leeds off Grimsby — ‘It was travelling at a fast rate, and somewhat resembled a shark in shape’ (p. 5) — and the Daily Express has an even longer, more reflective
It’s a new week, and (mercifully) the volume of phantom airship stories has dropped sharply. But not to zero. Mr H. Wooliley of 10a Rose Lane, Mossley Hill, Liverpool, has written in to the Liverpool Echo to report that (p. 7) Last night (Sunday) [2 March 1913] at 7.45, looking over Eastham way, a very
The Observer has ignored the phantom airship scare almost completely, although it was in fact one of the first newspapers to report the Dover incident nearly two months ago (5 January 1913, p. 9). It has broken its silence today because, thanks to the mystery airships, the time seems right for an agitation for a
The Illustrated London News is not really a campaigning newspaper, but it has followed up last week’s striking graphical depictions of the airship menace with this fantastic double-page drawing by Norman Wilkinson, RI, of a German aerial fleet on its way to bomb Britain (pp. IV-V; above). The title asks WILL IT EVER BE SO
On the one hand, there are more mystery airships reports (many old but some new) in today’s papers than ever before, mostly in the provincial press. On the other, some editors seem to have grown weary of the subject: for example, whereas both the Daily Express and the Standard have carried multiple articles on the
The Daily Mail carries a bare list of the last few days’ phantom airship sightings with few details, some of which are discussed more fully elsewhere in today’s (or yesterday’s) papers, but some are not: Avonmouth, Bristol, yesterday evening [26 February 1913]. Hull and Grimsby, Tuesday night [25 February 1913]. Dover, Tuesday, 9.20 p.m. Castle
There’s a slew of new phantom airship reports today. From Hornsea in the East Riding of Yorkshire (Daily Express, p. 1; above): The coastguards at Hornsea first saw a bright light about eight o’clock [on 25 February 1913]. It appeared to be travelling in a westerly direction. They kept it under observation through their glasses,
The phantom airship scare has clearly entered a new phase since the sightings last Friday in Yorkshire and Warwickshire. Several major London dailies — all politically conservative — devote substantial amounts of column space to the mystery; half the main news page, in the case of the Standard. Only it’s not regarded as a mystery
