Evening Star Newspaper, July 5, 1936, Page 41

. First-Aid and Life-Saving Courses Taught at Co-Educational® Stage and Screen Part 4—8 Pages he Sundany St FEATURES WASHINGTON, D. C, SUNDAY MORNING, JULY 5, 1936. Camps to Students, Who, in Turn, Pass Knowledge Along to Mass of Followers of Water and Other Sports. By James Nevin Miller. ALLY round the armchair, all you swimming fans, and hearken to a tale about a “college” on the waterfront, where play is work and work is play. Where professors look like students | and, of course, vice versa; where the | official garb is as close to Mother Na- | ture as the law allows; and where vir- | tually everybody sports that deep bronze tan that you see so often on the lifeguards at the bathing beaches. Annapolis, Md.. is the locale of this paradox among the Nation's educa- tional institutions. It's the brain child of the American Red Cross. Yes, the college is co-ed, with 31 girl students and 48 men enrolled. Faculty members total 16. There's a regular course of study for which a “diploma,” or rather, a certificate. is given. The course lasts only 10 days! “President” of the institution is| Henry G. Cheatham, a curly-headed | young chap of about 28, who hails originally from Florida. “Dean of | ‘Women" is an attractive blond. Mrs. | Margaret Lewis, a resident of Mary- land. But don't get the idea that 2ll this s a joke of some sort. It's very seri- ous busiress indeed. This Summer marks the fifteenth successive season in which the Red Cross has conducted its system of Na- tion-wide aquatic schools. Since 1922, originally as First Aid and Life Saving | Institutes and later as National Aqua- tic Schools. they have occupied a unique place in the world of water gports. Thousands of swimming in- structors, camp swimming counselors, physical and recreational directors and first aid teachers have been trained at these schools throughout the years, and through the training received have contributed greatly to | the advancement of safety and water | skill for the hundreds of thousands | who have come under their instruc- tion. From modest beginnings with lim- lted subject matter, the schools have become training centers in which only the most thoroughly proved methods of instruction are presented. The sub- | Jjects taught have been broadened to a point where they can be said to cover wvirtually every branch of water sports and emergency first aid. NDER the directorship of a na-| tional staff member of the First Aid and Life Saving Service. who is assisted by a corps of especially se- | lected experts acting as instructors in one or several forms of aquatics, stu- dents are assured of competent leader- | ship and training. Sites for the aquatic schools are earefully chosen, first, for convenience of location in the territories to be served; second, far adequacy of equip- | ment, docks, diving boards, boats, ca- noes; third, for ample and healthful | facilities for living; and fourth, for the natural beauty of their surround- ings. Many of the schools are con- ducted in regular organized camps, while others are located at Summer conference grounds or resorts. In every case, use of the camp or grounds and all facilities is granted to the Red Cross without compensation in recog- nition of the importance and esteem in which these schools are held by owners or directors. Let's make a personal visit to the Annapolis camp and see for ourselves exactly what's going on. No guide is needed. You simply follow the main highway to Annapolis along Route 50 end then, just before you enter the city, watch for a point where the con- erete road makes a sharp turn to the right. A sign says: Red Cross Camp. Follow that a couple of miles until it merges with a dirt road that leads into the woods for a few more miles. Camp Pawatinika, property of the Baltimore Y. W. C. A., and loaned to the Red Cross for 10 days each Sum- * wmer, is ideally located in the heart of o deeply woeded promontory of South River. Swimming facilities are ide: where’s a small beach which makes ' L] the proper type of landing place for boats, and an enormous dock with deep water all around, and two splen- did diving boards. The 11 buildings, including recrea- tion hall, dispensary, kitchen. dining room and cabins, are rustic and a trifie weather-beaten, but roomy. well-con- | structed and arranged in graceful for- | mation along the river front. Of course, the men and women have their separate quarters. Though somewhat primitive, the cabins are comfortable, and convey a proper sense of living in the wilds. School day opens promptly at 6:30 in the morning when a note sounding something between a gong and a bell echoes up and down the long row of cabins. At the clang of the gong. everybody turns cut with the same alacrity as soldiers at an Army post. of grumblings at turninz out of bed, there are outbursts of song, whistlings. whoops and yells. Promptness in answering duty calls is a feature of these camps. remark- able in the fact that discipline is wholly self-imposed. Every one feels in honor bound to abide by the rules. UT the wash rooms are now full of soap and water, preparatory to the breakfast gong. So let us follow the crowd. Meals are served in a large mess hall, where good. plain food and fresh milk-or steaming coffee are set out in quantities to please the heaviest eat- ers. And the strenuous school routine makes for appetites. School opens promptly