New York Times - September 12, 1925
Commander Rodgers's father, Admiral John A. Rodgers, is understood to have been lost once for a considerable period while on a polar exhibition. That was the reason the flight commander's mother insisted that he take with him on this flight a small water still.
I watched a silent 1929 movie tonight on the Turner Classics Movie channel called
The Flying Fleet about naval aviation and the movie was made with the full cooperation of the Navy. Towards the end of the movie the hero gets chosen for the "Hawaii flight" probably based on the Rogers' flight. The seaplane goes down and the survivors are floating around on the seaplane getting thirsty and I was hoping that they would drag out a still, but they didn't.
I have also attached two screen captures, notice the navigator standing up through a hatch in the nose of the plane taking a sextant observation. If you watch the movie you can see the navigator moving around out there while taking the observation and you can see his parachute harness flapping in the slipstream.
(Bob, take a look at these pictures since they are responsive to what you said on March 23, 2002:
"The overhead hatch could not be opened in flight. Even if it could be opened,
this is a ludicrous suggestion. In order to use the A-5 octant, Noonan would
have to stand in the hatch opening with his upper torso, and the octant, fully exposed
to the slipstream. He would be hard put to stay in the aircraft, or to retain a
grip on the octant, let alone get any usable sights.")
gl