Jones, the administrator at Hull in 1937, complained vociferously to his company or the British (I forget at the moment) about the Lambrecht landing and later, a visit by the USCG. He also used coded messages, but apparently were intercepted by the US and decoded easily. We have those transcripts in the National Archives. There were many schemes for coding in those days, and most were not changed except once per year or two. Many words were coded into 5 digit sequences, and all one needed was the code book on each end. I suspect this is what was meant by "coding". But then again, I could easily be wrong.

Saturday night. By Monday there will be another dozen postings like this!

I feel sure that radio communication on Gardner Island was done in the normal way: International Morse code transmitted and received "on the fly," as some have put it. It works so well that there would be no point in considering anything else. It ain't that difficult, and CW provides good communication under conditions such that voice transmission wouldn't have a chance.

If there was no designated radio operator among the first on Gardner, then Gallagher must have done it. It was probably in his job description. That seems only reasonable. Would you send people off to a places like that without a means to communicate?

Incidently, the "teletype" stuff with keyboards, typewriter-like printers, and paper-tape punches and readers, is more akin to our modems and computer terminals than to telegraph technology. It used a start bit, five data bits and a long stop bit, and it was all electro-mechanical -- mostly mechanical. A speed of 300 baud was considered pretty fast.

Western Union used teletype for years and years. They quit using telegraph sometime before WWII. Of course, there was a period when they used some sort of printing on a paper strip and pasted cut up strips on the telegram forms.

Actually the Kiribati Govt has a Patrol Boat, donated and supported by Australia, if I remember correctly. They do occasionally visit the Phoenix; one of the reasons there is a big supply of diesel on nearby Kanton. Of course Kanton also has a bunch of bureaucrats in great need of semething to do; they have a representative of most Branches of the Govt, like Customs and a couple of cops...

I don't think it far fetched to think they might put a few people on shore at Niku, to safeguard a major find. For many years the Kiribati Govt has been eager to find something useful to do with the Phoenix. Also: the Govt freighter servicing the Line Islands stops at the Kanton dock every few weeks, and detouring it to Niku would not be such a great expense. And they are experts at landing people and supplies with surfboats; that's what they do for a living at Washington Island which doesn't have a harbor or a lagoon either.

Regards.
Christian D.

For what it may be worth, during the mid-50's, the U.S. Army's Intermediate Speed Radio Operator's school at Ft. Jackson, S.C., taught Morse code by sitting us in a small booth (headset on) listening to pre-recorded tapes of 'keyed' Morse code, for 8 hours a day, (chow break only) copying encrypted code groups of 5-letters each, at ever increasing speeds.

We learned Morse 'phonetically", that is by the 'sound' each letter in Morse code made when it was 'keyed' & they even taught us a hand 'speed' printing method, (a faster way to print each letter of the alphabet) since we copied the encoded letter groups by hand, directly from the keyed Morse code on the tapes.

We had to encode messages we were sending into coded 5-letter groups, by hand, using a little 'metal monster' encoding machine with usually 'well worn' code wheels that constantly 'jammed-up' & had to be changed each day (only to keep us from 'cheating' to speed things up, not because of any top secret information we were transmitting) & then we'd have to reverse the process for the messages we would be receiving. (Rather boring & tedious process to say the least!)

Incidentally, when we were on 'in-the-field' exercises we used keys strapped to our leg & a partner operated a hand-cranked generator (no batteries) to provide the power for our transmitting the messages. Naturally, as the fatigue factor set in on the person cranking the generator (especially on long messages) the speed of our transmissions began to 'drag' accordingly, resulting in many 'send-agains' from the other end, as nothing was more difficult for the person receiving the message than to have the 'rhythm' of the sender's key interrupted or slowed down.

Our instructor insisted that during our lifetimes, there were two things we would never forget, our service numbers & morse code. Unfortunately, some 40 odd years later, I can no longer remember either one, so I guess I was a very inept student & soldier!