at 8. when various groups under the large camp staff scatter about for lectures and drills in first aid life savinz methods. Reveille is greeted joyously. Instead ' To allow for a safe interval after (1) Class instruction in drowning people from the beach. Husky Otis Douglas, in charge of boats, the Boats.” shows how easy it is for a time. lift, an advanced phase of life saving. stages in sculling instruction. to work in the water in life saving. ‘Discipline different ways of carrying (2) The “Tarzan of he-man to handle two at a (3) Mrs. Frances S. Wilkinson, teaching firemen's (4) Preliminary (5) Land drill preparatory (6) A restful moment in the camp’s recreation room. breakfast, practice in and on the water does not begin until 8 o'clock, when the school again breaks up into small groups. From this hour until noon these groups keep hard at it, ! each wholly absorbed in some particu- lar piece of technique, some in the water, some in boats and some on land. Everybody is working hard at something. | There is a marked difference be- tween the first aid and the water classes in one respect. The first aid classes are quiet, almost as serious as if dealing with real accidents. Down the road. two automobiles are nosed into each other. The camp physician, Dr. W. J. Fenton. has invented a defi- nite problem. The students have to ' Tra_ni:Atlha Century’s Passing Finds‘ Strange Repetition of Earlier Struggles. By Joseph S. Edgertm:.. ARRYING out a startling par- allel of ocean steamship progress exagtly a century earlier, the great German airships Hindenburg and Graf Zep- pelin, now in regular ocean transport service on the seventeenth anniver- sary of the first airship ocean cross- ing, are being used, as were early steamships, in a struggle to overcome public apathy and mistrust. The airship transport pioneers of today are fighting exactly the same problem the pioneers of ocean steam- ship service encountered just 100 years earlier, almost to the day. and | the fight is against just the same| public suspicion and apprehension, which delayed ocean steamship serv- ice for nearly a quarter of a century then and which is delaying ocean airship service today. If the parallel between the steam- ship and the airship continues with | the same fidelity it has shown during | the past quarter century, then th day of ocean airship transport com- | The German dirigible Hin- denburg. 'HE Britisher was hauled gently to carth just 108 hours and 12 min- panies should be about to dawn and | utes after her departure from Scot- within six years the race for mer-|land, after a flight of 3,130 nautical | chant airship supremacy on the trade miles at an average speed of 29.2 routes of the world should be under | knots, due to the continued adverse way. Seventeen years ago, on July 2, 1919, the British airship R-34, com- manded by Squadron Leader G. H. Scott and with 30 persons aboard, was weighed off at East Fortune, Scotland, and pointed her nose into the salt Atlantic breeze to attempt the first crossing of the ocean by a lighter-than-air craft. After a day or more of fair sailing the winds freshened and she soon was fighting 50-mile headwinds, which continued intermittently until the bleak coast- line of upper Canada was sighted. Turning down the coast, the R-34 encountered severe thunderstorms and continued heavy going which de- pleted her fuel reserve and threatened a forced landing on a barren and inhospitable coast. As her officers were preparing to make a radio re- quest for emergency aid, however, the winds shifted and became favorable. With tail winds, she fled down the coast and at 9 am. July appeared over Roosevelt Field, N. Y., where a ground crew waited to haul her down. As the R-3¢ passed over the field, at 2,000 feet, the figure of & man plunged from her control car, a para- chute blossomed, and Squadron Leader Pritchard dropped to eéarth to direct the ground crew in the un- known details of handling a large rigid airship landing, * | weather. Among the passengers ‘\'ht:I disembarked were Air Commodore E. | ] M. Maitland, representing the British air ministry, and Lieut. Zachary Lansdowne, U. S. N, later to lose his life while serving as skip- per of the U. S. S. Shenandoah. The first airship ocean crossing became history. Foul weather continued and be- came so threatening that preparations for departure were hurried and at midnight July 9 the R-34 responded to the command, “Up Ship” and was off to the east with Col. William N. Hensley, U. S. Army Air Service, as one of her passengers. The return flight was made in 75 hours 3 minutes over a route of 3,200 nautical miles, at an average speed.of 42.6 knots. The landing was made at Pulham, England. The R-34 was not a large airship, | in the light of even the curtailed de- velopment of the last decade. She ‘had a length of 643 feet 5 inches, & height of 91 feet 8 inches, a beam of 79 feet and a nomina) gas capacity of 2,000,000 cubic feet. She was pow- ered by five Sunbeam engines of 250 horse power each. The Hindenburg has a length of 803.82 feet. Her height is 146.65 feet and her largest diameter 13517 feet. Her total lifting volume is gas 6,710,000 cublc fees Her four Diesel L3 Comdr. | & rescue the victims with their theoret- ical cuts and broken bones, in ap- proved first aid fashion. Scattered about the slopes are other groups, practicing carries, bandaging, splint- ing, or whatever else the case calls