If I arrived on July 3rd I would wait a few days while they plotted the DF bearings that pointed to Gardner. Then go to Putnam with the DF bearings that cross near Gardner and the LOP that crossed near Gardner. If he would not see me I would telegram all of the Pan Am Stations and point out to each operator the other DF bearings to Gardner, including the one taken from Howland by the Itasca CG detachment. They would see their own was correct and therefore may believe me.
I would try to recruit R.M. Hansen, the Wake DF operator, since he was positive he picked up their signal and also got a good bearing of one.
Quotes from Hanson's report:“I was positive at that time that this was KHAQQ. At this date, I am still of this opinion”
“There is not the slightest question in my mind that the signals I have reported on could have been those of a maladjusted GC phone, because (1) the abnormal and unusually erratic characteristics of these signals as compared to the steady operating CG phones. And (2), the fact that no CG boats were, to the best of my knowledge, anywhere near the line of the Wake DF bearing of 144 degrees appx. Hoping this report will meet with your approval, I remain”
Respectfully yours, /s/ R.M. Hansen”
If that didn’t work I would send a telegram to Lambrecht with all of the DF plots, LOP and describe in detail the Norwich City in advance and tell him to look carefully to the north of the NC on the reef. And tell him Gardner is
not occupied.
Even if he thought the telegram was a hoax, once he got there with his search planes and saw the shipwreck it would be hard for him not to look there and think the island may not be occupied after all.
I think all of this has been tried before, but this big time vortex in the Pacific keeps swallowing up planes before they can do any good.