TIGHAR
Amelia Earhart Search Forum => General discussion => Topic started by: Randy Conrad on September 26, 2012, 12:07:29 AM
-
I was sitting at home this evening watching the National Geographic channel when they showed clippings of the time Charles Linbergh's son was kidnapped and murdered. In the documentary they went on to show the wouldbe kidnapper and murderer and showed his fate as of guilty and death by the electric chair. They showed parts of all the ransom letters he had written and the amount of cash he had with him at the time of his arrest. As I sat there, I thought of Amelia and Fred, and wondered what kind of money trail they left behind on their ports of call during their world flight. If money was exhanged between ports of call...how come we haven't found any traces of money at the seventh site.. Such as coins and bills? It's kinda baffling if you ask me to think they would not carry cash with them on their trip!!! Any ideas???
-
With that thought and question....Does anyone know if Amelia and Fred paid for the fuel for the Electra in advance or when they got to each port of call?
-
One thing from the seven site that is interesting is the lack of metal objects such as buckles, coins, rings etc..
Gallagher didn't find any but rings could have been dragged off by the crabs along with fingers. Maybe TIGHAR just havn't dug in the right place yet?
Note would have gone the way of other perishable items such as cloth.
As to paying for fuel and other stuff could be that Putnam was to be invoiced or after a freebee due to fame of AE. Sure someone knows the answer to this.
-
Neither AE or Fred wore rings or other jewelry and I can't think of anything more useless to a castaway than money. The castaway whose bones were found at the Seven Site seems to have been in the castaway business for a while and, in terms of personal possessions, was probably down to a few essentials. What metal objects do you have on you right now that a castaway might find useful?
-
Buckle on my leather belt for securing things or improvised strap?
Yes money would be useless but can be left in pockets.
I'm with you about being in the casterway business for a while and wonder how much original clothing would still survive. I always remember the 'Wombat' who suggested that after a few days underware would not be required.
-
I remember reading somewhere about George Putnam and AE making the arrangements for the hops around the world. If my brain recalls correctly, it mentioned GP ensured she had customs clearance to fly over the borders and ensured enough fuel was at each stop. He would have paid by wire transfer for fuel and landing costs - I need to find the article, maybe in AE's book?
AE probably had a bit of money for petty expenses along the way. If she did, it makes sense for her to have paper bills since they are much lighter then coins. There would be little reason for her to take money off the plane under the Niku hypothesis ... unless she was looking for something that would burn to start a fire with. Paper money would work great for that (of course FN had books, maps etc). There would be no logical reason to take coins off of the plane. I would also say TIGHAR has only searched part of the 7-site - from the photos I've seen there is a lot more ground to search.
It's all speculation, a lot of ifs and maybes which are about as useful as money stranded on a tiny island in the Pacific ... but still interesting. Time to go reading through TIGHAR's Earhart Archives and see how GP arranged for fuel to be paid at each stop.
Nathan.