for. less earnest, there is more of a spirit of sport and play. Except for the directors and a few hers from the National Red Cross, this splendid school is staffed by vol- unteer instructors. They are among the finest in the Nation and include Gordon Esterline from Sharon. Pa. who teaches diving: Bob Haskins, physical dircctor of the University of Virginia. who tea 5 swimming. his able as=istant. Hollis Fitch. also of the The Hindenburg at the take-off from Lakehurst, N. J. | motors give her perhaps four times | the power of the R-34 and she has a | top speed in stil} air of 8¢ miles per hour, & rated ising speed of 78 miles per hour and a range of 8,750 miles. The Hindenburg has completed her fifth round trip across the Atlantic; her third between Frankfurt-am-Main and Lakehurst, N. J. She should be on her. twelfth-ocean voyage at the time the R-3% completed the first ocean. crossing 17 years earlier. The faithful Graf Zeppelin has completed 113 ocean crossings and is plying the South Atlantic for her fourth con- ¢ secutive season with all the regular- ity of a clockwork mechanism. The parallel between the early ocean steamship and airship devel- opment is astonishingly close. In 1807 Robert Fulton completed his famous steamboat, the Clermont, which went into service on the Hudson River. One hundred years later, in 1907, Germany produced the first com- mercial rigid airship, about. seven years after. Count von Zeppelin began his work. TH: Savannah, built ss & sailing vessel and later equipped with Over on the river, though not | O §r m ‘ WORK IS PLAY, PLAY IS WORK AT RED CROSS SCHOOL 3 Self-Imposed and of High Order at Annapolis School, Typical of Those Scattered Throughout Country. College Spirit Pervades Whole Grcup. university'’s “strong-arm” staff, and Joe Shields of Springfield Y. M. C. A. College, who is tops in his profession as a swimming instructor. Then there's Otis Douglas, a big blond hulk of bone, muscle and fun. Probably he's the most popular man in camp for he's forever playing pranks on his colleagues and stu- dents. But when once he dives into the water, all that cavorting about is cast aside, and everything is strictly business. For Douglas, former foot ball captain at William and Mary, and now serving as freshman coach there, is one of the best boat handlers in the Nation. As our picture shows. he can handle two sculls at one time with the greatest of ease. OTIS suh In compx is from Reedsville. Va with him as often as Robert C. Cutler. sports writer, and The former British dirigi- ble R-34. auxiliary steam engines, crossed the | Atlantic Ocean from Savannah, Ga. ! in May and June, 1818. She used her engine only 80 hours, consuming all her fuel. as the first steamship crossing of the Atlantic. In July, 1919, 101 years later, the R-34 made her historic crossing, blazing the lighter-than-air trail. About 1832 ocean steamship serv ice began to pass out of the “stunt” class and began to assume a degree of regularity. In 1932 the Graf Zep- pelin began regular transport opera- tions across the South Atlantic. It was not until 1835 tnat the ocean steamship began to conquer the general feeling of public appre- hension and in that year the first competitive trans-Atlantic steamship services began. About 1840 the ocean steamship industry really began, with the organization of the first real steamship companies, among_ them that of Samuel Cunard, which con- tinues today. It was about this time Cunard and other alert British shipping leaders, alive to the possibilities of the steam- ship, laid the foundations of the Brit- ish merchant marine and put that country into s position of maritime leadership, which it has held ever since. Advocates of the dirigible airship in this country today are asking whether the United States is going to permit Germany to establish an undisputed leadership in the merchant airship field which may make her the domi- nant nation in this field of transporta- tion for years to come. { This is universally credited ' a student at the camp. Probably Bob weighs at least 100 pounds less thin Otis. Nevertheless he played end a couple of years ago on the University of Virginia team and claims that when his college played William and Mary. he never once let the giant get through his particular spot in the line. There are two particular things the Red Cross water instructors are on the alert for—needless exposure to the sun and swimming alone. All who are not. | actually in the water are cautioned to wear hats and to drape their shoulders with towels with a view to reducing minor casualties from sunburn, of which there u-ually are at least a couple of bad cases under treatment 2t the dicpenscry. The Red Cross ad- vices 2gainst swimming alome un-er anv circum-‘ances. 