Don Neumann

It appears from this morning's posting that messages, at least part of them, were in code. As I had assumed in my first posting about "another means of commuication", I thought that messages about the strictly confidential or "strictly secret" discovery of the "bones" would not be broadcast across the Pacific for anyone to hear. I also note that Gallagher's 9th progress report carries a note "Enclosure No. I. in Western Pacific despatch Confidential of 23rd October, 1941". Assuming this is accurate, is there any possibility that this material, and possible the bones themselves were brought under the British Official Secrets Act. I have read that there are many items, even pre-dating WWII that the Brits claim are still covered under the Act, and in most situations, if they are covered, no one will talk about them or disclose the files or their contents. To what agency was the "Western Pacific despatch" forwarded to? Was this in anyway diplomatic traffic that the British Foreign Office would have classified?

From Ric

Very sharp eyes Mr. Muenich. My compliments. Knowing what we know now, that little notation does look very suspicious but, fortunately, we do have a copy of the confidential despatch sent to London on 23 October 1941. It is addressed to "The Right Honourable, the Secretary of State for the Colonies" and reads as follows:

My Lord,

With reference to the Assistant High Commissioner's Confidential (2) despatch of the 2nd May I have the honour to forward progress reports for the quarters ended 31st December, 1940, and 31st March, 1941, on Colonial Development Scheme No. 531 - Phoenix Islands Settlement - submitted by the late Mr. G.B. Gallagher, the Officer then in charge of the Scheme.

2. These reports reveal some small setbacks to the progress of the settlement scheme, due to abnormal weather conditions and difficulties of shipping, which are, however, not of any serious nature; but it is particularly unfortunate at this stage that the scheme should have been deprived of the wise and energetic guidance of the late Mr. G. B. Gallagher whose tragic death has recently been reported to Your Lordship.

I have the honour to be,
My Lord,
Your Lordship's most obedient, humble servant
H. C. Luke (signature)

It does not appear that Sir Harry ever let the matter of the bones get beyond his own jusidiction. None of the files that we eventually found in England was ever classified in any official sense.

LTM,
Ric

Bob Lee asks if anyone (CIA!) was monitoring Gallagher. Maybe a better question is did the Japanese monitor Itasca-Amelia and if so are there any radio messages in the archives hidden below Tokyo? The Japanese Navy certainly was out and about in the area at the time and surely must have heard that traffic. Maybe there is "secret" radio stuff re Amelia's postion and subsequent "capture". A daunting task for those forum members in Japan to review naval traffic. How do you say "running low on gas" in Japanese? Would any of their ships been capable enough to get a DF? Radio experts please?

From Ric

I've yet to see anything to indicate that the Japanese Navy was out and about in the area at the time. There is a huge misconception fostered by the Conspiracy Crowd that the Central Pacific was a hotbed of IJN activity in July 1937. It has even been alleged that Earhart was shot or forced down by aircraft from the carrier Akagi (which was in drydock for refit all through that period). In response to an official U.S. request for help, two IJN vessels -- the survey ship Koshu and the seaplane tender Kamui (usually incorrectly cited as the Kamoi) were supposedly sent to the Marshalls to search for any sign of Earhart but that wasn't until weeks after the disappearance. We're not sure about the Koshu but the logs of Kamui show that she was way back near Japan in early July.

Dan Postellon's excellent summary of the task of finding records in the National Archives is both perfectly accurate and blissfully short. I can only add that research at the archives is an amazingly specialized task, not difficult, just complicated by learning to decipher what is and isn't there, finding where to look, and asking the right questions. There is, fortunately, a staff of professional archivists and each has developed a thorough awareness of what is in at least one group of records. I was last there to research buildings at Fort Huachuca, AZ, founded in 1877. I met with one such archivist who asked "how long do you have for this?" "Two weeks," I said, to which he instantly replied, "you'll need twice that!" Sure enough, I soon had everything I could want and spent a small fortune making copies. What made it worth while was that the post didn't have any of the records I was given (it had been closed twice and re-opened three times) so my clients were delighted to regain their history of Apache scouts, buffalo soldiers, and WPA architecture. Hmmm, their web site has a very good search engine, I think I'll do a little searching now for these messages.

Paul Chattey

Without trying to raise your blood pressure beyond 160 points, Goerner's book, page 308 quotes a US Navy message in the Earhart "file" which states: "At 1030, the morning of the diappearance, Nauru Island radio station picked up Earhart on 6210 kcs saying, 'Land in sight ahead.'"

Is this a valid message which has been confirmed and if so, does it fit within the time/distance calculations for TIGHAR's hypothisis for arrival at Nikumaroro?

