Daydream Notes

Tent of Construction, Quidi Vidi. The warming shed. Vimy under construction. As anybody who uses their garage can tell you, keeping it dry when doing something is a help. On May 26th, the ship with the disassembled Vimy finally entered St. John's harbor. Vickers contracted the Teamster Lester, who hauled the massive shipping crates containing the Vimy and its spares to Quidi Vidi. There the Vickers crew set to work doing what its rivals had done: figuring out how to assemble an aircraft with a full set of tools but none of the structures or jigs, cranes, etc they normally would use, in an open field where the wind blew very cold. A tent gave some shelter, but they still needed a warming shack on the premises. Frequent rain squalls were also cold, and meant all work had to stop to cover completed sections in tarpaulins. It was cold enough that soldering irons warmed in a fire would often cool before they could be applied. Despite the difficul...

Off St. John's. St. John's Harbor. The first man to discover the unexpected problems in the trans-Atlantic race was Captain Fairfax Morgan, navigator for the Martinsyde Raymor. He arrived in St. John's in January 1919, to look for a suitable field for the Raymor to takeoff from, but was delayed by his contracting the Spanish Flu on the way over. He was so weak that he had to be stretched off the ship. Fortunately for Morgan, the news that St. John's was the start point of a trans-Atlantic air race made everyone civic minded, and Morgan was nursed back to health in private homes rather than the hospital, which likely contributed to his survival. Morgan then experienced some depression, a common after-effect of the Spanish Flu (also, of being in St. John's in January and February), but by March, Morgan was ready to find a field. This was also rather depressing. First, it was clear that St. John's was not blessed with flat fields. To quote Morgan: ...