Word: graf
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...supper during the Antarctic summer of continuous daylight, the Russians remarked they were just eating their breakfast in the middle of their Polar night winter season. The purpose of their expedition was to establish an advance meteorological and communication base for the projected North Pole flight of the Graf Zeppelin, which was subsequently canceled. Krenkel himself told us he was German, after our attempts to converse (telegraphically) in other languages had failed; Krenkel was further handicapped by having to start and stop, at the beginning and end of each transmission, a remotely located gas engine power supply, as he could...
Greatest hush-hush ship in line was not the Soviet battleship Marat whose comrade sailors spent most of their time exercising on parallel bars on deck, nor the Nazi pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spec which served beer to visitors, but the pride of the French navy, the Dunkerquc. Only official visitors were allowed on board, and even they were rushed below decks as quickly as possible. Though only half the size of Britain's ponderous Hood, the newly completed Dunkerque, spies insist, is the fastest and most heavily armored battleship afloat...
...left the drawing board, 25 were lost by storm and accident, six by causes unknown, 21 were dismantled, 46 were wrecked by the War, eleven were surrendered to the Allies, seven were sabotaged to prevent surrender, two are left-the decommissioned Los Angeles at Lakehurst and the sturdy old Graf, which arrived the day after the tragedy in Frankfort from Rio de Janeiro, carrying 23 passengers. She was promptly grounded by the Reich. Having read full reports from Lakehurst, Dr. Eckener announced: "There must be no more flying with hydrogen. We must make an about face. We must use helium...
There lay the real cause of the Hindenburg disaster, for Germany has no helium. It is a U. S. monopoly. The willingness of Presidents Hoover and Roosevelt to sell Germany enough helium to fly the Graf and the Hindenburg on peaceful missions was offset by the price factor (more than 30 times as expensive, for 20% less payload efficiency) and by covert political opposition. As Columnist Dorothy Thompson wrote: "The destruction of the Hindenburg was an act of sabotage. For the peaceful world today, the world that seeks to join hands in the perfection of greater technologies, that seeks mutual...
...remaining ships are the "Los Angeles", which has not been used for several years, and the "Graf Zeppelin", which has circled the globe and made over 100 trips between Rio de Janeiro and Friedrichshafen...