From Ric

I dearly wish I could say that the "Land in sight ahead" message reported by Goerner is legitimate but that does not seem to be the case. Goerner later elaborated on that message in correspondence. He said that he and an associate saw it in classified Navy files they were permitted to see, but not photocopy, in the 1960s. Later, after the files were declassified, the message was gone. He speculates that someone reviewing the file prior to declassification assumed that the message was a corruption of the "ship in sight ahead" message reported heard by Nauru the night before, and deleted it from the file.

Unfortunately, that explanation doesn't wash. All of the transmissions heard by various stations and thought to possibly be from the lost flight were reported in multiple formats. Purging one particular message would not be a matter of changing one document, but several documents. For example, the intercepts reported by Nauru appear independently in the Itasca radio log, Thompson's "Radio Transcripts Earhart Flight," the radio transcripts of the 14th Naval District, and in a separate telegram sent to the State Department. None of these make any mention of a "Land in sight" message nor do the original documents show any sign of having been altered.

LTM,
Ric

In 1937 the Japanese government (less than a year old, after the 1936 coup) had their hands full on mainland Asia. They had not yet turned any real attention to the Pacific Islands. The purpose of the 1941 raids on Pearl Harbor and Cavete (Philippines) was to cripple the U.S. naval presence in the region before expanding into Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. At any rate, I have some contacts in the JMSDF (Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force), I can at least find out what kind of archival material exists and how accessible it is. I doubt anything still exists here in Japan that the occupation boys under MacArthur hadn't seen or that was destroyed before they had a chance to.

LTM
Kerry Tiller (2350)

I have read with interest the recent postings on the depth of the two channels into the lagoon. If I understand correctly Tatiman Passage may be as much as 10 feet deep and Bauareke Passage approximately 4 feet, although the latter is not as important to this theory

Depending on how it is measured, the S.S. Norwich City appears to be about 1/2 mile to the Northwest of the passage. From the recent postings it appears that the reef area occupies most of this distance and at some point as you enter the passage, the water depth suddenly drops off anywhere from six to ten feet.

I noted in Gallagher's 9th report that a severe storm(s) came in the fall/winter, out of the northwest. I also believe that I have read various postings which indicate that the prevailing weather is from the Northwest during the fall/winter period. I also note that Gallagher states the Nov./Dec. storms of 1940 were strong enough to cause "A small area of land [to be] washed away and the course of the Southern lagoon passage altered.". I presume this refers to Bauareke Passage. I also note that Gallagher states "the greater part of the damage . . . . was caused by the exceptional tides which were swept into the lagoon by the high winds. . . .".

If the storms are severe enough to eventually dimantle the S.S. Norwich City, they would be strong enough to "roll" ("sweep") heavier aircraft parts, i.e. engines, spars, landing gear, etc. along the reef until they "fell" off the reef into the passage. Being heavy however, they would not continue to "float" along to come at rest in the lagoon, the sandbar, or other distant areas, but should sink immediately into the depths of the passage itself, much like the debris that accumulates at the base of a waterfall.

It would appear that this is an area that should be carefully examined upon the next expedition.

From Ric

I agree with your description and analysis up to a point. The model provided by the Norwich City clearly shows that debris is driven by major weather events from NW to SE and thence into the lagoon passage. The distance a particular piece of wreckage travels seems to be inversely proportional to its mass, surface area, and buoyancy (if any). In other words, a heavy concentrated chunk like the anchor capstan doesn't go far at all. There's a big section of the hull which, although it must weigh several tons, also presents a large surface area to the waves and has, therfore, been driven far down the beach toward the passage. Objects such as tanks which actually float were driven through the passage and into the lagoon and are now at varous points along the lagoon shore.

The passage itself is like a venturi. If you'll look at the map you'll notice that its shape resembles nothing so much as the classic NACA air scoop for an aircraft. Aerial photos show that the bottom in this area is scored by striations, probably caused by material (natural or otherwise) being swept into the lagoon. The forces in the passage itself are considerable during normal tidal cycles. What they must be like during storm events can only be imagined. We had divers in the passage at slack water last summer. Not surprisingly, it's clean as a whistle.

