In previous posts it has been pointed out that Putnam stated:
"'There was a two-man rubber lifeboat aboard the plane, together with life belts, flares, a Very pistol and a large yellow signal kite that could be flown above the plane or the life raft.'
Putnam said his wife had planned to take emergency food rations and plenty of water on the hazardous flight, the most dangerous on her trip around the world." New York Herald Tribune, July 3, 1937, page 1.
If Amelia became this “ castaway of the seven site “ as some would like to believe, then why would she choose to carry a freckle cream jar, and a compact with her, but not the Very pistol or the canteens (or similar vessels) she must of had to carry this “ and plenty of water “ that Putnam stated she was caring?
Yes, and where is that rubber life boat and the parachutes? And where is anything else that can be proven to have been on the airplane?
gl
That is the million dollar question isn't it?
I can't believe what I'm reading. What items "can be proven to have been on the airplane?"
How could Putnam possibly know what was aboard the airplane when it left Lae? He may have known what was aboard when AE left Miami a month earlier and we can speculate that she may have informed him of changes to the load in phone calls made during the trip, but the ONLY information ANYONE has about what was aboard for the Lae/Howland leg is AE's comment in her July 1st travelogue installment to the Herald Trib, "Fred and I have worked very hard in the last two days repacking the plane and eliminating everything unessential. We have discarded as much personal property as we can decently get along without and henceforth propose to travel lighter than ever before." Are you now going to tell us what items Amelia would consider essential?
It's amazing how low the standards of "proof" can sink when the object is to discredit TIGHAR.
There are many items that I
( and other members ) would argue that Amelia
( and Fred ) carried with them on that last flight One example would be, on a +20 some hour flight, drinking water. She, and probably Fred, would need a container (s) to carry this water. I don’t think she carried her water in 3 ounce jars. I will go on recorder stating that most of us will agree she, and probably Fred, used canteen type containers. After arrival, and with the shortage of available water on Gardner, most would agree that those container (s) became very valuable property in her quest to find and store any water she came across, much more important IMO than caring around freckle cream jars or broken compacts. Any trace of these containers ?
There are dozens and dozens of examples of objects that any Tighar member would agree that was very probably carried on that last flight, wither by Amelia, or Fred, or as part of the Electra that would serve as proof that they were there. ( on the other legs of this round the world flight Amelia use to disconnect her steering wheel and take it with her to the hotel. So that must have been easy to do, something she was use to doing, then why not bring that to shore, hang it from a limb, and I doubt any one finding it could make any use of it, like cutting it up into fishing lures, or the like ).
It seems to me that after 23+ years of searching, and at least 10 trips to Niku, and many other trips to many other places, and millions of dollars spent, the best evidence we can come up with is things like: a 20 year old jar that could have contained many, many things, one being freckle cream and since Amelia had freckles she just might have brought that jar to the island, or a second opinion on a skeleton saying it could also have been white female. But not one single article that we can definitely say came from either; Amelia, Fred, or the electra.
I don’t want to end this post on a negative note. I still think the TIGHAR premise of Amelia landing at Gardner, and some, if not all, credible radio transmit ions coming from Amelia are very possibly true. I also don’t believe the lack of finding any ‘smoking gun’ is because some people didn’t try hard enough. Ric, and the many unseen people behind him, have given a 100+ effort.
Might it be advantageous to pause for a short while, determine where we are at now and where we want to be at in the near future? In the past, decisions of where we were going, when we were going, and who was going have always been made somewhere
“On High” and the
Word pasted on down to us members requesting cheers and donations. Could the members be more involved in choosing the next major course of actions with help from Tighar mgn’t? I would start a thread like;
What’s Next ? and invite all members to openly contribute their ideas and suggestions, however I don’t have the credibility to foster such a major thread. Ric does, but Ric is probably much too busy with other things. Possibly an Andrew or a Jeff type?
