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 In 1910, six men (and a cat) attempted to cross the Atlantic in an airship.
It was the first attempt to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. On October 15 1910, the airship America, with a crew of six – and a cat – crept out of its hangar in Atlantic City and headed out to sea.
The voyage was being led by Walter Wellman, an American journalist and adventurer who had turned his attention to the vast ocean after being thwarted in his efforts to set records as a polar explorer.
With the airship craze in full swing, Wellman had also managed to persuade three newspapers – The Daily Telegraph and The New York Times among them – to finance the daring expedition.

As the crew, which also included a radio operator, a chief engineer and two mechanics, climbed on board, Simon picked up a stray cat that had been living in the America’s hangar. Like many sailors, he was superstitious. ‘We can never have luck without a cat on board,’ he wrote.

Simon was relieved, opining that ‘you must never cross the Atlantic in an airship without a cat – more useful than a barometer’. Nevertheless, the animal did not appear to bless the voyage with luck...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8048396/America-the-airship-the-first-transatlantic-crossing.html

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