LTM,
Ric

June Knox-Mawer's Earhart book, The Shadow of Wings (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1995) is a romance novel, and an entertaining read. It's of interest to Earhart researchers for a couple of reasons:

1. Knox-Mawer lived in Fiji for a number of years in the twelve years in the 50s and 60s, and she provides a fairly detailed portrait of the expatriate community there at the time. This was a time when the mysterious bones from Nikumaroro may well have still been hanging around somewhere, and it's interesting to have a view of the situation from the standpoint of the community that's most likely to have known something about them.

2. Knox-Mawer creates a story about Earhart's disappearance that's technically accurate (for example in its representation of the radio traffic between Earhart and Itasca) and that (amazingly) manages to reconcile virtually ALL the various hypotheses about the disappearance.

The novel's central character is Laura Harrington, a BBC correspondent who as a child was whisked away from her birthplace, a remote atoll in Kiribati, in advance of the Japanese invasion. She's grown up in England while her father, a WPHC District Officer now renowned as a Pacific historian, lives in Fiji; the two have little contact, and all Laura knows of her mother is that she died before the Japanese invaded. Laura travels to Fiji to meet her father and try to find out what happened to her mother -- and to rendezvous with her lover, the lawyer scion of a grand old expatriate planter family. Along the way she also has a romantic interlude with a Fijian political leader who I think is probably modeled on President Ratu Mara. Her father -- whose background (but hardly character) seems to be derived from a sort of combination of Harry Maude and Maude's mentor Sir Arthur Grimble-- turns out to be a truly evil person, who obviously has something to hide. Most of the book is about Laura's discovery of the truth. Which, of course, is that her mother is Earhart, who is still alive in a Kiribati convent, and that her father isn't the awful Dr. Harrington at all but George Putnam.

So how does Knox-Mawer account for the disappearance and fill in its aftermath? Thus:

1. Earhart (who is pregnant and deeply regretful about her poor knowledge of Morse and her decision to discard the trailing antenna) and Noonan (with the smell of whiskey on his breath) are unable to establish radio communication with Itasca, and can't see Howland in the glare of the rising sun.

2. Noonan tells Earhart to fly north along the LOP, but Earhart is exhausted and rebellious and flies south.

3. Noonan says OK, we'll aim for the Phoenix Islands, and they do, but they run out of gas and crash and sink. Noonan is killed. BUT they crash and sink very close to Niku, where Earhart is washed up. She has completely lost her memory, but survives, crawling up into the Scaevola (or something) and creating a "bivouac" a la Bevington. Oh, she's lost a shoe by this time, too (Knox-Mawer's book was written after TIGHAR's shoe discovery but before Gallagher's telegrams turned up).

4. Scouting the islands for PISS colonization, the evil Harrington and his trusty I-Kiribati assistant come ashore on Niku and find Earhart. Harrington has been out in the islands a long time and is nuttier than your average coco plantation; he decides, in essence, to keep Earhart as his sex slave.

5. Which he does, until the Japanese invade, whereupon he abandons her, concocts the story of her death, and -- YES, she's captured by the Japanese! After some difficult times she's befriended by an American-educated Japanese officer (who eventually commits hara-kiri as the Americans invade) and lodged as a lay sister in a Catholic nunnery.

6. Where she lives on, still amnesiac though fascinated by electric fans and strangely frightened of overflying aircraft, until Laura finds her. Laura's lover then flies to the island in a small yellow airplane, and voila, memory is restored, Laura goes back to Fiji and confronts her non-father, etc. etc.

OK, so she doesn't get Earhart to Saipan, or Mili, or the Philippines, New Jersey, or the Delta Quadrant, and the British connection is not quite as Donahue portrays it, and of course she doesn't account for the skeleton under the Niku ren tree, but hey, reconciling the Crashed and Sank, Nikumaroro, Japanese Capture, and Survival on an Island hypotheses -- not to mention Pregnant Earhart and Alcoholic Noonan -- is an accomplishment not to be sniffed at. And Harrington's rest house, like Gallagher's on Niku, even has a "thunderbox" bathroom.

The book's hard to get in the U.S.; Amazon.com found it for me used (I don't know about sleepless) in Seattle. It will become a part of the TIGHAR library at TIGHAR Central in Wilmington. And Knox-Mawer, who obviously did a lot of research for the book and seems to have some very interesting contacts -- is someone we'd very much like to find and talk with.

