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With profound regret we record a disaster to the great

airship ' R. 38,' a disaster by which forty-four gallant British and Ameri- can officers and men lost their lives. On Wednesday the R. 38,' which was the first airship of purely British design, was under- going her final tests before being taken over by the American Government and crossing the Atlantic. When she was cruising at a height of about 1,000 feet near Hull the framework buckled amidships. Immediately there were loud explosions and the R. 38 ' burst into flames. Out of a crew of forty-nine only five were saved. Apparently, two of these descended by para- chute before the airship broke into two pieces and _fell -into the Humber. Lieutenant A. H. Warm, the captain of R. 38,' was saved, though seriously burned.

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