2nd each swimmer compelled at the camp to have a ter buddy.” ntic Airship Service Parallels Steam Pioneering R-34, First Across Ocean, Required 108 Hours for Difficult Trip. ‘The second airship to cross the ocean was the Los Angeles, German-built treaty airship assigned to the United States and flown to this country 12 yeers ego by Dr. Hugo Eckener—the flight which brought the great airship leader his first international fame. The third crossing was that of the Graf Zeppelin on its first trip to the United States, with Dr. Eckener azain in command. The fourth was 2gain a British ship, the R-100, which crossed to Montreal from England and re- turned. The Graf Zeppelin, first of the suc- cessful ocean transport dirigibles, has been used almost exclusively for the last four years in service hetween Ger- many and South America. She made several crossings in 1931, carrying 75 ‘passengers and 990 kilograms of air- mail in that year. With the establish- | ment of regular service. however, traf- fic picked up rapidly. In 1932 she car- | ried 165 passengers and 1949 Kkilo- grams of mail: in 1933, 681 passengers and 5,187 kilograms of mail, and last ear, 1,600 passengers and 9,443 kilo- grams of mail, all in the South Ameri- can service. IGHTY-FIVE per cent of the Graf's passengers have been businsss men, according to her passenger rec- ords, and it is safe to assume that their travels to and from South Amer- ica have been of considerable commer- ~ial advantage to their country. ‘The Hindenburg and the Graf Zep- pelin between them are scheduled to make a total of 64 Atlantic crossings between April and December of this| year. All of those so far scheduledi have been made with entire success. Ten round trips have been scheduled for the Hindenburg between Germany and the United States. All the other crassings are to South America, with | the two airships flying alternately. The future of the airship in America hangs in the balance. Continuation | of an airship program is advocated in | the Durand report, made to the Navy | Department following a thorough study | by a capable group of scientists and | engineers. Within the Navy Bureau| of Aeronautics the nucleus of an able lighter-than-air organization is main- tained under the leadership of Comdr. | Garland Fulton, Construction Corps, who is a firm believer in the possibili- ties of the rigid airship. | Comdr. Fulton, in pointing out the | strange parallel between the develop- | ! ment of the steamship and the airship, | declared that it is contrary to Ameri- can practice to abandon an apparently worth-while development because of misfortune and difficulties. ow. the morning wears along fresh rmell ferns, wild i hs is sun Anyh the climbs towar Promptly at noon the morning school session is officially over. But at that it is not easy to bring the work to a close, especially in the water, There is no drcpping the pick at the toot of the whistle. Still a large crowd is gathered about the door of the mess hall when another gong sounds a half hour later. And is that food appetizing! Two or three frezh vegetables, such as to- matoes, fresh string boans or limas; a big p'cce of cold ham. scalloped or mashed poiatoes. both white and dark bread, plenty of fresh milk or steam- ing coffee and a slab of caks or apple Such a typical menu that s for well-filled cmachs and z:p =nd go. > atein at is of 2 o'clock the class with 21l life- at least taking ruction course nearby. Graduates of the old-time swimming hole. who bzgan “dog fashion.” pawing the water forward and kicking aft, and then advancing to “man fashion” (breast stroke), are astounded that so much needs to be taught about water maneuvers. Within the past 10 vears swimming. diving and boating have made strenusus strides, developing rather complicated forms of technique. Life-saving is entirely a new science these days, with as many different points as boxing, wrestling or even jiu-jitcu. So en ol¢-Umer lo upon the classes with a bewildered feeling of being pretty much out of date. FOR instance, in an elemental thing like the basic principles of swim- we find such subjects presented as safe swimming 3s for various levels of skill, panic, exhaustion, physical adjustment to water, simple rules governing safe practices, cramp, currents, weed ene tanglements, ways of adjustment to water, cramp and manner of relieving it. swimming in currents, disrobing in deep water and the “buddy” plan for mutual safety to two swimmers. All this, mind you. is only prelim- inary to learning how to s the main object of the train the stu all have to begin and go through the wor they were actual beginre: take up stions of adjustment to water, llow water pa ng, play, breath buoyance, back fleat in shallow water, prone flzating. opening eyes. posiiion of body, getting off and on feef, co-ordination of arms, legs and breathing, changing from vertical to horizontal positian, and g about on course. Whereupon the stue dents take instruction on how to dra- matize their swimming classes, how to encourage timid beginners, what artificial aids to give them, water games and the like. Boating has undergone tremendous developments as a sport in recent years for several reasons. In the first place, landsmen are now getting the benefit of the long experience of fishermen and seamen who have spent their lives in boats. Secondly, modern ine timacy between nations has enabled us to borrow new ideas from different parts of the world. Canoeing is an Indian heritage, ro- mantically associated with the large regions of North America. As a mod- ern-day sport, however, it is an Ameri- can and Canadian development. Most people think of a canoe s ~em-thing to paddle about in, especially on moon- light nights. They also know a few vague things about canoe racing. But canoeing today is far m~: than a sport; it's a science. Students af the various Red Cross aquatic camps must learn all ahout the fine points of canoeing; uader what conditions a canoe should or should not be used; types of canoes and their various parts; how to selest (Continued on Eighth Page.)