LTM (who's a sucker for romance novels)
Tom King

I just received another June Knox-Mawer book, this one a slim paperback published in 1986 entitled Tales from Paradise: Memories of the British in the South Pacific (Ariel Books 1986). It's derived from a series that K-M did on BBC in the same year. I've only flipped through it; besides encountering some old friends (Eric Bevington, Sir Leonard Usher), I see with considerable interest that one of her major sources of information was Sir Ronald Garvey -- to whose Acting Resident Commissionership Sir Harry Luke proposed to second Gallagher in 1941. Here's her (p. 132) summary on him:

Sir Ronald Garvey, KCMG, KCVO, MBE. Born 1903. Joined Colonial Administrative Service 1926 as cadet, attached to Western Pacific High Commission, Suva. District Officer Solomon Islands 1927-32. Assistant Secretary WPHC1932-40. Acting Resident Commissioner, Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony and New Hebrides Concominium. Governor and Commander-in-Chief Fiji 1952-8. Author of Gentleman Pauper.

The bibliography lists Gentleman Pauper as having been published in 1984 by Anchor, Bognor Regis.

A quick skim has revealed nothing directly pertinent to Earhart, Niku, or the bones, but here's something:

Ronald Garvey was sent by government to Ocean Island to put the Gilbert andEllice colony 'on a wartime footing', and in December 1941 he found inself in the firing line right at the opening of hostilities.

It was the day that the Japanese attacked the fleet in Pearl Harbour. By 8 a.m. two or three planes were coming down from the Japanese mandated islands tothe north. Having spotted Ocean Island, and I suppose the Union Jack flying in front of the Residency, they decided they'd better bomb it. They pattern-bombed my residence with about eighteen bombs. I escaped with a superficial wound. I think I was the only person who ever shed a drop of blood in the days when I was in charge of Ocean Island, before we had to evacuate it.

Anyhow, when the Japanese planes had left we walked round the residency, which was a sorry sight. The upstairs was blown downstairs, and the downstairs was blown upstairs, but there was one thing which tremendously impressed all the natives. In the dining-room hung a large portrait of King George VI, and whatever else the Japanese bombs may have achieved, that picture was on the wall utterly and absolutely intact. Right from the start this gave the local people the firm impression that nothing would defeat the King. (p. 101).

I imagine that Sir Ronald has passed on, but he may well have left papers. I'll see if Sir Ian Thomson has any leads on where these might be, but some of our British colleagues might want to see what they can find in the meantime. If he was Assistant Secretary in 1940, he may well have known of the bones discovery, and might be the source of K-M's association of Earhart with Niku.

LTM (who sadly acknowledges no relationship to George VI)
TKing

I thought others on the Forum might enjoy the following transcript of a hand written aerogramme dated 19 April 2000, just received from Sir Ian Thomson. Sir Ian was Sir Harry Luke's Aide-de-Camp.

TK

Dear Dr. King,

Many thanks for sending to me with your letter of 3 April a copy of your journal TIGHAR Tracks Volume 15, which I found most interesting.

There are very few people alive to-day who have set foot on Nikumaroro, and I count myself fortunate to have been one of them.

I am glad to note that you have been in contact with Michael Luke, and I wish you well with the examination of Sir Harry's official papers in St. Anthony's College, Oxford.

I note in TIGHAR Tracks that Sir Harry has been described as "redoubtable." Yes, he was a valiant man as well as being kind, generous, and learned. He ranks in the "Top Ten" of the people with whom I have been associated in the course of my life.

I was with Sir Harry when he stood by Gerald Gallagher's grave to pay his respects and to honour his (G's) memory and work. I think that I mentioned to you in an earlier letter that Gerald had stayed in Government House, Suva, shortly before he died. Unfortunately, I have no recollection of the conversations that I had with him at that time, save that I remember him as a pleasant and conscientious fellow, who was clearly devoting himself to the task of assisting the islanders' resettlement in the Phoenix Group from the over-populated Gilbert Islands.

It may be unfashionable to-day to be praiseworthy about British colonial policies and practices, but for those of us who chose to be involved in such administration, I can say with a clear conscience that it was not imperialism that dictated our actions. It was, in fact, the desire to assist the indigenous people in their efforts to improve living standards by developing the country and economy without disturbing the social fabric and customs, and encourage them to live peacefully by the rule of law, promoting the use of dialogue in place of martial confrontation to solve problems with neighbors. Gerald Gallagher was in that mould.

I send you and your TIGHAR team my congratulations on your efforts so far, and I wish you all well as you plan for your next visit to Nikumaroro in 15 months time.

Sincerely,
Ian Thomson

From Ric

Thanks Tom. It's genuinely touching when we connect with those who were there. Maude, Bevington, Thomson, all good men. As Sir Ian says, although now much derided, many did heed Kipling's call to

"...send forth the best ye breed.
Go, bind your sons in exile
to serve your captives' need."

To Bob Brandenburg

Bob,

I was just reviewing my copy of Tighar Tracks, Volume 15, 1999, and note that under hypothesis 3, one of the supporting pieces of evidence refers to your report on radio propagation. Two questions come to mind and I wonder if you would comment.

1. The post-loss signals were heard on 6210 kc. Why would these signals be heard when none were heard on this frequency during the assumed flight from Howland to Gardner?

2. Do you happen to know if aircraft radio specifications of 1936-1937 vintage included shock and vibration requirements? My perception is that any controlled or semi-controlled landing would impart one or more relatively high g loads to the vacuum tubes in the radio.

Best regards,
Birch Matthews

Again reading, in more detail, vol. 15 of TIGHAR Tracks, p. 36, I note the reference to the recovery, in 1996, in the location of the carpenter's shop, "two lengths of what appears to be pre-war American radio cable with connectors of a type used in aviation applications."

Could we have some details and specifics please, i.e. type of conductor wire, insulation, and possibly a photo of the connectors. Would these be the type of cables used to connect microphones, keys, etc to radio equipment and do we have any informantion as to the type of this equipment, if any, on the Electra?

From Ric

Mike Everette, our esteemed Radio Historian, has done a ton of work on the cables. I'll leave it up to him to provide a description and we can certainly throw a photo up on the website, but the bottom line is that they're a "could be" but there's no way to be sure. The construction of the cables is the right vintage, as are the connectors, and both were used on aircraft radios -- especially Bendix (we know that AE's DF loop and coupler at least were Bendix). However, we have not been able to eliminate the Loran station as a possible source and, in fact, we're never going to prove anything that way. The cables are just not distinctive enough. For what it's worth, it's interesting to note that we dug up the cables at what's left of the carpenter's shop -- and who was the island carpenter in 1940? Emily's father.

> The construction of the cables is the right vintage, as are the
> connectors, and both were used on aircraft radios-- especially Bendix
> (we know that AE's DF loop and coupler at least were Bendix).

--No doubt you have already searched the connector shells for any number markers stamped onto or into them.

I would think that if one could make a sketch of the pinout (pin pattern and size) you would be well on the road to determining the category of original use.

Manuals for the WE aircraft radios exist somewhere, (not in my collection), but Bendix manuals are plentiful and one could rule Bendix in or out, I believe, by the pin config. As to the possibility of the connectors being from the USN LORAN station, the types of equipment used for their communications link (non-LORAN) equipment, that equipment is still around and there are people (radio nuts) who still like to operate such gear. IMO they could be relied on to rule in/out any connection to US military equipment. What would be needed is photos or sketches of the connector shell (hull), size, and pin configuration and especially if the pins or sockets have numbering scheme numbers close to the pins.

I think the LORAN connection is the easiest to make a judgement on, honestly. Re:

>we have not been able to eliminate the Loran station as a possible
>source and, in fact, we're never going to prove anything that way.

>The cables are just not distinctive enough

--cables, no, but connectors yes.

Hue Miller

From Ric

There are no numbers on the connectors. They are Howard P. Jones Type 101 single pin connectors and they were used in many different applications by several differnet manufacturers.

To eliminate the LORAN station as a possible source, what's needed is for someone who is knowledgable to take the time to visit the Coast Guard Radio Museum at Cape May, NJ and research what kind of connectors were used on the equipment in use on Gardner. If no such connectors were used by the Coast Guard it still does not prove that the cables came from NR16020.

I think we need to focus our energies on avenues of research that have the potential for producing conclusive proof. I don't see how the cables have that potential.

LTM,
Ric